Yemen's Saleh signs deal to step down
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Ali Abdullah Saleh Wednesday signed a landmark agreement in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, agreeing to relinquish the presidency of Yemen.
Saleh traveled to the Saudi capital to sign the agreement negotiated by the Gulf Cooperation Council in hopes of quelling protests that have rocked the nation for most of the year.
"Today a new page opens in your history," Saudi King Abdallah told Yemenis attending the ceremony. Arab News said Abdallah urged all those concerned to honor the agreement, which ends Saleh's 33 years in office.
The agreement calls for the formation of a national unity government within 14 days and presidential elections within 90 days. Executive powers will pass immediately to Vice President Abd al-Rahman Mansur al-Hadi.
U.S. President Barack Obama issued a statement welcoming the agreement.
"For 10 months, the Yemeni people have courageously and steadfastly voiced their demands for change in cities across Yemen in the face of violence and extreme hardship. Today's agreement brings them a significant step closer to realizing their aspirations for a new beginning in Yemen," Obama said, pledging to stand by Yemen during the transition.
The agreement allows Saleh to keep his position until the elections and grants him immunity from prosecution, The New York Times reported.
Pro-democracy demonstrators for months have called for Saleh's resignation. In the past he has indicated a willingness to do so only to back out of signing similar agreements.
Opposition leaders and Yemen's allies have pressed Saleh to sign a deal, warning that the country was near collapse because of continued protests and bloody fighting among factions.
Saleh's surprise trip to Riyadh followed several days of negotiations between opposition leaders and the president's representatives brokered by a U.N. envoy, the Times said.
Yemeni opposition leaders were to go to Riyadh later Wednesday for the signing.
Previous agreements have been upended by violence in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa between government forces and defecting army units and tribal fighters loyal to Saleh's rivals. The Times said there were reports Wednesday of sporadic shelling in Hasaba, a district in northern Sanaa.
Report finds excessive force in Bahrain
MANAMA, Bahrain, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- A report presented Wednesday to the king of Bahrain found government forces used excessive force against protesters there.
Cherif Bassiouni, the Egyptian lawyer who headed the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, detailed at least 46 deaths, 559 people who said they had been tortured and more than 4,000 who lost their jobs because they participated in protests, The Christian Science Monitor reported. Most of the protesters were from the Shia majority, while the ruling family is Sunni.
But Bassiouni said it is "unique" that an Arab government called for an independent investigation of its own actions, the BBC said.
King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa said he would name a committee to make recommendations for reform.
"We are determined, God willing, to insure that the painful events are not to be repeated, but that we learn from them and use our new insights as a catalyst for positive change," he said.
Bahrain with a population of 1.2 million is far smaller than most of the countries affected by the Arab Spring. But the country has enormous strategic importance because the U.S. Sixth Fleet is based there.
FAMU band director fired in hazing scandal
ORLANDO, Fla., Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Florida A&M marching band Director Julian White was fired Wednesday, less than a week after the death of a drum major led to allegations of hazing.
"Dr. White has been terminated from employment at the university," university President James Ammons said, pointing to the band leader's "inability to stop hazing in the department of music and in the band."
Ammons told the Orlando Sentinel: "We are serious: This has to stop. The highest priority we have as a university is protecting the health, safety and well-being of our students."
Three parents who have children in the school's famed marching band told the newspaper they had complained about verbal and physical abuse of band members in recent months.
Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings has said hazing was involved in the weekend death of 26-year-old FAMU student Robert Champion but hasn't disclosed the nature of it. Champion, a music major at the Tallahassee school, died after collapsing in an Orlando hotel parking lot following a Florida A&M football game at which the band performed.
An initial autopsy was inconclusive as to the cause of Champion's death. More tests are being performed.
Felicia Fabre, who has a son in the 375-member band, gave the newspaper e-mails dating to August that provided information about abusive behavior her son allegedly had seen and been subjected to by section leaders.
"These practice[s] MUST STOP and they will not until someone stands up and some changes are made," Fabre wrote in one e-mail to White and Ralph Turner, identified as the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. "I feel because of love, calling and duty I must not only speak up for my son, but also for the students who are being belittled and mistreated, and feel they do not have a voice."
Band member parent Julie Lopez said Champion may have been subjected to a "rite of passage" in which a band member is beaten while walking from the back of a bus to the front.
"Everyone was talking about it," Lopez said. "It was a planned event."
The school has suspended all performances by the band while an independent task force investigates.
Demings said criminal charges are possible against anyone who participated in hazing.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott sent a letter Wednesday requesting the state Department of Law Enforcement assist in the investigation "to assure that the circumstances … become fully known."
7 Amish men charged with hate crimes
CLEVELAND, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Seven Ohio men were arrested Wednesday on federal hate crime charges for attacking and cutting the hair of fellow Amish men as part of a religious dispute.
A criminal complaint filed in Cleveland alleges the men used scissors and battery-powered clippers to cut the beards and hair head of several Amish men during an argument. The attack caused bodily harm to the victims and others who tried to stop the attacks, a release from the United States Department of Justice said.
A man's beard and hair are considered sacred in the Amish religion.
Samuel Mullet Sr., Johnny S. Mullet, Daniel S. Mullet, Levi F. Miller, Eli M. Miller and Emanuel Schrock -- all of Bergholz -- and Lester S. Mullet, of Hammondsville, were charged with willfully causing bodily injury to a person or attempting to do so by use of a dangerous weapon because of the actual or perceived religion of that person. Doing so is in violation of the Matthew Shepard-James Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
