HADHRAMOUT: During its flight towards Al-Abr from Hadhramout in an inspection mission, a military helicopter crashed Saturday evening around 3:45 pm. On board of the plane were: 
-Staff Brigadier Mr. Ahmad Bin Ahmad Faraj, Deputy Chief of Staff 
-Staff Brigadier Mohammad Ahmad Ismail, Commander of the Military Eastern Region 
-Staff Brigadier Awad Mohammad Al-Sunaidy 
-Staff Colonel Ahmad Ali Sayfan 
-Staff Colonel Ahmad Noman Al-Mashriqi 
plus 12 other military officers including the plane crew members. All 17 were killed during the tragic incident. Even though the exact cause of the crash is still unknown, it is likely that bad weather was the reason behind the crash, although later investigations suggest that the actual reason was a technical error. A special committee was formed to investigate the incident. The top-ranking officers that died in the crash were among the most influential military leaders in the republic who have played a major role in the bringing the 1994 civil war to an end. 
The funeral of the dead is scheduled to take place today.

ADEN: The long-awaited verdict in the case of the 8 British and 2 Algerian fundamentalists is out. The Aden Appeal Court's judge Jamal Mohammad Omar passed on the sentences, which ranged from seven months to seven years imprisonment. The defendants are convicted for attempting to manage extremist operations of bombing and causing turmoil in Yemen. The court reached its decision after evaluating the evidence provided by the prosecutor which showed that "the 10 men attempted to form an armed gang intending to carry out murderous acts of sabotage and terrorism" as the judge stated. 

The families of the British defendants were disappointed at the verdict and claimed it was politically motivated and unfair. The mother of Abu Hamza, who had a sentence of three years in jail, cried while leaving the court room and called the verdict a "massacre". On the other hand, the general prosecutor, Saeed Al-Aqil showed his dissatisfaction with the sentence by calling it "too light". The prosecutors raised an appeal in an attempt to bring the imprisonment term to maximum 10 years. 
British Prime Minister Tony Blair send a letter to President Ali Abdullah Saleh regarding his concerns about the torture allegations. However, the president seemed to not have responded positively. 

Meanwhile, in a press release issued yesterday, the British Embassy in Sanaa issued a statement confirming that the British Government will not in any way interfere in the judicial process of other countries, and that PM Blair has not asked President Saleh to intervene in the judicial process in order to lighten the sentences passed. He described the earlier reports as "simply wrong." 
As for the Briton defendants, they got the following sentences: Malik Nassar Harhra seven years; Mohsin Ghailan seven years; Sarmad Ahmed five years; Shahid Butt five years; Mohammad Mustafa Kamel three years; Ayad Hussein time-served; Shaz Nabi time-served and Gholam Hussein time-served. The other two Algerians, Kamal Ali Mohammed and Amer Abdulrahman (James) who held fake French passports however, were both sentenced to 5 years in jail. 

SANAA: The skies between the two brotherly countries, Yemen and Kuwait are beginning to clear. The moments when relations were seen to definitely be going back to normal, started with the invitation of the Kuwaiti Foreign Minister to his Yemeni counterpart, Mr. Abdulqadir Ba-Jammal to visit Kuwait in May of this year. Then, we witnessed the historical day when the Yemeni Embassy in Kuwait was re-opened and re-started operating four months ago. Since then, relations between the two countries began to gradually normalize. The last such indication was the restart of the direct postal service and links for financial transactions which were cut after the 1991 Gulf war. Yemen Postal Organization's Manager, Abdullah indicated that the new services would resume today, Monday August 16. 

It took almost 9 years to have these services between Yemen and Kuwait operational again. As this is a step towards re-establishing normal bilateral relations between the two countries. 
Before the Gulf crisis, Kuwait had been one of the greatest supporters and donors to Yemen. There are thousands of Yemenis expatriates who are still living and working in Kuwait, and who would be among the happiest about this news. Both Yemen and Kuwait look further to normalize the relations and get it back on track after so long. 

SANAA: After approving him by the parliament as the only competitor against President Saleh, Najeeb Qahtan Al-Shaabi perhaps had a rosy thought that everything would go smoothly just as supposed to be. There is a fancy and well organized Law for General Elections. We also have the Supreme Elections Commission (SEC), with known duties and responsibilities. 

The start was good. Najeeb was able to pass the first barrier, which was the 10% parliament's approval. He might have thought that the first obstacle was the only one and that he could go forward. He started with a complementary statement to the Parliament, "I thank all my parliament members for trusting in me and approving my nomination." 
However, it was not long before Mr. Najeeb came back to earth. He began to see the true dimensions of the challenges ahead of him. He faced obstacles from all sides. Until today, the money essential for his campaign was not approved and handed over to him. He was not given the attention he thought he would get as the Law of General Elections states. But later, he found many barriers in front of him. The last one was from the SEC. The commission which is supposed to be the most helpful one for his campaign, turned out to be his nightmare. 

The clock is ticking, and time is rapidly running. People are every day becoming more convinced that the elections will turn into a referendum. How can't that be when they are not familiar with the other person is? They haven't seen his picture frequently. They haven't heard from him much. He has not even given a strong statement about what he plans to do. If he is still waiting for the campaign to start, then he should act fast. As time is not on his side. 
Mr. Najeeb's role in the success of these elections is very important. He should get all his rights to be able to call the elections fair. If he feels that he is not given his basic rights, he might withdraw his nomination. If that happens, the whole election process would be useless. He holds the main key for the success of the whole event. If he fails to fulfill his role, we will probably have a referendum. Even though the public believes that it would be better in financial terms, it would eventually kill any possibility for presidential competition within the forthcoming presidential 5-year period. 

See Al-Shaabi's Statement on 

SANAA: The Head of the Supreme Election Commission, Mr. Abdullah Barakat had confirmed the news that Independent foreign observers' from different countries will be monitoring Yemen's presidential election scheduled to be held next month. The observers main duty will be to make sure that the elections will be free and fair in all aspects. 
The monitoring delegations are expected to cooperate with the SEC to guarantee that the basic principles of voting will be appreciated. 

Depending on reliable sources, the number of voters are not in the expected levels. Hence the voting process will not be as complicated as the last parliamentary elections in 1997. Even though the opposition has decided to boycott the elections and ask the public not to participate in the elections, the authorities have shrug their shoulders and have shown no indication of cancelling the elections. On the contrary, the official press and media organs intensified their campaigns of calling the public to participate in the elections, which many see as pre-determined, especially that the only candidate is still struggling to get the budget that will finance his campaign. 

The majority of first world countries were discouraged by the refusal to endorse the nomination of 23 presidential nominees by the parliament, including the opposition's sole candidate. However, they are still pushing forward to have the elections for the sake of being a pioneer in the region to have such direct presidential elections.