Gulf states urged all sides to sign up the transition plan

A Yemeni anti-government protester shouts slogans while being carried by fellow demonstrators. Yemeni security forces opened fire to disperse a demonstration in Sanaa overnight, killing 10 protesters and wounding 226 others, a medic said Thursday.\"The total death toll from the confrontations has reached 12,\" said the medic, after two protesters were killed earlier Wednesday in clashes near the headquarters of the government.
Security forces and plainclothes gunmen had opened fire on thousands of demonstrators as they marched Wednesday night from Sanaa\'s University Square, the focal point of protests in the capital, towards government headquarters, witnesses said.
A medic at a field hospital at University Square told AFP that 226 demonstrators were wounded by gunfire, 10 of them critically, while 141 others suffered wounds and fractures caused by sharp objects and batons.
The interior ministry claimed late Wednesday that protesters attempted to break security cordons to \"storm the radio (building) and government headquarters.\"

The opposition gunmen positioned in a nearby building opened fire, which resulted in the death of one person and the wounding of others, the official Saba news agency reported.
Earlier, security forces killed two protesters and wounded five after opening fire on demonstrators in the city of Taez. That brought to seven the number of protesters killed since Sunday in Yemen\'s second-largest city, according to a tally by medics.
Thousands of anti-regime protesters took to the streets after the first protester was killed on Wednesday, marching towards several government offices in the city and forcing their closure, witnesses said.
They also marched towards the Yemen Petroleum Co, locked its gate with chains and put up a banner saying: \"Shut by the people.\"
The interior ministry denied there were any deaths in Taez.
A protester was shot dead in the Red Sea port city of al-Hudayda when police opened fire to disperse a demonstration near the provincial headquarters, a medic and witnesses said.
Another protester was killed by police in Dhamar, 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Sanaa, as security forces opened fire on a demonstration, medics and witnesses said.
In Ibb, also south of the capital, hundreds surrounded provincial offices plastering a similar poster on its entrance.
For days, teachers demanding better pay and postponement of final exams have been staging a sit-in outside education ministry offices. They were joined by hundreds of anti-government protesters.
In the capital, thousands gathered for a solidarity rally, chanting: \"We will sacrifice our souls and our blood for Taez.\"
In the main southern city of Aden, security forces opened fire on protesters who have blocked roads in an attempt to observe a strike which the organisers have called for every Saturday and Wednesday.
Two protesters were wounded by live rounds, witnesses told AFP.
Shops closed in most of Aden, as sporadic gunfire was heard across the city, an AFP correspondent reported.
A similar strike was observed in several other southern provinces -- Lahij, Shabwa and Abyan.
The latest deaths came as the neighbouring Gulf states urged all sides in Yemen to sign up to a transition plan aimed at ending months of political bloodshed.
\"The council urged all parties in Yemen to sign the agreement, which is the best way out of the crisis, and spare the country further political division and deterioration of security,\" heads of state of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council said after a Riyadh summit on Tuesday.
Gulf leaders discussed the bloc\'s mediation efforts, which stalled in the face of veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh\'s refusal to sign up to proposals that would require him to stand down within a month.
Saleh has been insisting that any transfer of power should be in line with the constitution, which would allow him to serve out his term until 2013.
The GCC plan proposes the formation of a government of national unity, Saleh transferring power to his vice president and resigning after 30 days, a day after parliament passes a law granting him and his aides immunity.
Last month, GCC Secretary General Abdullatif al-Zayani travelled to Sanaa to invite members of the government and the opposition to sign the transition plan in Riyadh and to obtain the president\'s signature, but he returned empty-handed.
More than 150 people have been killed in anti-government protests since late January.