The electoral registration committees in Mareb have been prevented of practicing their activities by a group of Mareb tribesmen. Tribal sources said tribesmen protested the changes of the voting centers. Some balloting centers were moved to remote areas. The registration committees are still trying to settle the matter and resume their activities.

In its session presided over by its speaker Sheik Abdullah Bin Hussein AL-Ahmar, the parliament has approved an agreement among eastern Arab countries to give Yemen more facilities in exchanging tourism and commercial activities with neighboring Arab countries.
The parliament has also approved the agreement of the Arab great free zone area and its execution program to enhance trade between Arab countries. Members of the parliament have also approved the final draft of the Child Rights Law.
The parliament also ratified the loan agreement for the engineering services project for roads which was signed between the government of Yemen and the Saudi Fund for Development valued at 22.5 million Saudi rials. The parliament discussed the loan agreement in the light of a report by the joint houses committees.
The parliament approved a number of other agreements including the development loan agreement to finance the water and sanitation project for urban centers valued at one USD 130 million. The parliament has discussed the objectives of the two agreements and heard the government's arguments.

BY FARUOK AL-KAMALI
TAIZ BURE, TAIZ
TAIZ-Organized by the Human Rights Information and Training Center (HRITC) and in cooperation with the Canada Fund Program for Local Initiatives, the second 2-day Training workshop for Journalists on Human Rights was concluded last Tuesday.
The 45 participants representing different Yemeni newspapers, and reporters of foreign media received lectures on human rights, press freedom, legal bars of journalist's job and practical training on how to defend themselves. A human rights guide was issued for journalists to provide them with knowledge on human rights issues in the Yemeni legislation and constitution. The workshop trainers were delivered by Dr. Abdullah Khaleel, Majdi Helmi, and Dr. Mohammed Al Mekhlafi.
Mr. Mahboob Ali, the chairman of the Yemeni journalists Syndicate, confirmed that there is a tied link between human rights, and press and the workshop represents an important massage for all governmental and non-governmental organizations to help promoting and qualifying Yemeni journalists .
Mr. Ezdeen Al Asbahi. chairman of (HRITC), told Yemen Times that the workshop is within the((HRITC) program to qualify specific groups of the society like teachers, lawyers, judges and pressmen and raising the human rights awareness among Yemenis. "Legal education is very important for journalists to convey these principles to others as well as defend themselves in publication issues". Al Asbahi stated.
In his speech, the Canadian ambassador to Yemen highlighted the significance of NGOs in the changes that have taken place in Yemen. "They are a powerful tool to sensitize communities to certain problems and to induce social change," he said.
He pointed out that Canada highly values the work of NGOs and is proud to support their efforts through the Canada Fund.
Canada's partnership with NGOs reflects our mutual commitment to making the world a safer place to live in..... the increase in our contribution in Yemen through the Canada Fund, from $150000 in 1999 to $300000 in 2000-01 and to $400000 last year and this year, lies within the scope of this logic," he stressed. He said that in partnership with various NGOs, a lot has been accomplished in terms of democratic development, human rights and living conditions. He added that the Canada Fund supported 13 projects last year, covering health services, education for children and access to drinking water.

The General Authority for Environment Protection organized a training course on planning environmental projects for 32 non-government organizations from Sept. 14 -19 in cooperation with the embassy of the Netherlands in Sana'a.
The course aimed at training organizations on how to plan projects, set budgets, integrating official and public efforts to raise environment awareness, and enhancing cooperation between NGOs and authorities.
The trainees represented 32 different non-government organizations from the capital secretariat, Hadramout, Aden, Dhamar, Taiz, Hodieda and Sana'a.

TAIZ- General People Congress (GPC) held on Thursday in Taiz an honoring ceremony to conclude the activities of the free medical camps that GPC had conducted through the last few months.
During the ceremony, Sheik Gaber Abduallah Ghaleb gave a speech in which he highly thanked all the sponsors, participants and workers in the medical camps that aim to render free medical services and lessen suffering of poor patients as well as improve citizens' health conditions.
He stressed that the GPC cherishes to continuously establish such camps in future.
Governor, Ahmed Abduallah al-Hagri invited in his speech all the political parties to compete in establishing such granted projects and medical camps, exalting the PGC's role in establishing free medical camps.
It is worthy to mention that GPC founded three free medical camps to cure patients, in Qadas, al-Barh and the central prison in Taiz respectively in which (14287) cases were healed and more than 4,010 operations conducted.
The overall cost of running those camps is YR30 millions.

TAIZ-Three Yemeni travelers, namely, Abdulqawi Shua'alan, Abdulrahman Nawass, Mohammed A. Abdulwakeel of the Qat Hazards Control Society-Taiz (QHCS), have conducted a 7-day walk trip (270 km) from Taiz to Sana'a. The trip which was organized under the slogan of "No Qat", aimed at raising awareness of Qat hazards and conveying a massage to the authorities in the capital, Sana'a to adopt a political decree on banning Qat. The travelers have distributed posters and publications on Qat hazards in some cities like Dhamar and Ibb on their way from Taiz to Sana'a.

TAIZ-Taiz governor, Mr. Ahmed Abdullah Al Hajri, inaugurated Friday Sept. 27 the First Tourist Festival on the occasion of the Tourism World Day. The exhibition which winds up today, includes photography show for tourist attractions in Yemen, tourist and hotel services, handicrafts and silver antiquities and typical agriculture nursery.
Sadiq Salah , Taiz Tourist office chairman told the Yemen Times this exhibition is being held within a number of tourist festivals on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the 26th Yemeni revolution which coincides with the tourism world day. These exhibitions aims at raising public awareness towards the importance of tourism in the development drive of the country. Taiz tourism festival was organized to promote tourist attractions in the governorate of Taiz as well as selling tourist programs and offering different tourist services.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh has received credentials of a number of Arab and foreign ambassadors to the country last week. Credentials were submitted by Mr. Mohammed Saeed Hammad al-Zaghabi as extra ordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador of the United Arab Emirates, Mr. Ghaw Bee Shing as ambassador of China, Mr. Robert van der Meulen as ambassador of the European commission, Mr. Ramon Answan Gharta as ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain, Mr. Rashed Bin Saeed al-Dosary as an ambassador of the Kingdom of Bahrain and Mr. Zasibikin Alexander Sergivitch of the Federal Republic of Russia.
The newly appointed ambassadors have conveyed the best wishes of their leaders to the president Ali Abdullah Saleh on the 40th anniversary of the 26 September revolution, confirming their keenness to further intensifying cooperation with Yemen.

Sisters Arab Forum for Human Rights (SAF) held on Wednesday 25 September a national meeting under a motto "Women Participation in Parliamentary Elections: Means or goal?"

The meeting concentrated on the importance of women's participation in the upcoming parliamentary elections. Ms Amal al-Basha, the Head of the SAF, emphasized in her speech that women should draw and feature the future by effective participation in elections as a voter and candidate.
"There is no real democracy without engaging women in the political field" she said.
Al-Basha warned of playing with women's votes through exploiting the high percentage of illiteracy among women, especially in rural areas.
"Today we blame all, the parliament, the Supreme Election Committee and all the political parties that hasn't included the female element in their agendas to represent them in any of the electoral committees. This comes against the constitution's principles that give equal opportunities to both men and women in the decision making. Democracy implies the representation of the nation but... aren't women part of this nation?" she asked.
She finally placed great stress on that women's' participation in the upcoming elections shouldn't be used as a means for political purposes.
Ms. Radhia Shamsheer concluded the meeting by explaining her personal experience, as the first woman who has become a member in one of the presidential election committees.

The Girls World Communication Center (GWCC) in cooperation with UNDP and Canada Fund Development Program for initiatives-Yemen, launched the first Internet forum for girls on Tuesday September 24.
The launching ceremony was attended by non-resident Canadian Ambassador to Yemen and the UNDP resident representative in Sanaa.
This project is part of the efforts of GWCC to provide education opportunities to females that were deprived of basic and higher education so as to develop their skills and overall abilities, boosting their chances of participating more effectively in the community.
The forum is the second project of its kind after the successful internet training course that was held and supported by UNIFEM for more than 100 females as well as for women working for a number of non-governmental organizations.