Yemen was outraged as Gudbrand Stuve, 44, the former second secretary of the Norwegian Embassy in Lusaka, Zambia was killed on Saturday night in a kidnapping attempt in Sanaa by tribesmen from Jowf. Gudbrand along with his wife, 9-year-old son and two daughters were among a team of Norwegians and Danes who started a long journey. As the story goes, Stuve went at around 16:00 to the Ruwaishan car maintenance workshop to collect his jeep in order to secure a safe journey northward to Norway. However, his destiny was that he went out, but never collected his car, and never completed the journey. At around 16:30, while walking towards the workshop he and his son were abducted by 4 armed tribesmen who got him in a Hilux and drove towards Al-Jowf. In the Sanwan Area,80 kms northeast Sanaa, at around 20:00, a crossfire with another vehicle took place leading to the death of one soldier and Stuve. Reports were contradictory in regard to the identity of the other car. Some sources say that it was a military/security vehicle, other sources claim it belonged to tribesmen from Arhab. After the kidnappers unintentionally shot at the other vehicle, killing one of the people on the other vehicle, the tribesmen in the vehicle retaliated by showering the kidnappers with bullets resulting in the instant death of Stuve with a fatal bullet in the head in front of his son's eyes. On the other hand, Mrs. Stuve requested that she flies back to Norway as soon as possible, hence she along with her two daughters and son left Yemen yesterday night heading for Norway via Frankfurt. A number of prominent figures in the government and members of the Norway and Danish groups. The corpse was left in Sanaa for further investigation. Analysts predict that the conference to be held in Bahrain to lift the travel ban among other issues will be affected by this development. Security forces have surrounded the tribal area (Sinwan/Jowf) of the kidnappers. Complete coverage on Interview Page.

The Syrian President Hafiez Al-Assad died last Saturday afternoon at the age of 69. He had been President since 1971. Soon after his death, the Syrian Parliament met to amend article 83 of the Syrian Constitution so that the president has to be at least 34 years old. Previously, the constitution stated that the president must be at least 40 years old.
Born in 1930, Al-Assad showed interest in public issues during the period which witnessed the Second World War. He participated in the demonstrations against the French Occupation as well as in the political activities to attain independence which was achieved on April 17th 1946. He took over various positions in the government.
The announcement of his death prompted different reactions from all over the world. President Saleh expressed his deep sorrow for the death of Al-Assad and described him as" one of the greatest Arab leaders".The American President Bill Clinton described Al-Assad as courageous regardless of their different views. Political analysts think that the death of Al-Assad will affect Mideast politics, particularly the Mideast peace process. Al-Assad will be laid to rest on Tuesday, June 13. A good number of Arab as well as international leaders, including President Ali Abdullah Saleh, are expected to attend his funeral.

After a successful visit to Germany, President Saleh arrived yesterday to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and started his discussions with Saudi Leader, H.M. King Fahd Bin Abdulaziz in Jeddah. After the 2-day official visit, President Saleh is expected to travel tomorrow to Damascus to attend the funeral of late Syrian President, Hafez Al-Assad.
In regard to the President's visit, Yemenis are all cross-fingered hoping for a lasting resolution of the border dispute between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, and hence normalizing all aspects of the relationship. Analysts predict that Yemen is now as close as ever to reaching an agreement with its neighbor. Border demarcation will be on top of the agenda of the meetings although there will be discussions about various other issues.
It is well-known that Yemen opposes any proposal of resorting to the International Court of Justice as it believes that the issue can be resolved in a brotherly manner.
Normalization of relations is expected to lead to the resumption of financial aid, permitting Yemeni labor of going back to Saudi Arabia, and increasing economic cooperation. This is definitely why Yemen is looking at this visit with hope and anxiety.

Ali Al-Olufi, 60, Chief Editor of Al-Ra'i Al'am newspaper, was announced dead at 10:15 yesterday after he was taken in the early morning hours to Thawrah Hospital's intensive care unit, where he died after severe heart attack symptoms. Al-Olufi was among the bravest and most influential journalists thanks to his courageous stand during his profession as the editor of Al-Rai Al'am newspaper. In the 1970s, he was influenced by the ideas of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, but later he left it in order to have his own party, which he failed to found. He was more than once imprisoned for assisting prisoners to escape the rule of the Imam Ahmed in the 1950s and early 1960s. He was considered among the most active revolutionary Yemenis. He was appointed as a member in the premier council and a general manager in the ministry of local administration. He was among the founder members of the current ruling party, People's General Congress, which he resigned from later in 1989. In 1996, he was honored for being among the individuals who defended the labor sector's rights, as he was the first to call for a vacation on the occasion of May 1st, Labor Day. His critical articles in the last years have aroused a lot of complaints and debates. However, his calls against corruption and mismanagement were appreciated by the public extensively. We, as Yemen Times, present our condolences to his family and newspaper staff.

The case of the serial murderer, Adam is still the event of the hour among the people. People believe it may be one of the most complicated ever experienced in Yemen. New developments show that motivations of the crimes might go beyond sex or prostitution. Some speculations indicate that the crimes are linked to clandestine networks trading with human body parts.
Reports of the forensic medicine specialists indicated that the number of victims was more than two; Zainab and Hossn. The reports added that a body with the same characteristics matching with those of Yasmeen, who is believed to be one of the victims, was recovered. The court decided to add two German experts to the board of investigators along with two officials from the Criminal Investigation and the Intelligence. Some professors who were members of the board of investigators have been suspended after the serial murderer Mohammed Adam Omar Isaac confessed that they were among his accomplices. The German experts are, Wolfgang Bach, Professor of Forensic Medicine at DŸsseldorf University and his assistant Professor Kal who are helping in the investigations at the request of the court. The court accepted a request by the defendant lawyer Dr. Mohammed Al-Khateeb to meet his client. Advocate, Al-Baghdadi described what happened between "Nada", one of the reported victims who has recently appeared, embracing her sister warmly inside the court- room as a farce scene. Advocate Al-Deilami said that he would prove that the story of "Nada" was a mere fabrication. DR. Al-Khateeb expected that the case would take a different trend. Below is the report of the technical team assigned by the parliament to inspect the morgue.
The court adjourned Saturday's sitting to Wednesday to listen to reports of the technical team. The German experts met yesterday with Minister of Interior and discussed how they would help in this regard.
Students' advocate, Al-Adeemi demanded interrogation of Sanaa university rector as a party in the case. Yemen's interior minister Hussein Mohammed Arab refuted the killer's claims of killing 16 girls, some were students at t he faculty of medicine and others from outside the university.
Mr. Arab told the 26 September newspaper that Adam must have had accomplices who helped him commit his crimes inside t he faculty. The interior minister confirmed that information given by the murderer on crimes he had committed outside Yemen was baseless. Investigations and cooperation with Suddenness Interior Ministry proved that Adam had not been to any country other than Yemen. He concluded that since 1993, 59 girl students have left their study at the medicine faculty and all of them are found to be leading their normal life except 9 of them. More Details on Reports Page.

The Yemen Journalists Syndicate (YJS) celebrated last Friday 9th June the Yemeni Day of the Press and honored its early pioneers who headed consecutively the chairmanship of syndicate activities in Yemen. IDs for working journalists were given to those whose files met the conditions.
At the beginning of the festival Mr. Abdul Bari Taher, the ex-chief of the Syndicate spoke about earlier demands that he forwarded to the authorities, namely: Correction of registration tables, defending press liberties which are violated continuously. Many journalists were beaten he said. He added that the authorities are concentrating on journalists and their activities much more than those who commit crimes, including killers.
Mr. Taher stressed that these violations be checked so that press liberties shall prevail. Mr. Salem Ba Jamil, who is considered one of the founding members of the journalists' union activities since 1976 under the leadership of Abdulla Al-Wusabi, made an address. He spoke about democratic activity and its relation with press liberties and pluralism, which widely opened the way for the emergence of numerous newspapers with a wide range of orientations, affiliations and names.
The list of honored journalists included Ahmed Qassem Dahmash, Abdulbari Taher, Zaki Taher, Mohamed Radman, and Ahmed Al-Hubaishi.
At the end of the festival, late Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Saqqaf was awarded Syndicate membership ID no. 1. Ex-syndicate Chairman, Mr. Abdulbari Taher was also given the membership ID card no. 1. The surprise of the festival was Brigadier Mohamed Ali Al-Akwa's speech, which raised a lot of questions about the freedom of press in Yemen. He touched on the limitation forced upon the freedom of press and emphasized the government's oppressions against the press. He called upon the media to steadfastly confront corruption and the deviations of government that are haunting the Yemeni society. The festival was attended by tens of journalists and chaired by chairman of the journalist's syndicate, Mr. Mahboob Ali.