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International-UN-NGOs

UNEP picks seven environment champions including Yemeni, Sudanese

2008-01-29

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) chose seven environmentalists, including a Yemeni and a Sudanese, as this year's "Champions of the Earth" for spearheading efforts to advance sustainable development and combat climate change, it was announced here on Monday. The champions, who will receive their prize at a ceremony scheduled for April 22 in Singapore, are Abdul-Qader Ba-Jammal, the Secretary-General of the Yemen People's General Congress, Balgis Osman-Elasha, a senior researcher at Sudan's Higher Council for Environment Natural Resources and Atiq Rahman, the Executive Director of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies. The other four champions are the Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark, Prince Albert II of Monaco, former US Senator Timothy E. Wirth and the former Energy and Environment Minister of Barbados Liz Thompson.

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Arabia

Yemen Names Ten New Ministers In Cabinet Reshuffle

2007-04-06

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh appointed ten new ministers into the cabinet on Thursday, five days after he named a new prime minister in a cabinet reshuffle that yielded to pressure from international donors for reforms. Among the key changes, Finance Minister Sayf al-Asali was moved to the industry and trade ministry. He was replaced by Nouman al-Souhaibi, who was previously the head of the tax authority, according to a presidential decree carried by the state TV. On Saturday, Saleh named his electricity minister, Ali Mujawar, as prime minister to replace Abdul-Qader Ba-Jammal, who has been criticized by donor countries for weak policies against corruption. Key posts in the cabinet however were not changed, including foreign affairs, oil and minerals, defence, interior and informtion. This is Yemen's second government shake-up in 14 months.

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Arabia

Militants Planned to Kill Yemen's PM, Court Told

2005-05-17

Eight militants on trial in Yemen over alleged plots to blow up Western embassies in the Arab state had also planned to assassinate top government officials including the prime minister, prosecutors told a state security court yesterday. Chief Prosecutor Saeed Al-Aaqil told the court the suspects — five Yemenis, two Syrians and an Iraqi — planned to kill Prime Minister Abdul-Qader Ba-Jammal as well as the defense and interior ministers, the chairman of the intelligence services and a presidential adviser. He said the allegations were based on documents found in the personal computer of the prime suspect, Anwar Al-Jilani, a 20-year-old Iraqi. Aqal said the group planned to attack the headquarters of Yemen's intelligence services, the Parliament, state radio and television stations, the central bank and civil aviation offices. He said the eight suspects were members of an organization named Katakb Al-Tawhid. The word "Tawhid" always makes me think "Zarqawi." The other suspects are Mohammad Abdelwahhab Bakri, a 24-year-old Syrian, and his brother Ahmad, 22, as well as five Yemenis: Khaled Al-Batati, 23, Salah Othman, 33, Omran Al-Faqih, 31, Abderrahman Basira, 25, and Majed Mizan, 21. Defense attorney Abdel Aziz Samawi condemned the allegations in court yesterday, asserting that "the documents are fabricated by the representative of the public prosecutor". "Lies! All lies!" Samawi called on the judge not to bow to "foreign intelligence services and the United States in an attempt to persuade them that we are combating terrorism."

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Arabia

Yemen Foils Car Bomb Attacks

2003-10-01

From Arab News, grain of salt required, but there was a travel advisory about ’unspecified dangers’ in Yemen a couple days ago. Yemen has foiled car bomb attacks against three embassies in the capital Sanaa as a previously unknown Islamist group calling itself the “Qaeda of Jihad” threatened to attack Yemeni officials and foreign interests. Security forces seized three vehicles packed with explosives intended to be used in bombing the US, UK and German embassies, a Western diplomat in Sanaa told Arab News yesterday. The diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Yemeni Interior Ministry alerted embassies of Western countries after the seizure of the cars over the weekend. He said the would-be attackers used fake diplomatic license plates for the three cars that were intercepted in different parts of Sanaa. "How'dja know I wasn't a diplomat?" "It might have been the turban..." "Dammit! I coulda been a Pak diplomat!" "And the automatic weapons..." "Still coulda been a Pak diplomat." "Uhhh... You ain't, are you?" A Yemeni weekly reported yesterday that five Islamist organizations announced in a statement that they had merged to set up a group called the “Qaeda of Jihad”, and threatened to stage attacks against top Yemeni officials and foreign interests. “The Al-Qaeda organization has been strategically restructured to be named the Qaeda of Jihad, the international organization for fighting Zionists and crusaders,” the Al-Balagh newspaper quoted the statement as saying. The statement said the new group was formed by “merging Al-Qaeda with the Egyptian Jihad Organization, the Yemeni Jihad Organization, the (Yemeni) Aden-Abyan Islamic Army, the Organization of Descendants of Companions (of the Prophet Muhammad) in the land of the Arabian Peninsula, and the Algerian Al-Dawa Al-Salafia group.” I'd take that as a sign they're all attrited by now. Another year of action in the WoT and the remnants will be merging with the Sanaa Rotary Club... The new group threatened to stage “wide-ranging assassinations that target Prime Minister (Abdul-Qader Ba-Jammal) and members of his Cabinet.” Dubbing foreign diplomatic missions and companies “legitimate targets” for its attacks, the group warned Yemenis to stay away from those targets to secure their safety. It said that 48 suicide combatants were ready to strike. The new group named Al-Moutaz Bellah Al-Qandahari Al-Yamani as its leader.

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