Archive: yemen

26th March 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
Mohammed al-Maqaleh (Maqalih), editor-in-chief of Aleshteraki, the Yemen Socialist Party's website was released from arbitrary detention yesterday on "health and humanitarian" grounds. Maqalih was abducted by armed and masked men last September and it was several months before the Yemeni… Read more
24th March 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
Demonstrations continue in Yemen over the hotly contestedissue of child marriage. Yesterday, it was the turn of campaigners for a minimum age to gather outside the parliament building.  Roughly half of all girls in Yemen are married before the age of 18 – many of them before they have even reached… Read more
22nd March 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
Yemen is in the throes of a heated political battle over a law that would ban child marriage. Viewed from afar, this is as much of a no-brainer as the American debate about health care. And yet, as in the US, the forces of resistance are strong. Yesterday, supporters of child marriage took to the… Read more
21st March 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
Yemen's special security court handed out jail sentences to two more southern activists yesterday. Fady Hassan Baoum, a member of the opposition Socialist Party's poliburo was sentenced to five years for "inciting violence and hatred with the aim of undermining national unity". Hussein Muthana al… Read more
18th March 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
President Salih has now ordered the return of transmission equipment that the Yemeni authorities seized from the local offices of al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya TV stations last week. The equipment was seized on the grounds that it was "unauthorised", though nobody believed that was the real reason; the… Read more
16th March 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
Yemeni forces launched three more airstrikes said to be directed against al-Qaeda targets in Lawdar district of Abyan province  yesterday.  There is no official word about casualties but Abbas al Assal, a spokesman for the separatist Southern Movement, said seven people were killed, "including… Read more
15th March 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
Yemen says it launched an airstrike against al-Qaeda in the Moudia district of Abyan province yesterday. "Our air force carried out a raid on terrorist elements who were planning attacks on vital installations (and) two al-Qaeda leaders were killed," a defence ministry statement said. There are no… Read more
12th March 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
The Yemeni authorities have confiscated two "unauthorised" transmitters belonging to local offices of al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya TV channels.  This seems to be part of a wider pattern of harassment, particularly of al-Jazeera, over its coverage of separatist protests in the south. In recent days… Read more
10th March 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
President Salih of Yemen held out an olive branch to the southern separatists yesterday, offering to discuss their grievances. "Come talk with your brothers in the authority, and we will talk with you," he said. "We extend the hand of dialogue without (you) having to resort to violence or blocking… Read more
7th March 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
An al-Qaeda suspect who was taken to hospital in Yemen after claiming to be ill seized a gun from one of his guards and shot him dead, then held two other guards hostage yesterday.  The suspect, named Sharif Mobily – a German national of Somali origin – was eventually overpowered and taken to… Read more