Yemen's Opposition Coalition Vowed To Escalate Protests

Yemen's opposition coalition vowed on Monday to escalate protests that have swept the country demanding the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, after he rejected a plan that would have him step down in 2011.
In the capital Sanaa's main prison, detainees rioted and confronted security forces who shot into the air in an attempt to regain control, a security official said. "It was an attempt at a mass escape, and prisoners then turned to acts of sabotage," the official told Reuters, adding that riot police had surrounded the compound.
Tens of thousands of protesters are camped out in major Yemeni cities, staying awake through the night to hear speeches and sing national songs, as their tone against Saleh hardens. Saleh, a US ally against Al-Qaeda's Yemen-based wing, rejected a plan proposed by an opposition coalition last week, which would have implemented political and electoral reforms while paving the way for his resignation within the year. "Recent events have proven that the regime is incapable of answering the demands of the people, and for that reason it needs to go," said the coalition's spokesman, Mohammed al-Sabry. "The protesters are studying several options for an escalation, including organizing a day when all Yemenis will take to the streets, a 'Friday of No Return' protest, and other options," he told Reuters.
Meanwhile, thousands of auxiliary police marched in Algiers Monday to demand pay raises, breaking through heavy security to reach parliament in a rare mass show of dissent in the tightly controlled country.
The policemen, estimated by organizers to number around 20,000 and by reporters to be 10,000, braved a ban on demonstrations in the Algerian capital and pushed through several security cordons to reach the National Assembly.
They were quickly surrounded by regular police dispatched to the scene of the protest. The men, many of them in uniform, demanded President Abdelaziz Bouteflika bring their salaries and conditions in line with those of other security services, chanting: "Bouteflika is the solution." Algeria's auxiliary police, a force numbering about 94,000 men, operate in the country's villages as part of a programme set up in 1994 when the government was battling rebel groups. "We demand a rise in salaries and service indemnities along the lines of all the other security units," said Cherif Abdelkader, an auxiliary policeman from Chlef, 200 kilometres (124 miles) west of the capital.
Meanwhile, pro-democracy activists protested at the US embassy in Bahrain on Monday, calling for Washington to press the authorities for democratic reform after weeks of demonstrations.