New president in Yemen

Yemen's former president Ali Abdullah Saleh stepped down on Monday after 33 years in power, handing over power to recently elected interim leader, Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi.

"We will continue to support the president to rebuild what the crisis has destroyed," Saleh said during a power transfer ceremony in the capital, Sana'a. "We call on all fellow countrymen to stand beside the political leadership."

Hadi, who served as vice president under Saleh, has been acting president since November under a deal brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council. He was elected with 99.8 percent of the vote in a presidential election on Tuesday, and is to serve as the country's transitional leader for a two-year term.

"I hope we will meet in this room again ... to bid farewell and welcome a new leadership," Hadi said. "I hope that in two years, I will stand in President Ali Abdullah Saleh's place and a new president will stand in mine."

Saleh returned to Yemen on Friday after weeks of medical treatment in the United States, following an attempted assassination bombing in June. He remains head of his General People's Congress party, and was granted immunity from prosecution under the Gulf deal.

Tens of thousands of Yemeni's marched through Sana'a as the ceremony took place, demanding that Saleh be taken to court for ordering the killing of anti-government protesters. The opposition Joint Meeting Parties did not attend the ceremony because of Saleh's attendance.

Meanwhile, at least 15 insurgents with suspected ties to al-Qaeda were killed on Sunday in clashes with the army in the south, according to local media.

Hadi said in his inaugural speech on Saturday that he would fight al-Qaeda militants, calling it "a religious and national duty." Hours after he was sworn into office on Saturday, a car bomb exploded outside a presidential building in the southern city of Mukalla, killing at least 26 people.

acb/gb (AFP, dpa)