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Yemen PM Returns to Sanaa

Yemen's Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Mujawer returned to Sanaa on Tuesday from hospital in Riyadh, more than two months after he was hurt in a bomb attack on the president's compound, state television said.

Mujawer is the first top Yemeni official to return from medical treatment in Saudi Arabia after being wounded in the June 3 blast in the mosque of the presidential palace, which killed 11 people and wounded several others.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was severely wounded in the attack, vowed on August 16 to return home "soon."

Abdul Aziz Abdel Ghani, chairman of Yemen's Consultative Council, died from his wounds in Riyadh on Monday.

Despite his absence, Saleh has not transferred power to his Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, and his family members who lead strong army and security forces appear to be running Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country.

Since January, the president has been facing protests demanding that he step down.

A senior official of Saleh's party, Soltan al-Barakani, said on television that parliamentary speaker Yahia al-Rai, who was also hospitalized in Riyadh after the June 3 attack, would return to Sanaa next week.

Howver Barakani was uncertain of when Saleh would come back, saying, "The decision rests with the president, and with his doctors."

Barakani said the results of the investigation into the attack would be revealed next week or after the end of Ramadan, which falls around August 30.

He hinted that the findings would signal a crackdown on the opposition parties supporting the protests against Saleh, who has been in power for 33 years.

"We were tolerant after the incident in the palace mosque and agreed to meet the opposition, but we are no longer holding out a hand to these murderers, these criminals and terrorists ... those who planned and carried out" the attack, he said.

Source: Agence France Presse


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