Yemen: Politician assassinated at party congress

A senior leftist politician was shot to death Saturday after speaking at an Islamic political party’s congress.

Jarallah Omar, the deputy secretary general of the Yemeni Socialist party, was gunned down minutes after delivering a speech at the annual congress of the Islamic Reform Party in the capital, San’a.

He died en route to the hospital, said Seif Tayel, a Socialist party official.

An Interior Ministry official identified the assailant as Ali al-Jarallah and said he was a member of the Islamic Reform Party, the official Yemeni news agency Saba reported.

Omar was one of several rival party leaders invited to address the Islamic Reform party assembly. His Socialist party is seen as the most popular opposition group in Yemen.

Jerusalem: 9-year-old killed in Gaza Strip violence

Israeli troops shot to death a Palestinian child in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Palestinian medical workers said.

The unrest came a day after four Israelis died in a Palestinian attack on Jewish seminary students.

Palestinians said 9-year-old Hanneen Abu Suleiman was shot in the head outside her home in the Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis when troops opened fire from a Jewish settlement a few hundred yards away.

An Israeli military source said a preliminary inquiry showed that troops at a nearby army outpost had come under Palestinian fire.

In 26 months of fighting, 2,017 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 689 on the Israeli.

Beijing: China jails 8 more Falun Gong members

Eight members of the banned spiritual movement Falun Gong were sentenced to up to 13 years in prison for briefly taking over local television and radio signals in eastern China’s Anhui province, the official Xinhua News Agency said Saturday.

The Hefei Intermediate Court upheld a lower court’s decision to give the followers sentences of between five and 13 years, Xinhua said.

At least 3,900 households were affected during the 30-minute takeover, during which pirate transmissions touting the benefits of the group were played, Xinhua said.

China’s leaders banned Falun Gong in July 1999, fearing the group’s size and organizational ability could pose a challenge to Communist Party rule.

Venezuela: Foreign oil shipment arrives; strike continues

Venezuela received its first foreign shipment of gasoline Saturday, but the 525,000 barrels from Brazil were a drop in the bucket as the oil-rich nation suffers through shortages because of a strike against President Hugo Chavez.

The 27-day general strike — led by Venezuela’s largest labor union, business chamber and workers at the state-owned oil monopoly — has virtually evaporated domestic gasoline supplies.

The strike began Dec. 2 to demand Chavez call a nonbinding referendum on his rule.

Venezuela, the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter, is seeking food and fuel abroad.