Bahrain's king fires some cabinet members

Bahrain's king ousted four cabinet members Saturday as a prominent opposition leader returned from exile and urged the country's rulers to back up reform promises with action.

The move came as other regimes in Algeria and Yemen continued to face protests.

In Bahrain, two members of the royal family were among the replaced cabinet members. But the prime minister - the king's uncle, whose more than four decades in power has made him a focus of protesters' calls for reform - remains in his post.

The return from self-imposed exile in London of Hassan Mushaima, a senior Shia figure, could be a new phase for an anti-government movement in the tiny Persian Gulf nation. He heads a Shia group known as Haq, which is considered more hard-line than the main Shia political bloc that has helped drive two weeks of protests.

Mushaima's speaking appearance, preceded by bursts of fireworks, electrified an already enthusiastic crowd packed into Pearl Square, the center of demonstrations.

Mushaima, who had been among a group of Shia activists accused of plotting to overthrow Bahrain's rulers, called on the government to be more responsive to protesters' demands for far-reaching political reforms.

"Dialogue . . . is not enough. Promising is not enough. We have to see something on the ground," he said.

Thousands of protesters carrying red-and-white national flags and chanting anti-government slogans marched through the square into the Bahraini capital's government and business district.

In the Algerian capital of Algiers, hundreds of demonstrators demanded the ouster of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika - but police were out in far larger numbers to counter the protesters. In Yemen, hundreds of thousands called for the president's ouster in the largest anti-government rallies yet.