Yemeni president steps down

Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi resigned on Thursday, just days after Houthi rebels battled their way into his presidential palace, plunging the unstable Arab country deeper into chaos.

Hadi, a former general, blamed the Houthis' control of Sanaa for impeding his two-year-long attempt to steer Yemen toward stability after years of secessionist and tribal unrest, deepening poverty and U.S. drone strikes on Islamist militants.

The Houthi movement said it had no official reaction as yet to Hadi's resignation, but urged Yemenis to stage mass rallies to show their support on Friday afternoon.

The departure of Hadi, a southerner, has caused anger in Aden, a key port city where officials reacted by telling security officers to only obey orders issued in Aden, an implicit snub to institutions in the north, where Sanaa is.

Earlier in the week, Aden closed its ports briefly in protest against Houthi militia attacks on state institutions in Sanaa, calling them an "aggressive coup on the president personally and on the political process as a whole".

Hadi's decision marked an abrupt turnaround from Wednesday, when he said he was ready to accept Houthi demands for a bigger stake in constitutional and political arrangements.