Although coffee is a major industry for Yemen, is still has hurdles to overcome in its quest for a global market share. The Media Line’s Felice Friedson was in Sana’a for the conference and filed this exclusive report.

(Sana’a, Yemen) They came from as far away as the United States and New Zealand to attend the Second International Conference on Arabica Naturals: the diplomats; the cuppers; the distributors, consultants and farmers. All in Sana’a to smell the rich aromatic Yemeni coffee and to seek the internationalization of standards for natural coffees.

Underwritten by the Small Micro Enterprise Promotion Service (SMEPS), a subsidiary of the Social Fund for Development and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Arabica Naturals Conference was the first to be held in Yemen, with a strong emphasis on showcasing the sweeter side of a country that to westerners, is primarily branded a terrorist haven.

SMEPS Executive Director Wesam Qaid, the moving force behind and chairman of the conference, said the meeting — drawing from groups representing the world’s premier coffee producing nations including Ethiopia, Mexico, Indonesia and New Zealand — put Yemen back on the coffee map. “Yemen coffee is rich and is 100% taken care of by hand, no machines,” Qaid told The Media Line, explaining what differentiates Yemen’s coffee from other coffee grown elsewhere.

The two-day confab, held at Sana’a’s beautiful but heavily-fortified Movenpick Hotel, included workshops on cupping, roasting and espresso, along with professional and trade presentations and coffee exhibitions.

Kicking-off the first day of events, Yemen’s Prime Minister Dr. Ali Muhammad Mujawir praised the coffee farmers, asserting “that there is no better coffee than those of Yemen’s mountains; and we thank the farmers who raise the name of Yemen high in the world…[making] coffee an original, national symbol.” Addressing the fact that Yemen’s coffee industry lacks international standing in large part because it does not adhere to a system of grading recognized by coffee producers world-wide, the prime minister raised the industry’s concerns, admonishing that, “We must conform to the international standards of producing coffee. This requires cooperation among governments; and among international and expert officials.”

Deputy Prime Minister Abdulkarim Al-Arhabi, who is the managing director of the Social Fund for Development, told participants representing 26 countries including the US, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Eritrea and Lebanon, that, “$1.2 billion has been mobilized in a program to microfinance enterprise industry in Yemen: 90% of which is coming from foreign sources.”

Yemen, with its rich history and century-old techniques, is unique in that it consumes two-thirds of the coffee it produces. The United States has committed to contribute millions of dollars to boost Yemen’s economy, which is one of the poorest countries in the world and supports a population of 24,000,000 people.

U.S. Ambassador Gerald Feierstein is one of those who sees the focus on coffee as a welcome diversion from the typical blood-and-mayhem coverage Yemen typically receives. He told The Media Line that most Americans don’t know that Yemen is so closely associated with coffee and “I think if the American people have an opportunity to try it, they’ll also have a great experience with it. It’s a way of showing Yemen in a more positive light.”

The earliest written evidence of coffee drinking appears in the mid-15th Century, from the Sufi Yemeni monasteries in southern Arabia. But 21st-Century Yemen today faces several challenging obstacles in its quest to attain a significant global market share.

Coffee here is grown in remote areas, on steep mountain sides reaching thousands of meters in height, restricting farmers’ access and making it physically difficult to reach the growing fields with heavy manure – the natural fertilizer of preference. Qaid explained that chemicals are too difficult to carry into these remote areas.

A large percentage of the farms are located on mountains – on open patches of land scattered across mountains and terraces, some shaded by larger trees, and some by clouds according to Nadia Al-Sakkaf, editor-in-chief of The Yemen Times. Speaking to The Media Line, Al-Sakkaf painted a visual image describing “men and women jumping rocks in risky areas.” “Yet,” she said, “they still feel at home.”

Rural areas are home to 70% of Yemen’s population. Of rural dwellers, more than 80% are women because the men — and particularly the younger men — have gone to the cities in search of a better life leaving the women to tend the farms, according to Al-Sakkaf. Qaid explained the link between the nation’s agricultural and demographic concerns, saying that, “If we can improve life in rural Yemen, we can limit migration to urban areas. We need to promote economic development.”

In the conference exhibition hall, Fatma — all covered in black – manned a table sponsored by the Talouq Womens Association, an organization comprised of 164 female farmers. Fatma expounded on the problems her group is addressing, telling The Media Line that, “We lack the staff to train women on the machinery and a budget for training.”

Coffee used to be a source of income for many but because of the drought (coffee-growing requires a great deal of water); and the lack of marketing strategy, most farmers have given up on traditional farming techniques (trimming trees and shading) and many have left farming altogether. According to Al-Sakkaf, the women, who are increasingly central to the nation’s coffee farming industry, need the support of the international community to open Yemen’s access to the international market. Qaid charged that, “the Yemeni coffee private sector is marketing coffee the same as they marketed coffee 300 and 400 years ago. However, markets have changed.”

Dressed in a colorfully appliquéd hejab headcovering and jelbab, the traditional black gown, Amira Al-Hemyari tells The Media Line that as a distributor her company, El Ezzi Industries, cares about the farmers’ needs as well as its bottom line. She says it has alleviated the water shortage by supplying farmers with water storage tanks and has helped their farmers to rid their farms of the harmful Qat plant which soaks the coffee plant dry. Amira says that the narcotic-like plant, which is farmed as a separate crop – and a lucrative one at that — “takes a lot of water and gives good profit but kills the land.”

But Abd Al-Rahman Mohamed of Musallam Trading disagrees. The water shortage is a natural occurrence, he says. “We need dams for water because of the drought.”

Qat farmers outnumber coffee farmers by a margin of 680,000 to 110,000. The majority of farms have women tending trees, pruning and picking cherries. It’s common among small farmers to pick their coffee beans and store them for years, saving them for a rainy day when they are in need of immediate cash. They all work through middlemen and several key distributors who then sell the coffee beans to the local and world markets.

The Al-Hamdani and Al-Kbous companies are the two oldest and largest exporters, both of which have been around for more than 100 years.

Al-Kbous has one of the largest factories in the Middle East. Hamida Hamden Al-Safi told The Media Line that the firm currently supplies Japan, the US, Canada and the Gulf States through their forty distributors who deal directly with the farmers. The company’s mocha coffee is a source of both corporate and national pride. Al-Safi told The Media Line, “We are trying to keep the Mocha brand for our company. It belongs to Yemen and we don’t want someone stealing it.”

CUPPING

Mario Fernandez is an expert “cupper” who comes from a line of Mexican coffee- growers dating back to the 1830s. Fernandez came to Yemen to contribute to two indispensable elements necessary in order for the nation’s coffee trade to prosper: his ancient art and to consult on an international grading system for natural coffees. “Cupping” is a sensory analysis of coffee utilizing the tongue and mouth to identify whether a cup of coffee is good or bad. His presence was timely: “The public needs to be educated about how to prepare coffee,” Fernandez said. “Until last week no one in Yemen knew how to cup.” The cuppers are typically buyers or suppliers of coffee.

David Roche, the technical director for the Coffee Quality Institute based in Long Beach, California, explained further: “It’s a slurping technique,” he said. “You vaporize the flavors in your mouth and have an instant reaction. You take note of that specific technique for evaluating coffee. Any country can claim they have the best coffee; there is good and bad in all countries.”

The conference was Roche’s second trip to Yemen. Previously, he visited the coffee farms for a first-hand look when he came to the country to teach cupping. He told The Media Line that, “Yemen coffee is unique and has always been high priced. Yemen’s biggest problem is quantity. They fell to almost one-third of their production level of 15 years ago in part because of the better price of other crops such as Qat; the price of coffee on the world market; and the shortage of healthy trees in fields. [In Yemen] the farmers grow it on roof tops and sometimes store it in caves for years. They also need to understand what the consumer wants. Our role is in standardizing the coffee.”

The reference to “naturals” means the whole coffee bean is picked and dried with the skin on it. The opposite is “washed,” which one coffee producer described as “the difference between red wine and white wine.”

Yet, there is currently no world-wide system for grading naturals. The “Q System,” implemented by the Coffee Association of America and The Coffee Quality Institute, is geared for top quality coffees and specialty coffees; and not applicable beyond the top ten per cent of the world’s coffees.

Of the 18,000 tons of coffee it produces annually, Yemen only exports 4,000 – 6,000 tons, the rest being consumed by Yemenis. That figure is growing, with coffee houses springing up seemingly everywhere, but remains small when compared to Columbia or Brazil, each exporting hundreds of thousands of tons annually. The largest importers of Yemen’s coffee are Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, along with the United States. Europe and Japan follow.

In the United States, roughly half the population – an estimated 150 million Americans — consumes some type of coffee. World-wide, coffee is a $16 billion industry – the second-most traded commodity after petroleum. In 2011, about 135 million 60 kilogram (132 pound) bags of coffee will be produced – some 1.7 billion pounds of coffee.

A stop at The Coffee Trader revealed a mix of societies melding around coffee. Dressed in Western-style clothing but wearing a jelbab covering, Susan Coleman, the Wisconsin expatriate who is co-owns the Sana’a café and coffee store stayed busy serving customers. Featuring U.S.-style service and decked-out with Christmas ornaments, the café’s ambiance is distinctly American – until you notice that some of the men are dressed in traditional Yemeni clothing and some of the young women working on their laptops are garbed in floor-length jelbabs, sipping their coffee through a narrow slit in the veil.

Meanwhile, at the conference, the coffee competition was the final event. Q-certified cuppers from around the world tasted and rated fruity, spicy and chocolaty coffees. Yemen’s own coffee – featuring a tinge of chocolate and raisin — took second place to Tanzania’s blueberry and fresh fruit flavors. Ethiopia came in third place.

Qaid told The Media Line that one of the conference’s successes is that SMEPS has been commissioned to prepare a report with recommendations for developing Yemen’s coffee sector — including plans for a coffee fund with buy-ins from farmer groups — that will be presented to the government in March 2011, with Yemen poised to enter the International Coffee Organization. Also coming from the conference is newfound hope that the coffee market will become more balanced as sun dried coffees continue to gain international exposure and new cupping procedures for them have now been introduced.

David Roche shared the optimism for his Yemeni hosts. “Change in Yemen will take a decade,” he told The Media Line. “But sophisticated drinkers who buy whole bean coffee will buy Yemini coffee and they’ll pay more for it. It’s boutique,” he said.

Qaid agreed. “Yemini coffee is experiencing a renaissance. New coffee shops are popping up all over the place. Young Yeminis are learning the skills of coffee,” he said.

Asked which his own favorite coffee is, he replied “ancient Typica from Haraz.” In Yemen, of course.

Written by Felice Friedson

SANA’A, Yemen faces possible civil war if the government goes ahead with plans to conduct parliamentary elections in April without addressing the opposition’s demands for election reforms, a political analyst based in the capital said on Tuesday.

Mohammed al Dhaheri, a professor of political science at Sana’a University, said: “If the ruling party decides to go ahead and copy the recent Egyptian electoral experience in a tribal-dominated and heavily armed society, I am afraid this is likely to push the country into a civil war.”

The Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) – an opposition coalition of six parties that includes Islah, Yemen’s main Islamist party, and the Socialist Party – threatened on Monday to boycott parliamentary elections in April and called for protests against the ruling General People’s Congress (GPC) plan to hold the poll without completing a dialogue on political and electoral reforms. The GPC had said it would move ahead with the elections in April to avoid a constitutional vacuum.

The opposition leaders said during a press conference on Monday that by passing the electoral law amendment on Saturday, the ruling party has violated a 2009 accord providing for dialogue on political reforms.

The GPC and JMP agreed in February 2009 to postpone the parliamentary election for two years to allow dialogue on political reforms, including a shift from a presidential regime to a proportional representation parliamentary system and further decentralisation of government. However, the two sides’ dialogue on the issues to be addressed before the 2011 election has reached a deadlock, despite an additional accord in July to provide a chance for all political parties and non-governmental organisations to discuss the necessary constitutional amendments for developing and improving the political system.

The election law amendment that the parliamentary majority endorsed on Saturday stipulated that the supreme elections commission be composed of judges rather than delegates represented in parliament as has been the case.

“The JMP is seeking to drag the country into a constitutional vacuum … through delaying the parliamentary elections and the presidential election [set for 2013],” Sadeq Abu Rass, GPC assistant secretary general, said during a press conference on Tuesday.

Since the unification between the North and South in 1990, Yemen has been able to hold only three successful parliamentary elections: in 1993, 1997 and 2003, all of which the GPC won.

In addition to juggling an insurgency in the north and a separatist movement in the south, the Yemeni government is struggling to combat a resurgent wing of al Qa’eda as well as increasing economic hardship.

“The country cannot afford more problems. The situation is tense in the north and another fight is likely,” Mr al Dhaheri said. “The southern movement protests are growing violent … I am sure the opposition can move the street, if this is the option of Islah. Moving the street in an armed society where the culture of peaceful fight is still absent, the outcome will be grave and will push to further instability.”

However, Ali Saif Hasan, the chairman of the Political Development Forum, a Sana’a-based think tank, dismissed the possibility of violent confrontations.

“I expect the coming few months prior to elections will be tense and the JMP will stage protests and rallies but I do not expect big violence,” Mr Hasan said.

“The GPC decision is not final and there is a possibility for reconsidering it, particularly if the reaction of the JMP is strong,” he added.

An example of growing tension between the opposition and the ruling party was the attack on Sultan al Attwani, the secretary general of the Nasserite Unionist Party and an MP, yesterday in the capital Sana’a.

The Nasserite party, a JMP affiliate, said in a statement that armed men attacked Mr Attwani while he was driving home from parliament. The statement blamed the government for the attack and warned of the consequences of overdoing such practices and delay in taking an action against the perpetrators, and bringing them to justice.

However, Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen specialist at Princeton University in the United States, said both GPC and JMP were in a difficult position.

“I think at the moment the GPC and the JMP are engaged in a staring contest to see which one blinks first. Both are making threats and challenging the other and both are in a difficult position. It will be difficult for the GPC to have a fair election if the JMP doesn’t participate, but if the JMP doesn’t participate it risks political irrelevancy,” Mr Johnsen said in an e-mail.

“There are still a number of months before the elections and a lot can happen in that time. At this point talk of taking to the streets is premature, but if both sides insist on digging in their heels then it could be a completely different situation in the spring,” Mr Johnsen added.

Experts cited by CNN say Yemen could be the first nation to completely run out of water in a few years, a prospect that does not bode well for its young population of 24 million that is expected to double in 20 years, or anyone worried about the rising influence (and ability to get bombs on planes) of an al Qaeda branch in one of the Middle East’s poorest nations.

In Sana’a, which could be the world’s first capital city to go dry, the population is growing at a rate of 7% per year as people flee from the parched outer reaches of the country. Part of the problem is qat, an addictive plant like chewed by about 75% of men in Yemen that takes a whole lot of water to grow. In places where vineyards used to be, farmers now are growing the more lucrative qat, which uses five times the amount of water as grapes but can be harvested and sold relatively quickly after it’s planted.

Farmers’ ambition to better their lot is more than understandable in a nation where five million people — over a fifth of the population — go hungry each day. And though Yemen’s qat farmers are estimated to now be using some 40% of the nation’s domestic water supply, they are hardly the only actors in this looming crisis. Yemen’s water table is falling about 6.6 feet per year, yet the central government has been ineffective at managing the piecemeal drilling of water wells (the government itself estimates an astonishing 99% of water extraction in Yemen is unlicensed) or regulating water management in more farflung parts of the country. Instead, as Sana’a gets more and more water migrants, authorities have discussed relocating the capital to the coast where they might be better able to take advantage of desalination as other Middle Eastern countries have.

The water shortage is also a global problem, because, like Somalia across the Gulf of Aden, where desertification has been linked with that county’s ongoing conflict, fights and desperation over water in Yemen would be exactly the kind of destabilizing factor that insurgents will need to continue to strengthen their base in remote areas far from the halls of power. As the water crisis has gotten worse, observers have noted that the government has concentrated its efforts to manage water resources in urban centers where it has (and wants to keep) political support, and many of the outlying areas not receiving help have been overlooked before.

As Christopher Boucek of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote in testimony to Congress in February: “The failure to establish local water corporations in several governorates that historically have not received much support or social services from the central government has raised fear that a resurgent al Qaeda may seek refuge there.”

Boucek goes on to list what could possibly be done, including stopping government subsidies and public purchases of qat, and constructing a better legal system to deal with the nation’s increasingly scarce resource. “If such measures are not taken in the near term,” he writes, “more dramatic steps will be required in the future, such as stopping rural populations from moving to overcrowded cities, and, more drastically, relocating population centers from the center of the country to the coasts.” In other words, the government will be forced to create a lot more unhappy citizens. And that would make insurgents that find recruits in disgruntled communities very happy indeed.

News of a solar storm coming in the next few years is making people believe that there is a possibility of an Earth blackout in 2013.

“The sun is waking up from a deep slumber, and in the next few years we expect to see much higher levels of solar activity,” said Richard Fisher, head of NASA’s Heliophysics Division.

But what is a solar storm? Well, it is essentially the occurrence of violent eruptions in the sun which can eject destructive radiation and charged particles into space. These are closely connected to magnetic fields – which are hazardous for satellites and space stations.

In 1859, reports of a geomagnetic storm sparked by a huge solar flare swept over the Earth. This caused telegraph wires to short and houses were set on fire.

What’s scary is that scientists predict that in May 2013, the sun’s solar cycle will peak at about the same level as in 1859.

So what would happen? Will there be a massive Earth blackout in 2013? We’re thinking positive that our scientists will eventually find a way to protect our planet for this impending end of the world.

GENEVA – The H1N1 pandemic is not yet over although its most intense activity has passed in many parts of the world, the World Health Organization said on Thursday after a review of the flu outbreak by independent experts.

The WHO emergency committee, composed of 15 external advisers, said it remained critical for countries to maintain vigilance concerning the pandemic, including necessary public health measures for disease control and surveillance, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said in a statement.

“We’re still in the pandemic,” WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told Reuters.

Chan said that pandemic flu activity was expected to continue, and the committee would meet again by mid-July to review the status of the outbreak once more data from the winter influenza season in the southern hemisphere was available.

The panel met on Tuesday, but Chan had delayed the announcement until Thursday as the committee, whose members were spread around the world for the meeting by teleconference, put the final touches to the wording of their recommendation.

Chan’s decision, based on the committee’s recommendation, means that the outbreak, widely known as swine flu, remains at phase 6 on the WHO’s pandemic scale, which has been at the top level of 6 since June 2009.

Southeast Asia

The next meeting will decide to recommend whether to retain that level, declare the pandemic has passed, or move into a transitional “post-peak” phase.

The U.N. agency’s guidance on whether a disease constitutes a pandemic determines how its 193 member governments handle an outbreak, including stockpiling vaccines and antivirals.

WHO experts say that the virus remains a threat to some vulnerable people, notably pregnant women, young children and those with respiratory problems, and such groups would continue to need vaccinations.

“It is predicted that H1N1 will continue to be the primary or overwhelming virus among influenza viruses for quite a while,” Hartl said on Tuesday. “Pandemic or no pandemic, H1N1 will still exist. If there is no pandemic, it means that H1N1 is behaving like a normal flu virus.”

The WHO has been accused of exaggerating the dangers of the H1N1 outbreak, which emerged in April last year.

Symptoms suffered by most people infected with the virus, have been mild. But WHO experts fear it could spread easily among people if it were to mutate into a more dangerous or lethal form.

Laboratory tests have confirmed more than 18,000 deaths from H1N1 infection, according to WHO figures, but the actual global death toll is much higher and will take at least a year after the pandemic ends to establish.

The virus is currently most active in parts of the Caribbean and Southeast Asia, and activity in Africa is low or sporadic.

The emergency committee has been waiting for signs of how the virus is developing in the southern hemisphere winter before making a full pronouncement on its state.

Chan usually follows the recommendations of the committee, all of whose members except its chairman, Australian professor John Mackenzie, are anonymous to protect them from undue influence.

ROBERT, Louisiana: The most ambitious bid yet to stop the worst oil spill in US history ended in failure Saturday after BP was unable to overwhelm the gusher of crude with heavy fluids and junk.

President Obama called the setback “as enraging as it is heartbreaking.” The oil giant immediately began readying its next attempted fix, using robot submarines to cut the pipe that’s gushing the oil and cap it with funnel-like device, but the only guaranteed solution remains more than two months away.

The company determined the “top kill” had failed after it spent three days pumping heavy drilling mud into the crippled well 5,000 feet (1,520 meters) underwater. It’s the latest in a series of failures to stop the crude that’s fouling marshland and beaches, as estimates of how much oil is leaking grow more dire.

The spill is the worst in US history — exceeding even the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster — and has dumped between 18 million gallons (68 million liters) and 40 million gallons (150 million liters) into the Gulf, according to government estimates.

“This scares everybody, the fact that we can’t make this well stop flowing, the fact that we haven’t succeeded so far,” BP PLC Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said Saturday. “Many of the things we’re trying have been done on the surface before, but have never been tried at 5,000 feet.” Frustration has grown as drifting oil closes beaches and washes up in sensitive marshland. The damage is underscored by images of pelicans and their eggs coated in oil. Below the surface, oyster beds and shrimp nurseries face certain death. Fishermen complain there’s no end in sight to the catastrophe that’s keeping their boats idle.

News that the top kill fell short drew a sharply worded response from President Barack Obama, a day after he visited the Gulf Coast to see the damage firsthand.

“It is as enraging as it is heartbreaking, and we will not relent until this leak is contained, until the waters and shores are cleaned up, and until the people unjustly victimized by this manmade disaster are made whole,” Obama said Saturday.

In the days after the spill, BP was unable to use robot submarines to close valves on the massive blowout preventer atop the damaged well, then two weeks later ice-like crystals clogged a 100-ton box the company tried placing over the leak. Earlier this week, engineers removed a mile-long siphon tube after it sucked up a disappointing 900,000 gallons (3,400,000 liters) of oil from the gusher.

In the latest try, BP engineers pumped more than 1.2 million gallons (4.5 million liters) of heavy drilling mud into the well and also shot in assorted junk, including metal pieces and rubber balls.

The hope was that the mud force-fed into the well would overwhelm the upward flow of oil and natural gas. But Suttles said most of the mud escaped out of the damaged pipe that’s leaking the oil, called a riser.

Suttles said BP is already preparing for the next attempt to stop the leak that began after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in April, killing 11 people.

The company plans to use robot submarines to cut off the damaged riser, and then try to cap it with a containment valve. The effort is expected to take between four and seven days.

“We’re confident the job will work but obviously we can’t guarantee success,” Suttles said of the new plan, declining to handicap the likelihood it will work.

He said that cutting off the damaged riser isn’t expected to cause the flow rate of leaking oil to increase significantly.

The permanent solution to the leak, a relief well currently being drilled, won’t be ready until August, BP says.

Experts have said that a bend in the damaged riser likely was restricting the flow of oil somewhat, so slicing it off and installing a new containment valve is risky.

“If they can’t get that valve on, things will get much worse,” said Philip W. Johnson, an engineering professor at the University of Alabama.

Johnson said he thinks BP can succeed with the valve, but added: “It’s a scary proposition.” Word that the top-kill had failed hit hard in fishing communities along Louisiana’s coast.

“Everybody’s starting to realize this summer’s lost. And our whole lifestyle might be lost,” said Michael Ballay, the 59-year-old manager of the Cypress Cove Marina in Venice, Louisiana, near where oil first made landfall in large quantities almost two weeks ago.

Johnny Nunez, owner of Fishing Magician Charters in Shell Beach, Louisiana, said the spill is hurting his business during what’s normally the best time of year — and there’s no end in sight.

“If fishing’s bad for five years, I’ll be 60 years old.

I’ll be done for,” he said after watching BP’s televised announcement.

The top official in coastal Plaquemines Parish said news of the top kill failure brought tears to his eyes.

“They are going to destroy south Louisiana. We are dying a slow death here,” said Billy Nungesser, the parish president. “We don’t have time to wait while they try solutions. Hurricane season starts on Tuesday.”

SANA’A, May 29 (Saba)- Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi described what is happening in southern governorates like demonstrations is a paid work.

“Movement leaders are making use of the economic situation and the millions of dollars they took from the 1994 civil war to spend on the demonstrations,” he said.

In an interview with Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Minister al-Qirbi stressed that some people work with the movement to gain money only not for the desire of the separation.

He talked about Yemen’s relations with countries of Gulf Cooperation Council and described them as positive. He noted that Sana’a looks for a new chart to the Arab League instead of maintaining the old one for the interest of joint Arab work.

He said President Ali Abdullah Saleh has communicated with Arab leaders about Yemen’s attitude with them over the country’s diplomacy. “President’s communication with Arab leaders and his speeches he is directing to the international community affirm Yemen’s ability to present initiatives and solutions to solve internal issues.”

He said that the president’s speech in the eve of the celebration of the re-unification ceremony and his call to dialogue and discussing all issues reflect political readiness to solve all problems accompanied the unity, besides his readiness to form coalition government.

Over Yemen’s relations with Iran, al-Qirbi said they are normal and there is still contact between the two countries as their embassies are still open.

On Arab assistances to Yemen to overcome its current crisis, he talked about the need of creating work mechanism helps in realizing balanced economic growth in the region. He talked about importance of utilizing Arab funds to enhance Arab joint interests and investments.

“If the 20 percent of Arab funds transferred to outside employed in Arab countries, they would contribute in solving security and economic situations these countries suffer from.”

However al-Qirbi said that Yemen’s integration with GCC economies will not be the solution to Yemen’s crises but the solution lies in these countries’ vision towards Yemen and the importance of standing with the country to face its security and economic challenges.

He explained that providing support Yemen needs to achieve development and create work opportunities as well as open the doors to Yemeni laborers to work in Gulf markets is more important step before integration.

He praised GCC support to Yemen in London Conference held in 2006 saying:” GCC countries provided nearly 65 percent of the total support committed by donors in the conference.” This support is estimated at USD 2, 7 billion reflects there is new vision to GCC countries to create partnership with Yemen.

Foreign Minister Abu Baker al-Qirbi affirmed that Yemen does not want crises because these crises have their high costs. Southern movement and al-Qaeda affected Yemen’s economy which is already has been affected by global financial crises and the reduction of oil production and prices.

Over military training Israel and Iran are currently carrying out and expectations of a hot summer, al-Qirbi said indicators do not bring good news and “I think that Israel wants to punish Hezbollah. Last year reports say that Israel plan to hit Hezbollah and I believe that if Israel risks a new war, it will face the same fate it faced in 2006.”

Over Arab-Iran dialogue for the interests of Arabs as Yemen has been already affected by Iranian support to Houthis, Minister al-Qirbi said starting a dialogue between Arabs and Iran will serve the interests of both to define the two parts relations to discuss solving issues between Arabs and Iran like Iranian interference in the United Arab Emirates and Iraq.

According to the New York Times, America is secretly carrying out contingency planning for war with Iran. That was just part of its report on an expansion of US clandestine military activity recently authorised in the region. The timing of the story, and the leak it was based on, is intriguing.

The report, which has been stood up in off the record briefings by senior defence officials, claims top US commander in the region, General Petraeus, has ordered a ‘broad expansion’ of secret activity in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen among other countries.

It authorises special operations in both friendly and hostile nations. But of most interest here of course is what it means for American operations in Iran.

In particular, the New York Times reports, the order “permits reconnaissance that could pave the way for possible military strikes in Iran if tensions over its nuclear ambitions escalate’.

And it claims the directive ‘appears to authorize specific operations in Iran, most likely to gather intelligence about the country’s nuclear program or identify dissident groups that might be useful for a future military offensive’ against Iran.

Officials emphasise that diplomatic and economic sanctions are the only methods currently being employed but say ‘detailed war plans’ must be drawn up ‘in the event that President Obama ever authorises a strike’.

In one sense you would not expect anything else, but as the Jerusalem Post reports one anonymous Israeli official as saying, this is ‘the first time that the public is getting word of practical preparations of military activity’.

It comes at a crucial time. The West is trying to turn the diplomatic screws on Iran, rejecting its recent deal with Brazil and Turkey, and pressing for strong sanctions with teeth.

The report tells us what we are told often. All options remain on the table. But that has become such a well worn phrase. This report spells things out far more effectively.

It may have just been another piece of great journalism from the New York Times or a deliberately timed leak. One way or another the revelation and the briefing that’s followed it gives Teheran and the region plenty to think about.

SAN FRANCISCO — With the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico calling into question his plans to expand offshore drilling, President Barack Obama looks Wednesday to highlight the benefits of alternative energy sources.

Obama was to tour Solyndra Inc., a solar panel manufacturing facility in northern California, where he also planned to speak to workers about how expanding the clean energy sector can create jobs and aid the nation’s economic recovery.

The president has long said renewable sources of energy, like wind and solar, will play a vital role in the nation’s energy future. He is asking Congress for $9 billion in loan guarantees for renewable energy projects, a request that would be tacked onto a multibillion-dollar spending bill for Afghanistan and other programs.

But Obama has also moved to expand offshore drilling, recognizing the practical reality that the U.S. dependence on oil will continue for many years, and the political reality that more drilling could help him win Republican support for a broad-ranging energy bill.

The expansion Obama announced in March allows drilling from Delaware to central Florida, plus the northern waters of Alaska. Exploration could begin 50 miles off the coast of Virginia by 2012. He also wants Congress to lift a drilling ban in the oil-rich eastern Gulf, 125 miles from Florida beaches.

But those projects are in limbo following the oil spill, which is dumping millions of gallons of oil into the waters near the Louisiana coastline. Obama planned to travel to the region Friday to assess the spill, which has confounded experts in the government and at BP, the company which holds the lease for the rig that exploded and sank April 20.

The White House has said no new drilling will occur until the causes of the accident are thoroughly examined. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is due to deliver a report to the president Thursday.

At the Solyndra plant, the president planned to reaffirm his earlier assertions that the spill only reinforces the need to find alternatives to oil.

The White House says Solyndra is one of the most successful investments made as part of the president’s $826 billion economic stimulus. The company received a $535 million loan guarantee from the Energy Department last year to help build a new manufacturing plant, a project that now employs 1,000 workers.

The company estimates the construction project could create up to 3,000 jobs total, and as many as 1,000 permanent jobs when the facility opens up.

Obama was to return to Washington late Wednesday following the two-day trip to California, where he also headlined a series of fundraisers for Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, who is facing a tough re-election challenge.

A rare strain of E. coli never before associated with foodborne illness in the United States has sickened 29 people in three states, public health officials said Friday. The outbreak has been tied to romaine lettuce served in restaurants, school cafeterias and deli and supermarket salad bars.

Freshway Foods, an Ohio company, recalled the lettuce on Thursday. It said the lettuce had been sold primarily to food service and wholesale customers. The recall did not involve any bagged or mixed lettuce sold in supermarket produce sections, the company said, although some supermarkets appeared to have used the romaine in salad bars.

Officials traced the illness to a bacterial strain known as E. coli O145, which is different from the more widely known E. coli O157:H7, which has been associated with outbreaks linked to ground beef, leafy greens and other foods.

“This is the first time this particular type of E. coli has been associated with a foodborne outbreak,” said Dr. Robert Tauxe, a deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Tauxe said the O145 outbreak “cements it in place as a cause of foodborne disease we need to be worried about.” He added, “Very little is known about it.”

Dr. Tauxe said the bacterium appeared to be a particularly virulent strain capable of causing severe illness.

The C.D.C. said there were 19 confirmed cases and 10 probable cases of people who were sickened, all in Ohio, Michigan and New York. Twelve people have been hospitalized, and of those, three have developed a type of kidney failure known as hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can be fatal. Those who become ill from the E. coli strain can also get mild to severe diarrhea.

Many of those who were sickened are students at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Ohio State University in Columbus and Daemon College in Amherst, N.Y., The Associated Press said. Some high school students in Dutchess County, N.Y., also fell ill, officials said.

The rare strain of E. coli was identified by a New York State Health Department laboratory when it tested a previously unopened bag of Freshway Foods romaine lettuce that came from a school cafeteria in Dutchess County.

While illnesses have been identified in only three states, Freshway said that the lettuce had been sent to customers in 23 states and the District of Columbia. The company said the lettuce was sold for use in salad bars at Kroger, Giant Eagle, Ingles and Marsh supermarkets.

The recall applied to bags of romaine from Freshway with “use by” dates of May 12 or earlier.

Officials said the wave of illnesses may have played itself out, since the last known case involved a person who fell ill in late April.

Dr. Tauxe said, however, said that it was likely that many more people than the 29 identified so far had been sickened, since few hospitals or health departments test for E. coli O145.

He said it was also possible that there had been previous cases of foodborne illness involving the bacterial strain, but that those, too, had gone undetected because of a lack of proper testing. Dr. Tauxe said two small previous outbreaks caused by the O145 strain were known in this country, but neither was linked to food.

Devon Beer, a vice president of Freshway Foods, said the company had traced the tainted lettuce to a grower in Yuma, Ariz.

The outbreak underscored growing concerns over food safety, in particular illnesses related to E. coli bacteria.

Food safety experts have been pressing for federal officials to pay more attention to a wider range of E. coli bacteria, and the new outbreak is likely to bolster that effort. “What it says is, This is getting really complicated, folks,” said Dr. J. Glenn Morris Jr., the director of the Emerging Pathogens Institute of the University of Florida.

William Marler, a lawyer specializing in such cases, said that while there were no previous foodborne outbreaks associated with the O145 strain in this country, one was reported in Belgium in 2007 in which 12 people fell ill.