Yemen Times

Families go broke treating their children’s Thalassemia

Mon, 14 May 2012 08:54:16 +0100

Ali Abdulwahab Thabet lives in Sana'a, to the west of Sixty Meter Road near Azzal Hospital. “I can remember when I was an ambitious person, dreaming of being rich and owning real estate. But now everything has changed dramatically. I have to face up to the fact that I have two sick sons. Mazen is 15 and Ayman is 17. They suffer from Thalassemia,” he said.

Urban litter: a government responsibility

Mon, 14 May 2012 08:54:16 +0100

The industrious garbage men in Yemen have proved to the public that the beauty of the capital city is in peril without their service, and the horrible stench left by piles of refuse is a constant reminder. In the opinion of the public, the government is held responsible for the disgusting accumulation of trash.

Government: Houthis’ conditions for the dialogue are unreasonable

Mon, 14 May 2012 08:44:24 +0100

SANA'A, May 13 - A source from the National Unity Government, composed of the ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh's General Peoples Congress (GPC) and the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), declared that the Houthis gave unreasonable conditions last Thursday to participate in the National Dialogue Conference (NDC).

Political unrest shuts down hotels in Yemen

Mon, 14 May 2012 07:51:38 +0100

Terrorist attacks, sporadic violent clashes dating back to 2008, and last year's political impasse have all deeply affected tourism in Yemen.

An Introduction to the Cleft Lip and Palate Center in Aden

Mon, 14 May 2012 07:30:11 +0100

On a cold winter night, in a remote area in Yemen, a soon-to-be father is anxiously pacing outside a room whereas the wife, in pain, is struggling to give birth to a new life. The baby comes into the world and the father is conveyed the good news. A smile comes over his face and he is impatient to hold his child. But the moment he takes the new born in his hands, the joyful expression on his face turns into a frown, confusion, and sadness. The child has been born with cleft lip and palate deformity.

Terrorist fishing in the Yemen

Mon, 14 May 2012 07:26:56 +0100

The Obama administration has doubled down on the use of drones to go after bad guys. How long until the blowback comes? Last month, according to news accounts, U.S. President Barack Obama agreed to widen the scope of drone attacks carried out against al Qaeda members in Yemen. Previously, strikes targeted only known individuals; henceforth, the CIA and the U.S. military’s Joint Special Operations Command will be permitted to target people whose patterns of behavior make them high-value targets. Many counterterrorism and Yemen experts think that the White House is opening up the gates of hell. They might be right, but I wish the alternatives they suggest were more convincing.

The takeaway from the Yemeni ‘underwear bomber’ plot

Mon, 14 May 2012 07:24:11 +0100

As the news of this week’s intelligence sting against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula became public, there was a seemingly odd contradiction. On the one hand, the president, speaking from Afghanistan, had just announced that, thanks to US military action, Al-Qaeda was “on the path to defeat”. In the words of John Brennan, “In short, Al-Qaeda is losing badly.” On the other hand, there was news of a new and potentially lethal plot – a perhaps undetectable bomb aimed at blowing up an airplane.

Escape from boredom and idleness

Mon, 14 May 2012 07:08:53 +0100

“Where are we chewing qat this weekend?” nineteen-year-old Mohsen asked his friends as Wednesday came to a close. Mohsen asked the same question that most Yemeni youth ask as they wonder how to pass their weekends. “There is nothing else to do or places to go to; so chewing qat and smoking shisha are the only way to pass the time we have,” Mohsen said.

Republican Guard Colonel killed and perpetrator flees

Mon, 14 May 2012 07:06:01 +0100

SANA’A, May 13 – Colonel Mohammed Hassan Al-Dobai, the Staff General of the Second Mountainous Infantry Republican Guard Brigade, was killed inside the Brigade headquarters on Friday evening. The headquarters of the brigade are located in Al-Khorafi military camp to the north of Sana’a.

Street cleaners in Sana’a rewarded

Mon, 14 May 2012 07:02:00 +0100

SANA’A, May 13 – Despite winning unprecedented accolades from local officials at an honor ceremony, municipality workers in Sana’a continue to pressure the government to accelerate procedures outlined in a March cabinet decree to hire them officially and under permanent contracts.

International advisors to help Yemen

Mon, 14 May 2012 06:51:40 +0100

SANA’A, May 13, The World Bank is working to appoint a group of international advisors to help the Yemeni government create job opportunities to support comprehensive development within the two-year transitional period.

Hundreds of schoolchildren dropouts return to school in Hadramout

Mon, 14 May 2012 06:47:31 +0100

MUKALLA, May 13 — In the second phase of a successful project and the first of its kind in Hadramout, four hundred and thirty-eight schoolboys returned to class after dropping out on account of their poverty–stricken families.

UNDP project to develop performance of Yemen’s institutions

Mon, 14 May 2012 06:39:08 +0100

SANA’A, MAY 13 – The Yemeni government, represented by the Ministry Of Planning and International Cooperation and the U.N. Developmental Program (UNDP), signed the project document, “Urgent Response For Development,” in Sana’a on Saturday, May 12.

Broadened military attacks to purge Abyan

Mon, 14 May 2012 06:32:35 +0100

ABYAN, May 13 — The Yemeni army on Saturday attacked Al Qaeda strongholds in Zunjubar and Lawdar cities in Abyan governorate in a bid to retrieve the two cities held by militants since May last year.

General Mohamed Ali Mohsen talks to Yemen Times:

Thu, 10 May 2012 08:03:11 +0100

General Mohamed Ali Mohsen, former leader of the Eastern Military region who aligned with Yemeni revolutionaries in 2011 against Saleh’s rule, was one of the first leaders to leave his office with no defiance of the decrees of the new President Abd Rabo Mansour Hadi.

Microfinance: media negligence and social ignorance

Thu, 10 May 2012 07:46:46 +0100

Alima Abdul Jalil, a woman living in Sana’a, first learned about microfinance services through a promotion campaign conducted by representatives of the National Microfinance Foundation (NMF) in Sana’a, who were visiting her neighborhood.

The Whispering Mosque of Taribah

Thu, 10 May 2012 07:37:11 +0100

For the old ones who still remember a Hadhramaut without cars and roads, a journey eastwards from Seiyun to the town of Taribah would be a brisk walk of at least 4 hours. Now, it is a quick car ride of 15 minutes.

Osama bin Laden didn’t escape subordinates’ criticism

Thu, 10 May 2012 07:24:29 +0100

The Osama bin Laden who emerges in the documents published online Thursday was not the typical homicidal political leader. Where Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin spurned the advice of honest advisers and increasingly cut themselves off from reality, bin Laden maintained to the end a surprisingly open and mutually critical exchange with his top aides.

The C.I.A.’s misuse of secrecy

Thu, 10 May 2012 07:24:29 +0100

In Yemen, Pakistan and elsewhere the C.I.A. has used drones to kill thousands of people — including several Americans. Officials have aggressively defended the controversial program, telling journalists that it is effective, lawful and closely supervised.

Army vs. police force

Thu, 10 May 2012 07:20:58 +0100

There is a fundamental difference between the army and the security or police force of any given country. The army is there to protect the country against outside threats, while the police are responsible for protecting citizens within its borders.