The US has asked Yemen to postpone the trial of the three US doctors. Reliable sources at the Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP) told Yemen Times Saturday that the US has requested the Yemeni authorities not to hurry up in trying the killer of the three US doctors at the end of December, Abed al-Kamel. According to the sources, the US believes there is some information which came out recently about the murder and might help in disclosing the compliance of the murderer and the people behind it. The Yemeni authorities have already informed the US that investigations into the murder have completed and that the case file will be shifted to court for the killer admitted his crime and therefore, the prosecution would be concerned with the criminal rather than the political aspect of the incident.
On the other hand, the Attorney General, Dr. Abdullah al-Ulufi allowed the YSP committee concerned with the assassination of their leader, Jarallah Omar to probe into the investigations' results carried out with Ali Jarallah, YSP leader's assassin. The committee obtained Saturday a copy of the investigations report.

ABDUH M. ASSABRI
YEMEN TIMES STAFF
A delegation from the United States Agency for International Development, USAID headed by Douglas Heisler, the Health Development Officer and James C. Carlson, Senior Program Officer are presently on a visit to Yemen for adding the final touches to reopen the USAID office in the country and to define future program opportunities.
In a press conference held on January 22 at the US Embassy in Sana'a, Mr. Douglas said that his agency is to offer USD 10 million to the benefit of the Poverty Reduction Strategy.
Finance matters will be dealt with by the delegation after its departure for Washington.
The success of USAID relies in large part on a commitment by the U.S. to support Yemen in this transition. USAID will contribute to these efforts by helping with basic healthcare, family planning services, and improved access to education at all stages, particularly for Yemeni women.
During 2003, the USAID intends to continue and expand its health and education activities to serve a greater number of communities in Yemen. Resources may also be used to fund program monitors.
This emphasizes the importance that the US government accords to development as a necessary companion to security measures.
Starting in the 1960s, USAID realized numerous development programs in Yemen such as, road building, water projects, building of schools, agricultural research and mineral surveys, NGO development, legislative and judicial reform, university scholarships and health training.
Yemen's economic and political development is essential for achieving the key U.S. goal of stability in the Gulf region. Threatened by multiple and severe development challenges, Yemen requires targeted interventions and reforms in order to achieve political and economic stability. Yemen is critical to U.S. counterterrorism interests in the post-September 11th environment, and the United States will work with the Government of Yemen to deal with terrorists on Yemeni soil and to deter terrorists from seeking refuge in or transiting through Yemen.
Despite the success that the government of Yemen is achieving with its stabilization program, major economic and development challenges remain. The Republic of Yemen is among the 25 poorest and least developed countries in the world.

Yemeni fishermen appealed Tuesday to responsible authorities to quickly interfere and secure the release of their fishing boats held by Eritrean authorities and to protect them against what they described as Eritrean harassment they are being exposed to in the fishing areas shared by two countries.
An Eritrean guard unit has held a number Yemeni fishermen boats in the shared fishing areas and forced them to go to Eritrean port of Mosawa , and detained them there, confiscating their boats and their contents. The fishermen confirmed that they were fishing in al-Gibal islands region.
Al-Wahda newspaper mentioned last Wednesday that the Eritrean authorities had earlier seized five Yemeni boats in Asab. Last week those authorities had withdrawn permissions granted to more than 300 Yemeni boats working in Mosawa areas and prevented them to enter Eritrea.

The Yemeni Germany Graduates' Conference was held on January 23 in Aden in the presence of tens of Yemenis who graduated from Germany. The event is held annually and this year it has been held in Aden under the title 'Yemen-German Dialogue' for winning Yemen reputation as a beautiful and good country. As for Yemen's image in Germany, Kampiz Ghawami noted that Yemen has enjoyed a good reputation on the part of the Germans. He also indicated that the German government's attitude towards Yemen is highly positive.
A press conference was also held last Wednesday 22 January in Sana'a in the presence of Dr. Kampiz Ghawami, the Chairman of World University Service (WUS) and Mr. Jedow Chebch, the Director of the Yemeni-German House for Cooperation and Culture. This came after the German Delegation toured Yemen in preparation to hold the German Graduates Conference.
Dr. Mohammed Zain Aidaroos, the Public Relations Manager at Aden University and the Chairman of German Graduates Association in Yemen said, "This is a joint activity between the German Graduates Association and the World University Service based in Germany as well as the Yemeni-German House for Cooperation and Culture and the German Embassy in Sana'a."
On his part, Dr. Kampiz Ghawami talked about the objectives and tasks of the WUS, which was founded in 1920. He stressed on the fact that WUS supports the right to education in all stages. He pointed out that there is a number of students study in Germany including Asia, Africa and Latin America.
He said that the number of the Yemeni graduates from Germany for the years 2001 and 2002 has reached 350.
The WUS also supports students by providing them with round-trip flight tickets and around 350 Euro yearly along with material support estimated at 10,000 Euro.
When asked about the two Yemenis currently held captive in Germany, Dr. Ghawami said that he hoped that the issue would be resolved soon and expressed his confidence that this issue wouldn't affect the strong bilateral relations between Yemen and Germany.

RIDHWAN AL-SAQQAF
ADEN BUREAU CHIEF
Under the auspices of the Prime Minister, Dr. Abdulqader Bajammal and Mr. Yahya Mohammed Ashoabi, the Minister of Higher Education and the National Bank representatives, a workshop on ameliorating the higher education concluded last Thursday 23.
Preparing future strategy for the higher education was on top of the agenda. The overall cost of this project has totaled USD 5.300.000 from the World Bank and the government of Yemen to Aden and Sana'a Universities.
The implementation period will extend from 2003 to 2006. The new project aims basically at improving the capability of the general education and qualitative university education.
Participants in the workshop focused on the main objectives of the project, executive plans, and its significance to promote the institutional competence in both Sana'a and Aden universities particularly in colleges like, medicine, science, education, and administrative human rights.
During the workshop, attendees as well as participants have been informed on methods of running loans offered by the World Bank and the government of Yemen in order to make a success of this project.
The 2-day workshop was attended by Yemeni private and public university rectors, deans, representatives from international organizations, the World Bank, the British Council, and the UNESCO. Participants recommended expanding the new project in order to include other of the Yemeni universities, making use of the loan for the benefit of improving the Yemeni university competence and linking the higher education strategy to the economic and social development plans.
Participants also put great stress on coordination between that strategy and the general education strategy.
An emphasis was also on giving a chance to making more dialogues and discussions with the concerned bodies.
On his part, Dr. Saleh Basorah, the Reactor of Aden University said that the university had witnessed a number of holding vital activities such as, opening dental clinics, holding the Italian Medical Conference, and inaugurating the higher education project.
The university of Aden is now seeking to open a number of laboratories at the university for the benefit of academic studies.
The inaugural ceremony of the central laboratory for the scientific researches was attended by the Deputy of the Higher Education Minister, Mr. Mohammed Bin Mohammed Motahhar, Dr. Saeed Jabali, Vice Reactor of Aden University for Academic Affairs.

The oriental symposium and workshop on the strategy of poverty alleviation was concluded last Thursday at the Ministry of planning and Development.
The 2-day symposium discussed a number of factors pertaining to education, health, civil society and Uganda trial of implementing this strategy. The symposium was concluded with results and recommendations and defining fields of cooperation and assistance that were the main goals of holding this workshop.
The symposium had been inaugurated on Wednesday by the ministry of planning word delivered by the vice minister Abdul Rahman Tarmoom, followed by the Oxfam word presented by Mrs. Rajni Khanna, then the word of woman national committee delivered by Mrs. Horyan Mashhoor, the word of the civil society organization presented by Mrs. Ramzyah al-Eryani and concept, preparation, goals factors and budgetary issues.
Representatives of the international organizations, representatives of civil society organizations and a number of journalists attended the symposium.

Tribal sources reported on Saturday that mika 25 military unit has started shelling one of the houses of the kidnappers of a young man called Tareq al-Sayani, who was kidnapped from Sanhan area, to gain personal interests from Yemeni government.
This comes after the 24-hour ultimatum given by President Ali Abdullah Saleh to release the boy was over.
The source added that members from al-Zaidi tribe continue to hold Tareq al-Sayani, a tribesman belonging to the Sanhan tribe, who was kidnapped from Sanhan area. The kidnappers objectives were to gain personal interests from Yemeni government.
On the other hand Sanhan tribe set up a checkpoint to prevent Khawlan tribes from passing through until the kidnapped returns and let arbitration in the hand of Sanhan tribe to which the Yemeni president belongs.
Security authorities arrested people belonging to al-Zaidi Sarwah-Marib and were put in prison as hostages until the boy is released. Khawalan sheikhs attempted to give Sanhan tribes arbitration guns against removing the checkpoints to put an end to the case.

Joint Meeting Parties held a normal meeting on Tuesday Jan. 20 2003 in Sana'a headed by Dr. Kasem Salam, secretary of the leadership of Ba'ath Party attended by all JMP representatives.
A national committee was formed to follow up the current investigations into Jarallah Omar assassination, assistant general-secretary of the Yemeni Socialist party in a away to guarantee the investigation processes and in correct way.

The current investigations into Jarallah Omar assassination disclosed last week a hit-list that includes 45 figures that extremist Islamic elements want to target among which are secretaries-general, politicians, intellectuals, pressmen as well as religious personalities that extremists had accused being secular and Masonic.
In spite of claiming to notify those on the hit-list, the authorities of investigations have not warned them.

Aiming to build a democratic awareness among the society through supporting women and activating their political rights in voting and nomination, Arab Human Rights Foundation, under Dr. Waheeba Fare'e, Minister of Human Rights' patronage , and in collaboration with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, held on Sunday Jan. 26, 2003 a discussion meeting on the difficulties and challenges female candidates face and how they can be overcome.
Secretaries-general of political parties and the heads of constituencies for the parties participated in that event by exposing their support for women political participation as well as all the obstacles that women face besides giving the procedures that parties should take in favor of supporting female candidates, either those independent or those partisan affiliation.
In addition, a number of women, who had been nominated during 1993-1997, participated, along with local council candidates, to display their previous experiences for the candidates of the next election to benefit from.
Moreover, international and national organizations and governmental departments and democracy activists in the country participated as well.
There were working groups to search for whatever that could support female candidates in the electoral campaigns and to discuss the points of view of parties, candidates, media, and national and international organizations...etc.

A memorandum of understanding was last Sunday Jan. 19 signed at the headquarters of the elections supreme committee by Yemen and the European Commission upon which the European side would offer euro 455 thousand to the elections committee as contribution to support the parliamentary elections in April 2003.
Mr. Alawai Mashour, in charge of foreign in the Electoral Supreme Committee confirmed to Yemen Times that the was part of supporting the election process in Yemen implemented by the UNDP. This grant will be specified for enhancing the institutional ability of ESC in preparation for the next elections 2003.
The memorandum was signed for the Yemeni side by Mr Khalid al-Sharif, chairman of the ESC and Abdulrahman Tartoum, deputy of the minister of planning and development.

A delegation of the Pakistan-based United Bank Ltd. (UBL) headed by Chief of International Operations, Mr. Aman Siddiqui has visited the Yemen-Gulf Bank last week. The delegation members, which also included UBL-UAE General Manager Mr. Shaukat Mir and Mr. Anwar UBL Country Manager, expressed their great satisfaction with its level of cooperation and relations with the Yemen-Gulf Bank. During a buffet dinner in honor of the delegation in the presence of a number of European and Arab ambassadors and high-ranking figures, Mr. Maqbool Shamsi expressed his great desire to increase cooperation with the UBL, which also seemed keen to enhance its relations and partnership with the Yemen-Gulf Bank.
It is worth mentioning that UBL is one of the largest commercial banks in Pakistan. With almost forty three years of good standing to its valued clients, it has stood the test of time, producing assets of over Pakistani Pakistan Rupees 155 billion (USD 2.6 billion). The bank offers services through a wide network of over 1,000 domestic branches all over Pakistan and 15 overseas branches -including several branches in UAE- as part of global network.

ADEN - The board of directors of the Worldwide marketing organization and prestigious marketing, communication and culture professionals from America and Europe have nominated Abdul Wahed Mohammed Noman & Sons headed by its Chairman Khalid Abdul Wahed Mohammed Noman to receive the "Worldwide Quality Award XXl century". This recognition is granted every year to those companies or professionals that have achieved and outstanding performance due to the quality of their products and services.
The Award ceremony will be held at a dinner party at the NH Geneva Hotel in the city of Geneva, Switzerland March 29th 2003 distinguished personalities from America, Africa, Europe and Asia as well as the board of directors of the Worldwide marketing organization will be present at the event.
This international recognition has been created to stimulate the growth of companies and professionals that in spite the difficulty of the world's Economic and Financial processes, have maintained high levels of quality in their products and professionalism in their services.

Yemen's cabinet had adopted on 10 August 2002 a decision nationalizing the Ardh al-Ganatain Dairy & Beverages company in Sana'a and to be affiliated to the Yemeni Economic Establishment without compensation and without a pledge to preserve its stockholders rights under pretext that the company is indebted to the Yemeni Bank. During all the time till this date owners of the company have been engaged in discussion with the government on the issue but failed to reach agreement reversing the decision whose implementation has now become imperative.
AN economic source told Yemen Times that the council of ministers decision was taken even without consulting the company's officials to the reality and without giving genuine reasons for the nationalization. The source added that when Dr Abdulkarim al-Eryani was a prime minister he had given his directives to form a committee for solving the dispute between the company and the bank but the bank. However, the bank continued in driving its plan until the issuance of the cabinet decision of nationalization last October.
The source has made it clear that " I think the reason behind the nationalization is that the Paris Club exempted Yemen from debts as 65% of the factory's debts was exempted"
"The company in question is a stock company shared by a number of businessmen from Sana'a, Aden and Taiz and employs around 600 workers" he added.

Four people killed

Unidentified persons from Ibb governorate had on Wednesday killed four people and injured seven others as they had ambushed a car carrying a number of people from Bani Saif tribe at Jabal Muath district.
Sources say the incident was a result of a dispute between the families of Bani Saif and Bani Rajih, both from the same region.

The Sudanese foreign ministry had last week refuted a statement by the Eritrean government on meetings of Sudanese-Yemeni-Ethiopian tripartite statement recently held in Khartoum.
A spokesman for the Sudanese foreign ministry said the Eritrean regime distributed a forged text of the statement among many circles. He added that the Sudanese foreign ministry confirmed that the final statement of the three countries' meeting was read out and distributed at a press conference before the Eritrean authorities distribution of its fake version.
The spokesman added that behavior of Eritrea represented continuation of a series of 'lies and allegations' it used to follow and aimed at challenging aims of the tripartite meeting and its noble intentions for realizing security and stability for the region's peoples.