Violence spreads to the Yemen as foreign diplomats strive to put an end to the crisis - Los Angeles Times

Anti-government demonstrators shout slogans during a demonstration demanding the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sana'a. (Mohammed Huwais / AFP/Getty Images)Reports of Manama, Bahrain - shooting and funerals were spread across the Yemen as the international negotiators have yet to come up with a plan on Board President Ali Abdullah Saleh of power and prevent protests generalized to switch the impoverished nation into a civil war that could stimulate unrest in all the region.

Main cities of the country explosion almost daily violence as security officials and the thugs loyal to the Government attacked demonstrators anti-Saleh with tear gas and live ammunition. On Wednesday, a man armed motorcycle fired on a crowd in the city of port of Hudaydah West, killing a demonstrator.

As the protest movement approaches its third month, the international community, including the United States and Arab States, forced not Saleh to resign from his reign of 32 years, while the tribes and the Government representatives have abandoned him. Volatile leader, whose popularity has fallen in the midst of corruption and has no economic policy, has for weeks as contradicting the signals which have exasperated his allies and a growing list of enemies.

Saleh was quoted by the news agency saying that he would not be overthrown by "conspiracies or blows...." Those who want power or to gain the seat of power should be towards the ballot box. ?

A day after that of the United Nations Security Council could not agree on a statement on the Yemen, tens of thousands of anti-government protesters Wednesday sweeping the old streets of the capital, Sana'a. The demonstrators have is emboldened in recent days, pushing close to the heavily protected government offices.

The cooperation Council of the Gulf, which is composed of Saudi Arabia and five other Persian Gulf States, is concerned by the prospect of economic chaos and civil war from a Yemen already with a divided army, a secessionist movement, and a growing threat of Al Qaeda. As leader Libyan Muammar al-Gaddafi and Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, Saleh is in relying on the brutality and veiled hints of compromise to silence dissent.

"We are close to a consensus of the GCC on the significance of departure of this regime," said Sultan Atawani, leader of the opposition of the nasserite Unionist Party, who met this week with senior diplomats from the United Arab Emirates United and other neighbouring countries.

The difficulty centred on the research of a mixture of solicitations will persuade Saleh to resign. One of the elements under discussion proposes the President and his family, including his son and parents who control the military and intelligence units, the immunity from prosecution in the deaths of more than 100 demonstrators. Western countries are calling on Saleh to hand power to his Vice President and for the elections to be held within 60 days after his departure.

"The issue of such guarantees may be used by the President to gain more time and commit new crimes," said Atawani. "We say to our brothers in the Gulf that such an approach can be made to the table of negotiations, but only by a new Government when it comes".

Officials insist on the fact that a post-Saleh scenario emerges. Under proposals supported by the countries of the Gulf, of Yemen, an incongruous collection of Socialist, Islamic and other opposition, would take the Presidency in a transitional Government. Representatives of the Party of the President Tuesday officials GCC in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in what appeared to foreshadow the eventual exit of Saleh met separately.

"The President has to negotiate to ensure a transfer of power now, or he will never have the chance," said Murad Azzani, policy analyst at the University of Sana'a. "What he wants to do now is to avoid the Egyptian scenario the President under arrest and his party dissolved." Saleh wants his party to survive and to exercise power through it. ?

But the General Congress of the people of the Saleh is in danger. Prominent members broke away to form the Justice and development. This political insurgency challenges directly control of near-monopoly of the ruling party of the Government to reach out to hundreds of thousands of young demonstrators angry with poverty and high unemployment.

"Above all, solidarity with the popular claims we represent and see that the Yemeni common interest lies with the immediate resignation of the President," said Abdul Aziz Jabbari, a former member of Parliament and founding member of the new party.

However, many young demonstrators, Don't feel represented by any political group. Slogans of "Not to the parties" and no impartiality glued to the tents of the demonstrators in Sana'a indicate that a new Government will have to deal with a powerful voice, deprived of their rights. It was the demonstrators, opposition groups or other parties, which forced the international community to intervene and put Saleh on the edge.

"Future leaders will have to have some resonance with the people," said Azzani. "These parties go anywhere if they are not anchored in the culture of the movement to the Yemen has been the witness".

Jeffrey.Fleishman@LAtimes.com

A special correspondent of Sana contributed to this report.

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Foreign funds powered the hesitant bid to push Poker Online

Former Senator Alfonse D'Amato, Republican of New York, party has been the public face of the effort, which included featuring charity poker tournaments of the Congress members, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions from an assortment of legislators campaignincluding the representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts and Senator Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, the leader of the majority.

But the end of last week, the Ministry of Justice of the United States delivered a blow of unexpected Thunder to this enormous when lobbying campaign he indicted senior to PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker, accusing him of fraud and money laundering. In so doing, the Government has taken on a politically powerful industry which, for a time, seemed like it could turn into game around the world.

As evidence of changing fortunes of the industry, the main operators of games of chance like Wynn Resorts are already distancing themselves from three companies to set Internet, cancellation planned business alliances. ESPN has removed its own Internet site poker content.

This is exactly what the industry was trying to avoid when he set out to block enforcement of a law banning the Internet games or to obtain the repealed Act. Interviews show that the companies named in the indictment, then that based act abroad, have been indirectly pay more than half of the lobbying and operating of invoices for a non-profit organization which is a champion of Internet game to the United States.

Mr. Frank, said in an interview on Monday that he had no plans to move back. "This is a bad law," he said. "How is it possible that a Prosecutor in New York United States has nothing to do that for a Full indict people." It should be indicting people for empty houses we have around, "referring to unrest in the mortgage industry."

Mr. Frank and Representative John Campbell, Republican of California, in March introduced a Bill, supported by the Poker players Alliance, a Washington-based non-profit group. Its budget is funded by the Canadian trade association whose members are companies that are running Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker.

A Senator, Mr. D'Amato has played a regular poker game which included lobbyists. Friday, it was stated in a press release, "online poker is not a crime and should not be treated as such."

An approximately 10 million of the United States online poker players are turning to these Web sites, help generate perhaps as much as 5 billion in annual revenues for companies.

Friday, the Ministry of Justice said that the companies had moved illegally their gains at the headquarters of the company in places like the Isle of Man in Great Britain and Costa Rica conspiring with intermediaries who them disguised sales of items such as flowerssupplies and animal golf clubs.

John Pappas, Executive Director of the Poker players Alliance, said Monday that the organization consists of an approximately 1.2 million members of the United States, including the amateur players and professional, who wish to can bet online. One charge mis executives, Raymond Bitar, 39, of California and the Ireland, is a contributor to the Alliance political Action Committee players to make a donation of approximately $15,000 the amount of $200,000 the Committee gave to members of Congress over the past four yearswith Mr. Frank collecting larger amounts.

But most of the money the Committee gives politicians here comes from individuals not cited in the indictment. And Mr. Pappas, said that the power of his group had not giants of industry but of its members.

"It is the 1.2 million members who live and vote in the districts across the country", he said. He confirmed that more than half of the budget of the organization is supported by companies in the industry, including those charged Friday.

But the thrust in Washington and a large part of the collection of funds, is coordinated by the Poker players Alliance, which relies heavily on the contributions of the operators on the Internet. The organization spent $ 1.6 million on lobbying last year, with nine companies lobbying, and lobbyists such as former representative Jon Porter, Republican of Nevada and Mr. D'Amato.

The Poker players Alliance joined the players around the nation to call or write lawmakers to protest against the restrictions. It hosts an annual "fly-in" day, when the players deploy across Capitol Hill. And it sent representatives to- and set up a poker tournament at-the conservative political Action Conference this year, convinced he could find some recruits to his cause at the popular annual event.

In October 2009, 19 members of Congress signed a letter sent to the Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner F. and Ben s. Bernanke, Federal Reserve Chairman, urging them to impose a period of one year on the application of the laws and regulations designed to cut payments for Internet poker companies.

One of the signatories of the letter of lead has been representative Peter t. King, New York Republican party. He calls Mr. D'Amato a friend and mentor, and Mr. D'Amato served as one of its best fundraisers. In total, 15 of the 19 signatories of contributions letter received by the action Committee political Alliance of Poker player in the last election cycle.

Mr. Frank was celebrated as one of the most important champions of the industry in Washington. He worked year last to the legislation of the push by the Committee on Financial Services, where he served as President until this year, which would legalize Internet poker, although the Bill never is taken up by the Senate or the full House.

Mr. Frank, no poker player himself, said he was opposed to the ban based on his dislike for government intervention in the privacy of citizens. His plea, he said, back in 2002, before even the Poker players Alliance has been implemented.

Mr. Pappas, Executive Director of the Poker players Alliance, has delivered $51,200 value of contributions from campaign grouped campaign for the re-election of Mr. Frank late 2009, according to campaign finance reports. These contributions are at least $30,000 more that Mr. Frank took the industry in the two previous years, including the contribution of some of the most famous players in the industry, as Annie Duke ("the Duchess of Poker"), Howard Lederer ("The Professor") and Andy Bloch ("The Rock").

For the moment, companies who have been indicted - and their Internet seized by the Department of Justice addresses site - have ceased to take bets from players of the United States, generating a wave of resentment of the millions of players who have turned to the gamesmany, many times per day.

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