World News: Dozens killed as tribesmen battle with security forces

Street battles between government forces and armed tribesmen killed dozens of people and spread to new areas of Yemen's capital, Sanaa.

Yemen's mainly peaceful protests gave way to fighting last week between President Ali Abdullah Saleh's security forces and fighters loyal to the head of Yemen's most powerful tribal coalition, Sheikh Sadeq al-Ahmar.

At least 41 people were killed yesterday as clashes spread to new quarters of Sanaa.

Fighting in the capital raged from early morning though midday, sending the crackle of gunfire and the booms of artillery strikes across the city.

The clashes spread from the Hassaba neighbourhood where tribesmen have seized more than a dozen government buildings, to new areas. In the United States, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Mr Saleh's refusal to step down was prolonging the crisis.

"We cannot expect this conflict to end unless President Saleh and his government move out of the way to permit the opposition and civil society to begin a transition to political and economic reform," she said.

PM survives confidence vote

Japan's Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, has survived a no-confidence motion in parliament.

But he said he is willing to resign when the country's post-tsunami recovery takes hold.

Mr Kan won by a margin of 293-152 in the lower house.

Car blast in rebel 'capital'

A CAR has exploded in front of a hotel where foreign diplomats and journalists stay while visiting Benghazi, a rare attack in the Libyan rebels' de facto capital.

A rebel spokesman, said the blast in the car park of the Tibesti Hotel in central Benghazi caused no injuries or deaths. The burning car sent plumes of black smoke into the air.

"It's a cowardly act," he said, adding that rebels assume it was carried out by supporters of Colonel Gaddafi.

Green light for Amazon dam

The massive Belo Monte hydroelectric dam in the heart of the Amazon rain forest has won approval from Brazil's environmental protection agency.The dam would be the world's third largest, behind China's Three Gorges dam and the Itaipu, which straddles the border of Brazil and Paraguay.

Police hunt stolen leopard

A MALE leopard has been stolen from a zoo in Paraguay where authorities had put it after seizing it from animal traffickers.

Zoo director Carlos Miranda said the leopard has a good size and that could make its pelt worth between $6000 and $10,000 on the black market.

Rat-infested jet grounded by airline

Australia: A flight crew checking the cabin of a Qantas plane before take-off found rats in a compartment holding medical equipment, grounding the plane for more than a day.

Passengers had not yet boarded the Sydney-to-Brisbane flight and were instead put on another plane.

Colombia: President Juan Manuel Santos said a top Farc rebel - Guillermo Torres - has been captured in Venezuela.