SANAA, Yemen, July 30 (UPI) -- Protests in Sanaa, Yemen, over a sudden increase in gasoline prices Wednesday left one woman dead, witnesses said.
The government nearly doubled the price of gasoline, from 58 cents per liter to 93 cents per liter, to curb the budget deficit and reduce subsidies in order to secure an International Monetary Fund loan.
A third of state revenue last year, about $3 billion, was spent on energy subsidies in 2013, and the IMF has ordered Yemen to cut subsidies to qualify for a requested $560 million loan.
Witnesses and a medical source said the unidentified victim in the demonstration was killed when the Yemeni army, policing the protest, fired rifles into the air to divert the demonstration from the presidential palace.
