Libya assembly chief quits after political ban

Mohamed al-Megaryef, the president of Libya's top political body, resigned on Tuesday to comply with a new law banning Kadhafi-era officials from government jobs.

"Everyone must obey the law out of respect for legality and democracy. I tender my resignation... in conformity with the law," Megaryef told a plenary session of the General National Congress.

Megaryef was Libya's ambassador to India in the 1980s under the regime of now slain dictator Moamer Kadhafi before he defected to become a leader of the exiled opposition for three decades. "I leave with my head held high and my conscious clear," said Megaryef, who stressed he was the first of Kadhafi-era officials to conform to the law.

Thousands of Yemenis deported from Saudi Arabia

Sana: Saudi Arabia has begun deporting thousands of Yemeni labourers following new regulations requiring foreigners to work only for their sponsors, a Yemeni official said on Monday, a move that could “significantly damage” the poor country’s economy.

Some two million of Yemen’s 25 million citizens work abroad, more than half of them in larger and richer neighbour Saudi Arabia. Remittances bring in $2 billion (Dh7.34 billion) a year to Yemen, a country still grappling with revolt, a separatist movement and an Islamist insurgency.