Yemen's Nobel Winner To Donate Prize 'To The People'

Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakul Karman flashes a victory sign outside her tent on Tagheer Square in Sanaa on October 7.

Yemeni human rights campaigner Tawakkul Karman, a joint winner of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, has reportedly promised to donate her share of the Nobel award money to the public treasury in Yemen.

A Yemeni opposition website, Mareb Press, quoted Karman as telling gatherers at a ceremony in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, late on October 8 that her half-million-dollar prize money would be given to the people of Yemen after President Ali Abdullah Saleh steps down from power.

Karman reportedly said the donated money should prompt a hunt for public funds "plundered by the Saleh regime."

Saleh announced on October 8 that he was willing to step down from power "in the coming days." But he gave no concrete plan for the transition.

For the past nine months, Yemen has been largely paralyzed by protests against Saleh's 33-year rule.

compiled from agency reports