By Adel al-Khader SAADA, Yemen (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Yemeni Shi'ite Muslims chanting "death to America" and "death to Israel" buried the remains of the founder of the armed Houthi rebel group on Wednesday, nine years after he was killed in fighting with government forces. Crowds braved sweltering temperatures and windy conditions in the rugged northern Yemeni mountains as they made their way to the burial site, where armed rebels were deployed in large numbers.

Gunmen kidnapped two foreign tourists believed to be South Africans from the central Yemeni city of Taiz on Monday, a security official said. The captives, a man and a woman, were seized while they were outside a hotel in the eastern part of the city, the official said, requesting anonymity. The unidentified kidnappers took their captives to an unknown destination, the official said. Although kidnappings of foreigners in Yemen are frequent, Taiz -- one of the country's major cities -- has not been the scene of hostage-taking.

The UN Security Council on Friday extended a welcome to the decrees issued by Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi to reshape the military, and called on all parties in Yemen to "work to ensure their prompt implementation."In a statement issued to the press here, the Security Council "affirmed that such steps were consistent with the Transition Agreement and Security Council Resolutions 2014 (2011) and 2051 (2012), and supported the goals and objectives of the National Dialogue Conference.""The members of the Security Council called on all parties in Yemen to support the p

By Mohammed Ghobari SANAA (Reuters) - Yemen's president removed the commander of the elite Republican Guard, a powerful political foe, from the military on Wednesday, state television reported, in an apparent move to unify the divided armed forces under his own control. The television read out orders by President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi appointing Brigadier General Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is the son of Hadi's predecessor, former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, as ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.