He says his president should go

BUOYED by the news from Tunisia, Yemen's opposition has been demonstrating too. In the capital, Sana'a, placard-wielding protesters called for removal of the long-serving president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. Internal dissent is nothing new in Yemen. But the sight of an estimated 10,000 demonstrators openly demanding the head of state's resignation is rare.

On Jan 23rd Mr Saleh's security force had arrested Tawakul Karman, a shrewd human-rights activist. That provoked an international outcry and stirred a series of protests in both Sana'a and the former capital, Taiz.

Mr Saleh seems rattled. He freed Ms Karman and a number of her fellow protesters. In an unusually apologetic speech he awarded pay rises to civil servants and soldiers and announced he was cuttting income taxes by half. That will do little for the 35% of the workforce that is jobless, but it may keep his forces loyal, at least for a while.

On the streets of Sana'a many Yemenis were still devoting the best part of their days to chewing qat, a mildly euphoria-inducing leaf, rather than striving to topple Mr Saleh's beleaguered government, which faces tribal unrest in the north, separatism in the south and al-Qaeda here and there.

“Yemen is not Tunisia”, Mr Saleh insisted. But a watershed in his capital may have been crossed.