SWANK The Think For Yourself Movement 1999
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Sunday, 20 March 2011
Damon Albarn Prepares New Elizabethan Opera
Just look at his workload in the past 10 years: the final Blur album, three Gorillaz albums, a solo album of home demos, countless excursions across Africa, bringing the best talent back to perform with UK musicians in his Africa Express concerts, an opera based on the Chinese legends of a monkey god, a triumphant Blur reunion tour and Glastonbury headline slot, a Blur 7" single, a Gorillaz tour and Glastonbury headline slot, a fourth Gorillaz album (coming next month) and now another entire opera.
In the same space of time, Oasis have effectively made and toured four albums, and then split up, and then reformed without Noel. On, and Liam went to see the Spongebob Squarepants movie.
Damon's new opera, Doctor Dee, is set to premiere in June, at Manchester's International Festival, before moving down to London's Coliseum next year, as part of the city's Cultural Olympiad.
The production is based on the life of John Dee, who was Queen Elizabeth I's scientific advisor, specializing in medicine, and his reputation as an alchemist, astrologer, and spy. Which makes it a kind of cross between Harry Potter and James Bond, in ruffs, and set to music. Amazing.
Having originally started the project with comic book sage Alan Moore (he wrote, among other things, Watchmen, From Hell and V for Vendetta), Damon went on to finish it alone, and plans to take a major role in the production too. It will be directed by Rufus Norris, the Tony-nominated director who revived Don Giovanni for the English National Opera last year, and brought Les Liaisons Dangereuses to Broadway in 2008.
Manchester International Festival director Alex Poots told BBC News: "It will be a big, spectacular show. I know that Damon's passionate about it and he's already written some incredibly beautiful songs, some anthemic songs."
And that's on top of the beautiful and anthemic songs he wrote when he was 'just' a pop star.
@'BBC America'
Banned plants
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DISCUSSION PAPER (Implementation of model schedules for Commonwealth serious drug offences)
Police support for protesters is growing as government cuts start to bite
Emphasising the growing opposition to the speed and breadth of the cuts programme, the chairman of the Police Federation, Paul McKeever, said that officers on duty at Saturday's March for an Alternative in central London would be feeling a sense of solidarity as they policed the event, which is being organised by the Trades Union Congress (TUC).
"The great irony is that officers policing marches like the TUC are actually facing greater detriment than many of those protesting against the cuts," said McKeever, whose union represents 140,000 rank-and-file police officers.
"We're not members of the TUC and have to be careful about having too close an association, though there will be a lot of sympathy towards those marching."
The march, due to be held in London's Hyde Park, looks set to be the largest rally to date against the coalition government's policies, with organisers hoping for more than 100,000 people to attend.
Along with the unions and other campaigning bodies, a plethora of other protest groups has sprung up as the strength of feeling grows against a package of issues as diverse as tuition fee rises, the scrapping of the education maintenance allowance, bankers' bonuses, tax evasion by big business, library closures and arts and public spending cuts.
One peace activist, and veteran of the anti-war marches in 2003, told the Observer: "We will get a lot of first-time protesters on Saturday because people are getting more confident that protest is for them. It's not for a bunch of anarchists, it's families, students, old people, maybe now even the odd police officer, who don't want to put up with cuts and unfairness in Britain any more."
Groups are using technology and social media to share expertise and information as well as co-ordinate and manage direct action more efficiently. The day is expected to see traditional protests take place at the same time, with sit-ins at high street shops and banks and occupations of public buildings and universities.
In the past five months, the protest group UK Uncut has staged a steady campaign of sit-ins against tax dodging that have forced the temporary closure of branches of Barclays, Vodaphone, Boots, British Home Stores and Topshop up and down the country.
"26 March is going to be a really important day," said Anna Walker of UK Uncut. "We had the student protests and we have seen the growth of UK Uncut, but this is the first time we are going to have people from all over the UK together whose lives are being turned upside down by these cuts. It is going to be the start of something powerful."
Scotland Yard has already suggested that "troublemakers" could attempt to hijack the protest. The Met was criticised for its tactics at student tuition fee protests last year, when dozens of people were arrested during violent outbreaks. This time, members the of human rights organisation Liberty will act as independent observers.
McKeever suggested that, far from being hostile to the protesters, many police officers would share the frustrations of the day. He said that a massive march of police officers themselves could not be ruled out if the home secretary, Theresa May, pushes forward with government plans to cut back on police pay and perks.
More than 20,000 police officers marched through London in 2008 in protest about their pay, the biggest demonstration in police history.
"We had 23,000 officers on the streets on a point of principle. Imagine how many might be involved with the level of feeling at the moment. Nothing is ruled out," said McKeever.
He also warned that attempts by the government to force through changes in pay and conditions might lead to legal action. "We are exploring every avenue to make sure officers are treated fairly.
"The first duty of any government is the protection of its citizens. Yet it is being vindictive against a police service it seems to hold in very low regard.
"Mervyn King has said that it's not those in the public sector who are to blame for the crisis, but it doesn't feel like that in the police service."
He added: "They don't seem to be so accusatory towards those where the blame actually lies. There seems to be a dislike of policing with this present government – the so-called party of law and order is dead, it's buried, it's gone."
Mark Townsend and Tracy McVeigh @'The Guardian'
(GB2011)
Japan’s Nuclear Disaster Caps Decades of Faked Safety Reports, Accidents
The unfolding disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant follows decades of falsified safety reports, fatal accidents and underestimated earthquake risk in Japan’s atomic power industry.
The destruction caused by last week’s 9.0 earthquake and tsunami comes less than four years after a 6.8 quake shut the world’s biggest atomic plant, also run by Tokyo Electric Power Co. In 2002 and 2007, revelations the utility had faked repair records forced the resignation of the company’s chairman and president, and a three-week shutdown of all 17 of its reactors.
With almost no oil or gas reserves of its own, nuclear power has been a national priority for Japan since the end of World War II, a conflict the country fought partly to secure oil supplies. Japan has 54 operating nuclear reactors -- more than any other country except the U.S. and France -- to power its industries, pitting economic demands against safety concerns in the world’s most earthquake-prone country.
Nuclear engineers and academics who have worked in Japan’s atomic power industry spoke in interviews of a history of accidents, faked reports and inaction by a succession of Liberal Democratic Party governments that ran Japan for nearly all of the postwar period.
Katsuhiko Ishibashi, a seismology professor at Kobe University, has said Japan’s history of nuclear accidents stems from an overconfidence in plant engineering. In 2006, he resigned from a government panel on reactor safety, saying the review process was rigged and “unscientific.”
Nuclear Earthquake
In an interview in 2007 after Tokyo Electric’s Kashiwazaki nuclear plant was struck by an earthquake, Ishibashi said fundamental improvements were needed in engineering standards for atomic power stations, without which Japan could suffer a catastrophic disaster.
“We didn’t learn anything,” Ishibashi said in a phone interview this week. “Nuclear power is national policy and there’s a real reluctance to scrutinize it.”
To be sure, Japan’s record isn’t the worst. The International Atomic Energy Agency rates nuclear accidents on a scale of zero to seven, with Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union rated seven, the most dangerous. Fukushima, where the steel vessels at the heart of the reactors have so far not ruptured, is currently a class five, the same category as the 1979 partial reactor meltdown at Three Mile Island in the U.S...
The destruction caused by last week’s 9.0 earthquake and tsunami comes less than four years after a 6.8 quake shut the world’s biggest atomic plant, also run by Tokyo Electric Power Co. In 2002 and 2007, revelations the utility had faked repair records forced the resignation of the company’s chairman and president, and a three-week shutdown of all 17 of its reactors.
With almost no oil or gas reserves of its own, nuclear power has been a national priority for Japan since the end of World War II, a conflict the country fought partly to secure oil supplies. Japan has 54 operating nuclear reactors -- more than any other country except the U.S. and France -- to power its industries, pitting economic demands against safety concerns in the world’s most earthquake-prone country.
Nuclear engineers and academics who have worked in Japan’s atomic power industry spoke in interviews of a history of accidents, faked reports and inaction by a succession of Liberal Democratic Party governments that ran Japan for nearly all of the postwar period.
Katsuhiko Ishibashi, a seismology professor at Kobe University, has said Japan’s history of nuclear accidents stems from an overconfidence in plant engineering. In 2006, he resigned from a government panel on reactor safety, saying the review process was rigged and “unscientific.”
Nuclear Earthquake
In an interview in 2007 after Tokyo Electric’s Kashiwazaki nuclear plant was struck by an earthquake, Ishibashi said fundamental improvements were needed in engineering standards for atomic power stations, without which Japan could suffer a catastrophic disaster.
“We didn’t learn anything,” Ishibashi said in a phone interview this week. “Nuclear power is national policy and there’s a real reluctance to scrutinize it.”
To be sure, Japan’s record isn’t the worst. The International Atomic Energy Agency rates nuclear accidents on a scale of zero to seven, with Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union rated seven, the most dangerous. Fukushima, where the steel vessels at the heart of the reactors have so far not ruptured, is currently a class five, the same category as the 1979 partial reactor meltdown at Three Mile Island in the U.S...
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Jason Clenfield @'Bloomberg'
Signalling dissent
According to Jeff Moss, a communications adviser to America’s Department of Homeland Security, their existence has recently been valuable to the operation of several groups of revolutionaries in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere. To get round government shutdowns of internet and mobile-phone networks, resourceful dissidents have used such makeshift antennae to link their computers and handsets to more orthodox transmission equipment in neighbouring countries.
Technologies that transmit data under the noses of repressive authorities in this way are spreading like wildfire among pro-democracy groups, says Mr Moss. For example, after Egypt switched off its internet in January some activists brought laptops to places like Tahrir Square in Cairo to collect, via short-range wireless links, demonstrators’ video recordings and other electronic messages. These activists then broadcast the material to the outside world using range-extending antennae...
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GregMitch Greg Mitchell
Bombing Libya on 8th anniversary of Iraq war: From Shock and Awe to Shock and Aw, Shit.
GreatDismal William Gibson
Operation Screaming Fist vs Operation Odyssey Dawn? Brutally effective in inverse proportion to sounding like high-end toilet paper?
Cameron says British forces are in action over Libya
British forces are in action over Libya, Prime Minister David Cameron has said.
A British submarine has fired a number of Tomahawk missiles at Libyan air defence targets, the Ministry of Defence added.Mr Cameron said the action was "legal, necessary and right" and he praised the British forces involved as "the bravest of the brave".
France, US, Canada and Italy are also involved in the military action.
US officials said it was a "carefully coordinated" joint operation known as Odyssey Dawn.
French planes destroyed Libyan vehicles earlier on Saturday, and US media say the US has fired missiles at Libya from a warship.
'Appalling brutality' Defence sources told the BBC Britain had launched a number of missiles from Trafalgar class submarines in the Mediterranean, aimed at Libyan air defence targets including radar and surface-to-air missile weapons.
Libyan state TV reported that what it called the "crusader enemy" had bombed civilian areas of Tripoli, as well as fuel storage tanks supplying the western city of Misrata.
After hosting a meeting of the government's emergency management committee Cobra in Downing Street, Mr Cameron said: "British forces are in action over Libya. They are part of an international coalition to enforce the will of the United Nations.
"We have all seen the appalling brutality meted out by Col Gaddafi against his own people."
It was a "just cause" and in "Britain's best interests", he added.
British and US submarines fired 110 Tomahawks in total at Libyan targets.
The Chief of Defence Staff's strategic communications officer Maj Gen John Lorimer said: "This is the first stage. UK and partner forces remain engaged in ongoing operations as we seek to ensure that Col Gaddafi and his forces understand that the international community will not stand by and watch them kill civilians."
@'BBC'
U.S. Missiles Strike Libyan Air Defense Targets
American and European forces began a broad campaign of strikes against the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi on Saturday, unleashing warplanes and missiles in the first round of the largest international military intervention in the Arab world since the invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon said.
Pentagon and NATO officials detailed a mission designed to impose a United Nations-sanctioned no-fly zone and keep Mr. Qaddafi from using airpower against beleaguered rebel forces in the east. While the overall effort was portrayed as mostly being led by France and Britain, the Pentagon said that American forces dominated an effort to knock out Libya’s air-defense systems.
In a briefing Saturday afternoon, Vice Adm. William Gortney told reporters that about 110 Tomahawk missiles, fired from American warships and submarines and one British submarine struck 20 air-defense targets around Tripoli, the capital, and the western city of Misurata. He said the strikes were against longer-range air defense missiles as well as early warning radar sites and main command-and-control communication centers.
President Obama, speaking during a visit to Brazil, reiterated promises that no American ground forces would be used. “I am deeply aware of the risks of any military action, no matter what limits we place on it,” he said. “I want the American people to know that the use of force is not our first choice, and it’s not a choice that I make lightly. But we can’t stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people that there will be no mercy.”
The campaign began soon after the close of a summit meeting in Paris, where leaders, reacting to news that Mr. Qaddafi’s forces were attacking the rebel capital city of Benghazi with artillery and ground troops despite international demands for a cease-fire, said they had no choice but to act to defend Libyan civilians and opposition forces.
“Our assessment is that the aggressive actions by Qaddafi forces continue in many places around the country,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said after the meeting in Paris concluded. “We saw it over the last 24 hours, and we’ve seen no real effort on the part of the Qaddafi forces to abide by a cease-fire despite the rhetoric.”
In Benghazi, a rebel fighter, speaking over the phone, described a procession of tanks as well as rooftop snipers fighting for pro-Qaddafi forces in the west of the city. And a steady stream of vehicles, some bearing rebel flags, was seen pouring out of Benghazi toward the rebel-held city of Bayda, where crowds were cheering the news that French airplanes were flying over the area. That news came even before the Paris summit meeting adjourned, with President Nicolas Sarkozy announcing that French warplanes had begun reconnaissance missions around Benghazi, and the French military saying that a Rafale jet fighter had destroyed a government tank near there.
Even though the leaders at the Paris summit meeting were united in supporting military action, there were signs of disagreement over how it would proceed...
Pentagon and NATO officials detailed a mission designed to impose a United Nations-sanctioned no-fly zone and keep Mr. Qaddafi from using airpower against beleaguered rebel forces in the east. While the overall effort was portrayed as mostly being led by France and Britain, the Pentagon said that American forces dominated an effort to knock out Libya’s air-defense systems.
In a briefing Saturday afternoon, Vice Adm. William Gortney told reporters that about 110 Tomahawk missiles, fired from American warships and submarines and one British submarine struck 20 air-defense targets around Tripoli, the capital, and the western city of Misurata. He said the strikes were against longer-range air defense missiles as well as early warning radar sites and main command-and-control communication centers.
President Obama, speaking during a visit to Brazil, reiterated promises that no American ground forces would be used. “I am deeply aware of the risks of any military action, no matter what limits we place on it,” he said. “I want the American people to know that the use of force is not our first choice, and it’s not a choice that I make lightly. But we can’t stand idly by when a tyrant tells his people that there will be no mercy.”
The campaign began soon after the close of a summit meeting in Paris, where leaders, reacting to news that Mr. Qaddafi’s forces were attacking the rebel capital city of Benghazi with artillery and ground troops despite international demands for a cease-fire, said they had no choice but to act to defend Libyan civilians and opposition forces.
“Our assessment is that the aggressive actions by Qaddafi forces continue in many places around the country,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said after the meeting in Paris concluded. “We saw it over the last 24 hours, and we’ve seen no real effort on the part of the Qaddafi forces to abide by a cease-fire despite the rhetoric.”
In Benghazi, a rebel fighter, speaking over the phone, described a procession of tanks as well as rooftop snipers fighting for pro-Qaddafi forces in the west of the city. And a steady stream of vehicles, some bearing rebel flags, was seen pouring out of Benghazi toward the rebel-held city of Bayda, where crowds were cheering the news that French airplanes were flying over the area. That news came even before the Paris summit meeting adjourned, with President Nicolas Sarkozy announcing that French warplanes had begun reconnaissance missions around Benghazi, and the French military saying that a Rafale jet fighter had destroyed a government tank near there.
Even though the leaders at the Paris summit meeting were united in supporting military action, there were signs of disagreement over how it would proceed...
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Saturday, 19 March 2011
Reuters Reuters Top News
FLASH: Fighter plane shot down in eastern Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi - Reuters witness
One of Gaddafi`s the rebel's jets shot down at Benghazi (Confusion still as to whose jet it is)
AJELive AJELive
History of Libya 1912-1969
A beautiful short documentary highlighting the key historical events that occurred in Libya between 1912 and 1969. This got me quite emotional as I saw a budding young Libya in its early spring, blossoming and reaching out to the world, and then suddenly it was cloaked in darkness…
Via
Via
Michel Houellebecq vs. William Burroughs (Quotes)
Oil on Canvas: “William S. Burroughs 3″
Christiaan Tonnis (1999)
Michel Houellebecq — the misanthropic, caninophilic French novelist — and William Burroughs both deploy thorough visions of the world. They proffer more or less elaborate cosmologies, ethics, and particularly critical assessments of humanity. And both view the act of writing in general, and their own writing in particular, as an active force doing some kind of battle, performing some kind of negotiation, with the powers of stupidity, evil, greed, and banality. Both understand the human universe as being at the mercy of non-human laws — for Houellebecq, it’s all species, biology, physics; for Burroughs, it’s biology, physics, magic.
But whereas Houellebecq sees a world of absolute bleakness, Burroughs sees a world of plenitude — filled with shit and bile and semen and stupidity and cruelty but full nonetheless. If Houellebecq offers a world heading to zero, Burroughs offers a world of infinite complexity.
On Society
Houellebecq
I don’t like this world. I definitely do not like it. The society in which I live disgusts me; advertising sickens me; computers make me puke.
Burroughs
America is not so much a nightmare as a non-dream. The American non-dream is precisely a move to wipe the dream out of existence. The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set up by the non-dreamers.
The Future of Humanity
Houellebecq
Few beings have ever been so impregnated, pierced to the core, by the conviction of the absolute futility of human aspiration. The universe is nothing but a furtive arrangement of elementary particles. A figure in transition toward chaos. That is what will finally prevail. The human race will disappear. Other races in turn will appear and disappear. And human actions are as free and as stripped of meaning as the unfettered movements of the elementary particles. Good, evil, morality, sentiments? Pure ‘Victorian fictions.’ All that exists is egotism. Cold, intact, and radiant.
Burroughs
Man is an artifact designed for space travel. He is not designed to remain in his present biologic state any more than a tadpole is designed to remain a tadpole.
Youth and Dreams
Houellebecq
Adolescence is not only an important period in life, but that it is the only period where one may speak of life in the full sense of the word.
Burroughs
As a young child I wanted to be a writer because writers were rich and famous. They lounged around Singapore and Rangoon smoking opium in a yellow pongee silk suit. They sniffed cocaine in Mayfair and they penetrated forbidden swamps with a faithful native boy and lived in the native quarter of Tangier smoking hashish and languidly caressing a pet gazelle.
Influence
Houellebecq
I’ve lived so little that I tend to imagine I’m not going to die; it seems improbable that human existence can be reduced to so little; one imagines, in spite of oneself, that sooner or later something is bound to happen. A big mistake. A life can just as well be both empty and short. The days slip by indifferently, leaving neither trace nor memory; and then all of a sudden they stop.
Burroughs
I am not one of those weak-spirited, sappy Americans who want to be liked by all the people around them. I don’t care if people hate my guts; I assume most of them do. The important question is whether they are in a position to do anything about it. My affections, being concentrated over a few people, are not spread all over Hell in a vile attempt to placate sulky, worthless shits.
Sex
Houellebecq
But whereas Houellebecq sees a world of absolute bleakness, Burroughs sees a world of plenitude — filled with shit and bile and semen and stupidity and cruelty but full nonetheless. If Houellebecq offers a world heading to zero, Burroughs offers a world of infinite complexity.
On Society
Houellebecq
I don’t like this world. I definitely do not like it. The society in which I live disgusts me; advertising sickens me; computers make me puke.
Burroughs
America is not so much a nightmare as a non-dream. The American non-dream is precisely a move to wipe the dream out of existence. The dream is a spontaneous happening and therefore dangerous to a control system set up by the non-dreamers.
The Future of Humanity
Houellebecq
Few beings have ever been so impregnated, pierced to the core, by the conviction of the absolute futility of human aspiration. The universe is nothing but a furtive arrangement of elementary particles. A figure in transition toward chaos. That is what will finally prevail. The human race will disappear. Other races in turn will appear and disappear. And human actions are as free and as stripped of meaning as the unfettered movements of the elementary particles. Good, evil, morality, sentiments? Pure ‘Victorian fictions.’ All that exists is egotism. Cold, intact, and radiant.
Burroughs
Man is an artifact designed for space travel. He is not designed to remain in his present biologic state any more than a tadpole is designed to remain a tadpole.
Youth and Dreams
Houellebecq
Adolescence is not only an important period in life, but that it is the only period where one may speak of life in the full sense of the word.
Burroughs
As a young child I wanted to be a writer because writers were rich and famous. They lounged around Singapore and Rangoon smoking opium in a yellow pongee silk suit. They sniffed cocaine in Mayfair and they penetrated forbidden swamps with a faithful native boy and lived in the native quarter of Tangier smoking hashish and languidly caressing a pet gazelle.
Influence
Houellebecq
I’ve lived so little that I tend to imagine I’m not going to die; it seems improbable that human existence can be reduced to so little; one imagines, in spite of oneself, that sooner or later something is bound to happen. A big mistake. A life can just as well be both empty and short. The days slip by indifferently, leaving neither trace nor memory; and then all of a sudden they stop.
Burroughs
I am not one of those weak-spirited, sappy Americans who want to be liked by all the people around them. I don’t care if people hate my guts; I assume most of them do. The important question is whether they are in a position to do anything about it. My affections, being concentrated over a few people, are not spread all over Hell in a vile attempt to placate sulky, worthless shits.
Sex
Houellebecq
In a perfectly liberal sexual system, some people have an exciting erotic life; others are reduced to masturbation and solitude.
Burroughs
There is nothing more provocative than minding your own business.
Love
Houellebecq
Love binds, and it binds forever. Good binds while evil unravels. Separation is another word for evil; it is also another word for deceit.
Burroughs
Love? What is it? Most natural painkiller. What there is. LOVE.
Burroughs
There is nothing more provocative than minding your own business.
Love
Houellebecq
Love binds, and it binds forever. Good binds while evil unravels. Separation is another word for evil; it is also another word for deceit.
Burroughs
Love? What is it? Most natural painkiller. What there is. LOVE.
Daniel Coffeen @'Thought Catalog'
Yemen unrest: 'Dozens killed' as gunmen target rally
Unidentified gunmen firing on an anti-government rally in the Yemeni capital Sanaa have killed at least 45 people and injured 270, doctors told the BBC.
The gunmen fired from rooftops overlooking the central square in what the opposition called a massacre. President Ali Abdullah Saleh declared a national state of emergency but denied his forces were behind the shooting.
US President Barack Obama has condemned the violence, urging Mr Saleh to allow peaceful protests.
In a statement, he said those responsible for Friday's violence "must be held accountable".
Separately, France demanded an end to attacks "by security forces and armed pro-government groups... against people exercising their rights to free speech and demonstration", Reuters reports.
Yassin Noman, rotating president of Yemen's umbrella opposition group, was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying there was "no longer any possibility of mutual understanding" between the protesters and President Saleh, and he should resign.
Another opposition spokesman, Mohammad al-Sabri, accused Mr Saleh of presiding over a "massacre".
"This is part of a criminal plan to kill off the protesters, and the president and his relatives are responsible for the bloodshed in Yemen today," he told the Associated Press news agency.
Soon after the shooting in the capital, the country's Tourism Minister, Nabil al-Faqih, resigned in protest.A month of violence has gripped Yemen and demonstrators reportedly gathered in other cities across the country on Friday:
- In the city of Taez, security forces, tanks and armoured vehicles surrounded a square where protesters had gathered, and access to the square was blocked
- In Mahweet, protesters reportedly captured five gunmen who had been firing at protesters; they were found inside the governor's house along with weapons and spent ammunition, eyewitnesses told the BBC
- Tens of thousands attended the funeral of a protester in the southern port of Aden, AFP reports
The BBC's Abdullah Ghorab in Sanaa says the level of anger over the casualties is unprecedented among Yemenis.
The declaration of an emergency is being seen by some as an attempt to find legal cover for suppressing peaceful protests and blocking media coverage, our correspondent adds.
Photographs from Sanaa showed bloodstained people being carried through crowds.Other photos showed a row of dead bodies, with injuries which appeared to be consistent with bullet wounds, laid out in a mosque.
Doctors at a field hospital set up in the square, which protesters have named Taghyir (Arabic for "change") Square, issued an urgent call for blood, ambulances and medical supplies.
According to a statement from the field hospital, a total of 617 people were injured on Friday, 270 with gunshot wounds and 347 "poisoned by gas". Tear gas was fired by security forces during the day.
Abdul Malek Al-Yussefi, a doctor in the field hospital, told the BBC that what had happened in the square was a "crime in all possible terms".
"There was live ammo fired," he said.
"Many of the wounded are in critical condition. The injuries are mostly in the head and chest but there are also injuries all over the body. We have cases targeted randomly and others were clearly shot to be killed. Most of those killed were shot in the head and chest."
Announcing the state of emergency, President Saleh said the country's national defence council had decided to impose a curfew on "armed men in all cities".
"Security forces and armed forces will take responsibilities to maintain public security," he added.
Popular revolts
Yemen is one of a number of countries in the region that have seen unrest since the presidents of Egypt and Tunisia were ousted in popular revolts.
Thousands of people have turned out for regular demonstrations in cities including Sanaa, Aden, Taez, calling for corruption and unemployment to be tackled and demanding the president step down.
Some 40% of the population live on $2 (£1.20) a day or less in the country, and a third face food shortages.
The protests have often been met by riot police or supporters of President Saleh armed with knives and batons.
The president has been in power for 32 years, facing a separatist movement in the south, a branch of al-Qaeda, and a periodic conflict with Shia tribes in the north.
He has said he will not seek another term in office in 2013 but has vowed to defend his regime "with every drop of blood".
@'BBC'
The Wu master
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Patrick Kingsley @'The Guardian'
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