The UN Security Council plans to discuss the situation in Yemen, where anti-government protests are in their third month, Security Council diplomats said on Monday. The meeting, which was proposed by Germany's UN Ambassador Peter Wittig, is scheduled to take place on Tuesday at 3:30 pm (1930 GMT), the diplomats told Reuters on condition of anonymity. A senior official from the UN Department of Political Affairs will brief the Security Council, which might issue a statement on Yemen after the meeting is over, the diplomats said. "We want to send a political signal that we are following the situation," one of the envoys said. The meeting was being organized as members of Yemen's ruling party, including three former ministers, formed a new bloc to support protests against the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The protests, inspired by uprisings that toppled the authoritarian leaders of Egypt and Tunisia, have brought tens of thousands of people onto the streets almost every day to demand an end to endemic poverty and corruption. Scores of protesters have been killed. At least 88 people were wounded on Monday in the Red Sea port of Hudaida as plainclothes police fired bullets and teargas at protesters, who responded by hurling stones, witnesses and doctors said.
