Yemen's leader: I won't step down

Yemen’s embattled president vowed he would not step down or allow his impoverished nation to become a “failed state” even as urban combat between government troops and armed tribesmen engulfed parts of the capital.

Both sides raised the spectre of civil war as the three-day death toll rose to at least 69. The latest violence comes just days after a failed Arab mediation effort to end the three-month uprising and ease Ali Abdullah Saleh from power.