The protesters demanded the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) draw a specific timetable to hand over power by April 2012. They also called for drawing up a minimum salary standard and cancelling the military trials of civilians.

Nearly 20 political groups joined the rally.

The SCAF took over power in February when ex-president Hosni Mubarak resigned under pressure from anti-government protests.

The country will start parliamentary elections on Nov. 28. According to the state media, some 9,500 candidates have submitted their applications either as independents or party lists, but the election authorities have not announced the final number of candidates.

The specific date for the presidential election has not been set.

The ceasefire, which was mediated by a committee assigned by Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his deputy Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, will take effect as of Tuesday afternoon, the ministry said in a brief statement.

It said the deal stipulated all rival forces be removed from the streets and residential areas of Sanaa.

There were no immediate comments from defected general Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar or powerful opposition tribal chief Sadiq al-Ahmar.

However, al-Ahmar said in a statement released on his website that the clashes between Saleh’s troops and his fighters on Tuesday killed one of his followers and injured 10 others.

Yemen has been in the grip of nine months of protests demanding an end to the 33-year rule of Saleh.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh  also welcomed the United Nations Security Council resolution which called on him to sign a Gulf Arab initiative to transfer power, the official Saba News Agency reported Tuesday.

Saleh welcomed Monday the resolution 2014 passed by the 15-nation council last Friday, Saba

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said Wednesday he was ready to sign a power-transfer deal if the opposition provides guarantees from the United States, Europe and Gulf countries for implementing the proposal.

“After my return from Saudi Arabia, where I spent 112 days for treating injuries I sustained from the June 3 attack, they ( opposition) demand that I sign the Gulf (power-transfer) initiative. Fine, we are ready to sign the deal, either me or my deputy Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi,” Saleh said in a speech before a meeting of his party leaders in Sanaa, aired by the state television.

A plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to United States was
unfolded, masterminded by Iran. This was discussed by President Obama
and King Abdullah of Saudia Arabia in White House yesterday. Both
leaders committed to pursuing a strong, unified international response
to hold the alleged plotters responsible.ion” of what the U.S. claims
is an Iranian pattern of franchising terror abroad.

“We will work closely with our international partners to increase
Iran’s isolation and the pressure on its government and we call upon
other nations to join us in condemning this threat to international
peace and security,” Clinton said at a Washington conference.Secretary
of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke Wednesday of a “dangerous
escalation” of what the U.S. claims is an Iranian pattern of
franchising terror abroad.

“We will work closely with our international partners to increase
Iran’s isolation and the pressure on its government and we call upon
other nations to join us in condemning this threat to international
peace and security,” Clinton said at a Washington conference. Her
words strongly suggested that the U.S. wants some new action against
Iran from the U.N. Security Council, which already has approved
several rounds of mild to moderate sanctions against Iran over its
disputed nuclear program.

Two men, including a member of Iran’s Quds (kuhdz) Force special
foreign actions unit, were charged in federal court in New York this
week with conspiring to kill the Saudi diplomat, Adel Al-Jubeir. The
men tried to hire a purported member of a Mexican drug cartel to carry
out the assassination with a bomb attack while Al-Jubeir dined at his
favorite restaurant.When a US government informant pretended to have
access through a Mexico drug cartel to military-grade weaponry and
explosives, Mr Arbabsiar arranged to pay him and others $1.5 million
(£950,000) to murder the Saudi ambassador, prosecutors said in the
complaint. Mr Arbabsiar, known locally as “Jack” or “Scarface”, in the
area for at least four months.The other man identified was Gholam
Shakier. A criminal complaint named Gholam Shakier, described as
Shahlai’s deputy in the Quds Force who helped provide funding. Shahlai
was identified by the Treasury Department in 2008, during George W.
Bush’s administration, as a Quds deputy commander who planned a Jan.
20, 2007, attack in Karbala, Iraq, that killed five American soldiers
and wounded three others.

Arbabsiar, Shakuri, Shahlai and two others _ Qasem Soleimani, a Quds
commander who allegedly oversaw the plot, and Hamed Abdollahi, a
senior Quds officer who helped coordinate _ were put under economic
sanctions Tuesday by the U.S. Treasury for their alleged involvement.
The department described all except Arbabsiar as Quds officers. The
alleged Iranian plot against the Saudi ambassador to Washington was
“amateur hour,” an unusually clumsy operation for Iran’s elite foreign
action unit, the Quds Force, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

New Delhi: Notwithstanding United States’ opposition to membership of the Palestinian Authority in the United Nations immediately, India today said it will fully support such a move but feels it was still not certain whether the issue would go to the General Assembly, The Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is to present to the General Assembly the proposal for recognition as state after his address to make it known that the authority is ready to assume responsibilities of a state and to seek UN recognition.

However, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Hardeep Singh Puri said there were efforts being made to dissuade Palestinian Authority from going ahead with its move.Demarches may be made and the quartet may work on Palestine and Israel to resume their discussions.”I believe that events of the last two days have left the Palestinians with many choices. Unless something happens, I see the membership process coming to going through,” he said.

Full membership depends on the nine approved votes in the Security Council as well as concurrence of the five permanent members. The United States would prefer not to make a veto but will not hesitate to do so.The Palestinians could go to the General Assembly and seek an enhancement of their status from observer entity to non-member observer state.However, Puri said India’s support to the Palestinian state is absolutely categorical.

He recalled that India was among the first non-Arab country to recognise the Palestinian state and India will support the Palestinian state fully.

During a roundtable discussion with Hispanic journalists, Obama said the Palestinian effort would not solve the problem of statehood, said the reports. The Obama administration had already explicitly said that it would veto any Palestinian bid at the UN Security Council.

“This issue is only going to be resolved by Israelis and Palestinians agreeing on something,” he said.

Obama said the likely scenario was that the Palestinians would have their status elevated from the nonvoting observer entity to nonvoting observer state at the UN General Assembly which would start later this month.

But he made it clear that if the issue was brought to the UN Security Council, the United States would “object very strongly.”

The Palestinians said that they had decided to go to the world body later in September to request the recognition of a full membership of the state of Palestine established on the territories occupied by Israel in 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Analysts say that the potential veto by Washington at the UN Security Council would likely inflame anti-U.S. sentiment in the Muslim population and further alienate an already turbulent Arab world.

Some pieces of paper were seen thrown from the windows of the building and flying in the air. Egypt’s official MENA news agency said some protestors threw “confidential” documents from one of the embassy’s office.

On Friday evening, a protestor took down the Israeli flag on the top of the building after other demonstrators destroyed a section of a concrete wall that protects the building.

Protestors also set some police cars on fire in the area as police used tear gas to disperse the crowds.

As many as 163 people were injured when protestors tore down parts of the wall around the Israel embassy, Health Ministry Undersecretary Hesham Shiha said, adding that about 100 of the injured received treatment on the spot.

An Egyptian protestor tries to pull down the security wall of the Israeli embassy in Cairo, capital of Egypt (Courtesy:Xinhua/Ayman Mossa)

Another 31 people were injured during the demonstration in the downtown Tahrir Square on the same day, Shiha said.

Tens of thousands of Egyptians took to the streets on Friday to demand more reforms. Several thousand of them gathered in front of the Israeli embassy in Cairo to protest against the killing of five Egyptian soldiers by Israeli forces on Aug. 18 at the border area.

Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs kept monitoring the situation outside the Israeli Embassy in Cairo on Saturday early morning, trying to work out the crisis by diplomatic efforts.

“It’s still going on. The staff of Israeli embassy in Egypt didn’t leave the country so far,” the spokesperson of MFA Palmor told Xinhua early Saturday. But latest reports said the Israeli ambassador had left Cairo for Tel Aviv by a military plane.

He didn’t confirm if Israel had any evacuation plan in order to protect its diplomats in Egypt. “We’re still monitoring the situation and trying to work through it by any possible channels,” Palmor said.

The Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson office didn’t confirm any military involvement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu briefed the U.S. President Barack Obama on the embassy attack, the Ynet news site reported. Defense Minister Ehud Barak urged his U.S. counterpart to pressure Egyptian authorities to protect the Israeli Embassy.

Tens of thousands of Egyptians took to the streets on Friday to demand more reforms. Several thousand of them gathered in front of the Israeli embassy in Cairo to protest against the killing of five Egyptian soldiers by Israeli forces on Aug. 18 at the border area.

A protestor took down the Israeli flag on the top of the building after other demonstrators destroyed a section of a concrete wall that protects the building.

Doha-based TV channel Al-Jazeera quoted the announcement by a senior official of the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) at a press conference as saying that the NTC has transferred its executive committee’s work to Tripoli.

A Libyan rebel fighter arrives to reinforce his comrades as they make a final push to flush out pro-Gaddafi forces in Tripoli. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

The official said Tripoli will remain the capital of Libya, calling on the police to resume work and restore order in the city.

The official paid tribute to “the martyrs” in the rebels’ fighting with forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and expressed appreciation for the support offered by countries such as Britain and Qatar.

The NTC will not revenge on Gaddafi loyalists, but must put Gaddafi to justice, the official said.

The rebels entered the capital earlier this week and overran Gaddafi’s military compound Tuesday after a day of fierce fighting. They claimed that they have controlled 90 percent of Tripoli, but intense fighting was still going on in many parts of the city between the rebels and Gaddafi’s loyalists.

Gaddafi’s era is over and the real victory of Libyan revolution lies in the capture of him, said Mustafa Abdul Jalil, head of Libya’s National Transitional Council, at a press conference on Monday.

Jalil promised that Gaddafi would be given a fair trial if captured alive.

Libyan rebels enter the suburb of Tripoli, capital of Libya (Courtesy: Xinhua/Hamza Turkia)

Tripoli is under the rebels’ full control except for Bab al-Aziziyah, Gaddafi’s longtime command center, he said, adding that Gaddafi’s whereabouts remains unknown.

Jalil noted that nationwide, Surt and Sabah are still under the control of Gaddafi forces. But he said he believed Gaddafi forces will rise up from within when the blockades in these places are broken.

Earlier there were reports that Gaddafi’s elder son Mohammed and second son Saif al-Islam are both under custody of rebels in safe places.

But Saif, who was considered heir apparent, latter showed up on the streets on Tripoli and said his father is fine and is in Tripoli.

Jalil said that the new Libya will be a mild state and a responsible member of the international community, with Tripoli as the future capital.

Libyan people will be protected from political assassination, arrests and hanging, and the rebels will put down weapons as soon as peace is achieved, he stressed.

The rebel leader said that Gaddafi’s dream of dividing Libya was shattered and he would only be remembered for his acts against Libya and the world.

Jalil said that the new government will work to achieve safety, security, peace and prosperity for the people.

Meanwhile, NATO continued airstrikes on Gaddafi’s compound in Tripoli early Tuesday, the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television cited rebel sources as reporting.

The unnamed sources said they could hear the attacks from near Bab al-Aziziyah, and bombings could also be heard near the Mitiga airbase, according to the report.

As the rebels continue their efforts to take full control of Tripoli by sending in more fighters and weapons, pro-Gaddafi tanks on Monday rolled out of the Bab al-Aziziyah compound in a bid to fend off rebels.

Many of the streets in the city center were left empty as they came under sniper shots and artillery fire, al-Jazeera television reported.

Although the rebels are closing in on one of Gaddafi’s last bastions, they were confronted by resistance of heavily-armed troops loyal to the Libyan leader.

“There are some Gaddafi forces still putting up a fight,” reported an al-Jazeera reporter from the scene.

The whereabouts of Gaddafi remained a myth but South Africa denied that it plans to give him a sanctuary.

In Johannesburg, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Maite Nkoana-Mashabane dismissed reports that the country sent planes to Libya to arrange for the exit of Gaddafi.

She said South Africa is not ready to recognize the Libyan rebel government at the moment.

Libyan rebel forces took control of most of Tripoli on Sunday night and were still clearing up the remnants of pro-Gaddafi forces.

Residents in Tripoli flocked into the streets overnight to welcome the rebel forces, while thousands were celebrating the victory of the Libyan rebels in the opposition’s stronghold Benghazi.

He denied that rebels had taken the two key oil towns, adding that government troops are deadlocked in a tug of war with rebel forces in many other cites.

The spokesman admitted that rebel fighters had driven into parts of Sabratha and Salman, two cities some 60 km west of Tripoli. But he said government forces are still controlling key areas of Misrata.

He added that the two sides had fought a fierce battle over the past few days in Gharyan, a city located on the key traffic artery linking Tripoli and the Nafusa mountains.

Rebel forces have recently been committed to capturing some of the key townships in the nation’s west and south territories to cut off supplies from these two directions into the capital.

Colonel Roland Lavoie, a NATO military spokesman, said on Tuesday that the rebels had made some advances that are “the most significant anti-Gaddafi territorial gain” in months.

However, situations on the ground still remained “very dynamic,” he added.

Mansur Saif al-Nasr, the rebel National Transitional Council’s envoy to Paris, said Tuesday that their victory is near.

“We are entering a decisive phase. We hope to celebrate the final victory at the same time as the end of (the Muslim holy month of) Ramadan” at the end of August, he said.

“I think it’s becoming increasingly clear that Qaddafi’s days are numbered,” Carney told reporters during a press gaggle aboard Air Force One, adding that the U.S. believed that the people of Libya “deserve the right to choose their own future.”

“We have obviously done a lot to support their efforts to ensure that Qaddafi’s regime no longer had the capacity or has the capacity to attack the Libyan people,” he added.

Libya’s opposition forces on Saturday won control of the town of Zawiyah, 30 miles (about 48 kilometers) west of Tripoli, the Libyan capital still under the government’s control. Zawiyah, located on the main highway from the capital to Tunisia, has been a lifeline for the Libyan government.

Gaddafi on Monday called on his supporters to pick up weapons and go to the fight to “liberate Libya inch by inch from the traitors and NATO.”