Tiananmen anniversary draws 150,000
HONG KONG, June 4 (UPI) -- The 22nd anniversary of the government crackdown in Beijing's Tiananmen Square drew tens of thousands of people to a vigil in Hong Kong Saturday night.
Organizers put the crowd at more than 150,000 while police pegged it at 77,000, Kyodo News reported.
Those attending the candlelight gathering in Victoria Park mourned the victims of the Chinese military's brutal crushing of China's pro-democracy movement in 1989 that left at least hundreds dead, the Japanese news service said.
The vigil is an annual event organized by the Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China.
"We consider it a success that the call for democracy in China has continued to thrive in Hong Kong," alliance Chairman Lee Cheuk-yan said.
One vigil participant, Tong Shau-chan, 75, acknowledged China's fast-growing economy but said the country's people "must also have democracy."
"Beijing should be open and allow more freedom to its people," Tong said. "Whenever I think of those who died [in 1989] and their mothers, I feel so saddened."
Bin Laden successor purportedly killed
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, June 4 (UPI) -- The apparent heir to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was killed in a U.S. drone attack in southeastern Pakistan, a purported spokesman for the group said.
Pakistan's Daily Times reported a statement handwritten in the Urdu language by an unknown al-Qaida operative, Abu Hamzullah Kasher, was issued in Wana Bazaar Saturday afternoon announcing the death of Ilyas Kashmiri, Pakistan's Daily Times reported.
"Harkatul Jihad al-Islami's 313 Brigade confirms that in Friday's drone attack at 11:15 p.m. our commander-in-chief, Muhammad Ilyas Kashmiri, was martyred," Kasher's statement.
The Times said there was no independent confirmation of the claim.
"We have received reports of his death. But we are waiting for conclusive evidence to confirm that Kashmiri has been killed with nine other terrorists," an unidentified Pakistani security official told the newspaper.
A tribal elder in Wana told the Daily Times by phone, "We heard that those killed were Punjabi and Kashmiri's presence at the site of the attack was talk of the town."
Local reports said nine people were killed in Friday's bombing attack by unmanned aircraft in Wana that targeted Kashmiri, a one-eyed militant linked to attacks on Western targets in Pakistan, India and Europe, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Kashmiri is suspected of orchestrating attacks on a Pakistani air base in Karachi last month and an October 2009 attack on an army base in Rawalpindi.
An unidentified Pakistani official had told the British newspaper it wasn't clear if the 47-year-old Kashmiri "was present or not at the time of the attack" on the garden area of a house in Wana.
The United States posted its maximum bounty of $5 million for Kashmiri's capture or death.
Bin Laden, the plotter behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States, was killed May 2 in a raid by U.S. Navy SEALs at a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Presidential powers go to Yemeni VP
SANAA, Yemen, June 4 (UPI) -- Yemen's vice president assumed presidential responsibilities Saturday night with President Abdullah Saleh in Saudi Arabia for medical treatment, CNN reported.
Yemeni government spokesman Abdu Ganadi told the U.S. news network of the power transfer to Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. CNN said a source close to the Saudi government said Saleh arrived in Riyadh about midnight, a day after receiving what a senior Yemeni official had called a slight head wound when two mortar shells hit a prayer area in his compound in the capital, Sanaa.
CNN said some Yemeni officials maintained Saleh was still in Yemen. Yaser Yamani, Sanaa's deputy mayor, told Yemeni state TV Saturday night "Saleh is still being treated in the military hospital in Sanaa."
However, CNN's Saudi source said Saleh was transported to a nearby hospital after his plane reached Saudi Arabia.
At least seven guards were killed and five senior government officials were injured in Friday's attack, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Saudi officials told The New York Times Saturday Saleh's condition had worsened and he had agreed to be flown to the Saudi capital Riyadh for treatment.
Saleh, in power for 33 years, could run into difficulty returning because of the ongoing violence and pressure for him to leave office, the Times said.
Demonstrations against Saleh's regime have become increasingly violent this year in and around the capital.
Observers say more than 160 people have been killed in clashes between government security forces and protesters since last week.
Palestinians force way across Egypt border
GAZA, June 4 (UPI) -- Palestinians Saturday pushed through the Rafah Crossing from Gaza to Egypt after waiting hours on buses, officials said.
Egypt had temporarily closed the crossing to vehicles from Gaza because of maintenance work, CNN reported. The crossing was open to pedestrians and vehicles traveling from Egypt to Gaza.
Officials in Gaza were not informed about the closing or the reason for it.
Four buses sat for hours waiting for permission to cross, officials said. Some of the passengers eventually disembarked and pushed the gate open, breaking a chain.
No injuries were reported. The Palestinians were escorted back to the Gaza side and back to their buses, which returned to their starting points.
The crossing is scheduled to reopen Sunday.
Egypt announced plans recently to keep the Rafah Crossing open. It has been closed much of the time since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007.
