Reply #2: Aljazeera: Protests as Yemen leader calls for talks

[pampango]

Crowds across the country call on Saleh to step down while his loyalists rally in his support in the capital Sanaa.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/04/2011415131037686355.html

Yemenis have turned out in large numbers across the country to call on their long-serving president to immediately step down, while pro-government supporters rallied in the capital Sanaa.

Hundreds of thousands held an anti-regime protest after Friday prayers outside Sanaa University. Protests demanding Ali Abdullah Saleh's ouster were also held in southern Taiz city, the port of Aden and eastern Hadramawt province.

But Saleh, in power since 1978, told tens of thousands of supporters gathered near his presidential office that their huge number gave him legitimacy and was a "rejection of chaos".

He made an appeal to religious sensitivities when he said the opposition should stop the mixing of unrelated men and women among Sanaa protesters. "I call on them to prevent mixing that is against Islamic sharia law outside Sanaa University," he said.