A agreement of cooperation between Yemen and UNICEF for the period 1999/2001 was signed by the Ministry of Planning and international agency. According to the agreement, UNICEF will support health, primary education, public awareness, and social activities in Yemen with $7.6 Million. The agreement mainly aims at promoting children's rights in Yemen.

 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta will assign six epidemiologists or public health specialists for approximately three months each, beginning in mid-January 1999. The CDC consultants will be accompanied by qualified Yemeni counterparts with responsibility for AFP surveillance. These Yemeni helth workers will be trained to be able to continue the work after the departure of the CDC consultants.
CDC will cover all expenses for the international travel and per diem of the CDC consultants.
Adequate means of in-country transportation will be provided for the CDC consultants and their national surveillance counterparts as well as per diem expenses and other local costs for national staff by the Ministry of Health.

 

In a formal statement, the General Secretary of the Federation of Popular Forces Party and the Opposition Coordination Council have condemned the declaration of forming a new, "temporary command team for the Federation. The statement condemns the interference by the authorities in the internal affairs of political parties. The Opposition Coordiantion Council has declared its solidarity with the party regarding this issue.

 

A meeting to update the Campign to Fight Malaria will be held at the Ministry of Public Health on January 7. In this meeting, donors from WHO and other international organizations supporting the campaign will be informed about the efforts that have been done in fighting malaria all over the country until now.
The Campaign to Fight Malaria has been supported with nearly $6 million by the WHO, UNICEF, the World Bank, Japan, the Netherlands, and others.

 

The Yemeni-Egyptian Supreme Committee will hold its Fifth session after Eid Al-Fitr in Cairo. The session will be headed by the prime ministers of the two countries. Before the session, the preparatory committee, headed by the ministers of trade, will discuss signing new project agreements to promote bilateral relations between the two countries.

 

After publishing an article attacking the Saudi Regime, publication of Al-Ray Al-Aam weekly newspaper was stopped on Thursday December 26, '98 by the Ministry of Information. The Yemeni Journalists Syndicate has condemned this action, regarding it as an attempt to violate press freedom in the country.

 

The Education Office in Sanaa is organizing regular meetings during the Holy Month of Ramadhan. The meetings are attend by official from the Education Office and some school headmasters.
The meetings aim at promoting educational work and solve education problems in Yemen.

 

The Technical Committee of the Supreme Council for Improving Exported Goods is preparing for Yemen's participation in the Khartoum's 16th Exhibition held from February 17 to 28, 1999 in the Sudanese capital.

 

More than 15 persons are detained in the Hodeida Central Prison because of unpaid loans. They have to pay US $700,000 in order to be released. Some of them have spent 12 years in prison. The prisoners seize the opportunity of this Holy Month of Ramadhan and ask people to help them paying the loans they owed.