Yemen’s new leader to rule broken nation

SANAA, Yemen – Yemenis flocked to the polls across their battered nation Tuesday to vote in a U.S.-backed, single-candidate election meant to instate a new leader to replace the outgoing autocrat.

Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi is set to be declared president, which will make his predecessor, Ali Abdullah Saleh, the fourth leader to be pushed from power in the Arab Spring uprisings.

While the voters were largely hopeful – with some waiting in long lines to cast ballots bearing only Hadi’s name – the new leader will face tremendous challenges as he tries to lead the Arab world’s poorest country out of its year-old political crisis, which has shattered the economy, splintered the security forces and allowed al-Qaida to seize swaths of territory.

The U.S. has played an active role in the transition, in hopes it can head off chaos and ensure cooperation against the country’s active al-Qaida branch.

Quran burnings accidental, U.S. says

KABUL, Afghanistan – The U.S. apologized Tuesday for the burning of Muslim holy books that had been pulled from the shelves of a detention center library adjoining a major base in eastern Afghanistan because they contained extremist messages or inscriptions.

The White House echoed military officials in saying that the burning of Qurans and other Islamic reading material was an accident.

But more than 2,000 Afghans protested the incident outside the Bagram Air Base that stoked rising anti-foreign sentiment and fueled Afghan claims that foreign troops disrespect their culture and Islamic religion even as the Americans and other NATO forces prepare to withdraw by the end of 2014.

Demonstrators who gathered outside Bagram Air Field, one of the largest U.S. bases in Afghanistan, shouted, “Die, die, foreigners!” Some fired rifles into the air. Others threw rocks at the gate of the base and set tires on fire.

Associated Press