Sana'a, Yemen - Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Saturday called on Muslim countries to allow their citizens to serve as volunteer fighters alongside Palestinian militants against the Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, the state Saba news agency reported.

Saleh, who made the call during a meeting with an Iranian envoy in Sana'a, also called for a summit for leaders of Muslim countries to be convened to discuss the Israeli attacks on Gaza, the agency said.

"President Saleh called upon Muslim countries to open the door for volunteers to help render their brothers in Palestine victorious," the agency said.

Sana'a, Yemen  - Yemeni authorities are investigating the killing of a local fisherman during an anti-piracy operation by a Russian navy ship in the Gulf of Aden, the interior ministry said on Thursday.

The ministry said in a statement that a fisherman was killed and two others injured as a Russian frigate attacked suspected Somali pirates near the southern Yemeni port city of Aden Wednesday.

Sana'a, Yemen - A Yemeni official source said on Thursday that his country has retracted its support for an emergency summit by Arab leaders in Doha to discuss the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

"Yemen retracted the support it has announced for the Doha summit," the source, who requested anonymity, told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa.

He said the move was aimed at "avoiding a split among Arab countries that might be caused by the conflicting plans for summits to discuss the situation in Gaza."

The source said Yemen "urges Arab leaders to give Gaza a top priority in the Kuwait economic summit."

Sana'a, Yemen  - Yemeni authorities have released the former driver of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden nearly two weeks after he was released from the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a family source said on Saturday.

The source told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that Salim Hamdan, 40, was released from the intelligence prison in the capital Sana'a late on Thursday.

Security officials confirmed Hamdan's release, but they refused to give further details.

Sana'a, Yemen - A Yemeni state security court began on Saturday the trial of three young countrymen accused of spying for Israel.

The prosecution charged the three young men, aged between 23 and 26, with "establishing contacts with the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and offering to work as agents for the Mossad intelligence agency."

They are also accused of operating under a fake organisation called the "Islamic Jihad of Yemen" and spreading false statements and news and claims of responsibility for attacks on embassies and foreign interests in Yemen between last year.