US General Petraeus in Yemen talks on tackling al-Qaeda

Top US soldier Gen David Petraeus has visited Yemen's president amid a renewed offensive against militants, local media and officials say.
The general - responsible for US Middle East and Central Asian operations - reportedly said the US was keen to support Yemen's fight against al-Qaeda.
President Barack Obama accused Yemen-based militants of orchestrating the failed attack last week on a US plane.
Yemeni officials said more troops had been sent to fight rebels in the east.
State media and officials in Yemen reported the meeting between Gen Petraeus and President Ali Abdallah Saleh but there was no immediate word from the US.
Last week a Yemen-based group, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, said it had trained the Nigerian man accused of carrying out the attempt to bomb a plane over Detroit on Christmas Day, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
'Stronger partnership'
Security sources in the Yemeni capital said reinforcements had been sent to the eastern provinces of Abyan, Bayada and Shawba, where al-Qaeda militants have hideouts, AFP news agency reports.

The alert level in those regions had been raised, the sources said.
"These measures are part of operations to hunt down elements of al-Qaeda, prevent any attempt of a response after the raids, and tighten the noose around extremists," one of the sources said.
In his weekly address posted on the White House website on Saturday, Mr Obama said more details of the alleged plot were becoming clear.
"We know that [Mr Abdulmutallab] travelled to Yemen, a country grappling with crushing poverty and deadly insurgencies," he said.
"As president, I've made it a priority to strengthen our partnership with the Yemeni government, training and equipping their security forces, sharing intelligence and working with them to strike al-Qaeda terrorists," Mr Obama added.
"Training camps", he said, had "been struck, leaders eliminated, plots disrupted".
The Yemeni government has expressed its willingness to accept more help but wants economic as well as military aid, analysts say.
The country is confronting some daunting challenges - a fast-growing and impoverished population, diminishing water reserves and the likelihood that its only source of income, oil, will run dry in a few years.
But security is just as big a challenge, complicated by an abundance of firearms, an insurgency in the north and a secessionist movement in the south.
While the government is weak and unpopular in much of the country, the US has little choice but to work through it to fight al-Qaeda as any overt US presence would almost certainly provoke a public backlash.
But the prospects of re-asserting central government authority over the lawless areas where al-Qaeda is based look, in the opinion of some analysts, remote - even with beefed-up American support. BBC News