SANAA: The tenuous power of Yemen's embattled president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, has weakened as a wave of high-level officials, including the country's senior military commander, an important tribal leader and five ambassadors abandoned him and threw their support behind protesters calling for him to resign.

WASHINGTON: Three high-profile prisoners among 172 still being held at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay could face fresh terrorism charges within weeks after the President, Barack Obama, lifted a ban on military trials at the US naval base, reversing a key election promise.

WASHINGTON: The US and its NATO allies in Europe have been edging towards military confrontation with Libya's besieged government, positioning military resources for possible action in the Mediterranean.

LAYING out more of its plans to move Egypt from dictatorship to democracy, the country's new ruling military council has appointed a retired judge, Tarek al-Bishry, to head a committee charged with rewriting the tainted constitution.

CAIRO: Egypt's military has endorsed President Hosni Mubarak's plan for an orderly transfer of power to the Vice-President, Omar Suleiman, and pledged to lift the country's hated state of emergency laws once pro-democracy supporters clear the streets.