Saleh defies Yemen crowd

HUGE crowds across Yemen demanded yesterday that President Ali Abdullah Saleh leave after months of unrest which has put the Arab world’s poorest country on the brink of an economic meltdown.

But in a defiant speech to thousands of flag-waving supporters in the Yemeni capital, Saleh declared: “We will confront a challenge with a challenge.”

Three people were killed and 15 wounded when troops shot at protesters in Ibb, a city south of Sana’a, medics and witnesses said.

Demonstrators then set fire to an armoured troop carrier. Gunfire wounded three protesters in Yemen’s third city, Taiz.

The killings pushed the death toll since protests began to at least 170.