Southern Yemen exiled leader returns home

A leader of a failed secessionist rebellion in southern Yemen returned home on Monday after 18 years in exile and at a time when separatists are still demanding an independent state in the south.

"Mohammed Ali Ahmed will carry out contacts with opposition figures in the south with the aim of achieving a united southern stand," an aide said. Ahmed, an interior minister in a short-lived breakaway government in south Yemen in 1994, flew to the port of Aden from London after a stopover in Dubai, Yemeni news websites said. (Reuters)