Saleh heads to US after stopover in London

Yemens President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is due to step down next month, headed for medical treatment in the United States on Saturday after a stopover in Britain, Yemeni and British officials said.Saleh, who had mistakenly been reported to have left Oman earlier this week, flew from the sultanate to Stansted airport, just outside London, Yemens state news agency Saba reported.In London, a Foreign Office spokesman confirmed that Salehs plane was scheduled to land at a UK commercial airport to refuel on the way to the United States.This is a routine event. Neither the president nor any of his party are expected to enter the UK, the spokesman said.Salehs flight was due to have left Stansted at 1500 GMT and continue on to New York after a one-hour refueling stop, a British source later told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.After months of deadly protests, the Yemeni leader finally signed a power transfer deal in November that effectively ended his three decades in power.He had been in Oman since last Sunday with his wife and five of his children amid mounting speculation about his future.Saleh suffered severe wounds from a bombing at the presidential palace in Sanaa last June after which he was treated in Saudi Arabia. He is scheduled to receive further treatment at a New York hospital.The US ambassador to Yemen, Gerald M Feierstein, said on Tuesday that Saleh had been granted a visa for purely medical reasons, but that his absence in the run-up to the election of his successor was in the interests of Yemen.