Yemen seethes as death toll climbs to 52

Yemenis seethed with anger as medics raised the death toll from a sniper attack on protesters to 52 and thousands rallied on Saturday despite a state of emergency imposed by the autocratic regime. "We will not leave until the fall of the butcher," demonstrators chanted in the capital Sanaa, referring to President Ali Abdullah Saleh. "We will not leave this place until the departure of Saleh and his sons."
The slaughter in Sanaa on Friday afternoon was the bloodiest day in weeks of unrest that have shaken the regime of Saleh, a key US ally in the war against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula militants. Witnesses said pro-Saleh "thugs" rained bullets from rooftops around a square at Sanaa University, which for weeks has been the centre of demonstrations calling for the end of Saleh's 32-year rule.
Many of the victims were shot in the head and more than 120 people wounded, medics said, in scenes that shocked the world and drew diplomatic scorn from Western powers and human rights monitors. The toll climbed overnight as six of the critically wounded died of their injuries, according to medics. One of those killed was photojournalist Jamal al-Sharaabi who worked for the Yemeni independent weekly Al-Masdar, according to a media watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Yemen has ordered two Al-Jazeera television correspondents to leave the country, saying they were working illegally and had acted unprofessionally, Saba state news agency said on Saturday. Clashes in the main southern city of Aden also left seven injured on Saturday when security forces fired tear gas and bullets to disperse anti-regime protesters in Mualla neighbourhood, witnesses and medics said.
Four of the protesters, who chanted anti-regime slogans, were hit by live bullets while another three were left with breathing problems. After police dispersed their sit-in at a main road in Mualla, the protesters attacked police headquarters there, prompting Yemeni forces to fire live rounds which wounded another three people.
In Sanaa, thousands of people remained camped at the square despite the ill-defined state of emergency, which Saleh announced late Friday as he offered his "regrets" for the killings. He blamed unidentified gunmen opposed to a Saudi-backed peace initiative and denied police were involved.