Police Martyrs Demonstrators in Yemen with Live Fire

Five people are believed to have died in fresh anti-government protests in Yemen as youth groups call on Gulf Arab states to withdraw a plan that has failed so far to remove the country's president from power.

Three of Sunday's deaths occurred when police opened fire on demonstrators in the town of Saidia, in northern Yemen. Two more were killed in Taiz, south of the capital, Sanaa.

The main opposition says the deal, proposed by the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) to end months of unrest, had been modified to allow Ali Abdullah Saleh to sign as party leader rather than president, a condition that nearly derailed the deal last week.

"We call on the leaders of the Gulf Co-operation Council to stop any initiatives that result in alienating the Yemeni people," the youth groups, under the banner Youth Revolution, said on Saturday.

"We call on the United States, the European Union and the permanent Security Council members to assume their moral responsibility and stop ... meddling directed against the will of the Yemeni people to ensure freedom and democracy," read the statement signed by the Organizational Committee of the Popular Youth Revolution.

Many demonstrators, who include students, tribesmen and activists, have vowed to stay in the streets until Saleh - president for 32 years - steps down.

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