NEW YORK/JEDDAH: The UN said it expects an unconditional weeklong humanitarian pause in the fighting in Yemen starting Friday (today) to allow the delivery of assistance to some of the 21 million people in need.
An Arab coalition has been bombing the Iranian-backed Houthis since late March in a bid to restore Yemen’s legitimate President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to power.
“Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted that the president has communicated his acceptance of the pause to the coalition to ensure their support and collaboration,” said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Thursday.
He said the Houthis, the General People’s Congress and other parties had assured UN special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed that the pause will be fully respected and that there will be no violations from any combatants under their control. “We feel we have the expressions necessary by all parties to announce the start of this pause on Friday,” said Dujarric.
“The secretary-general looks forward to the commitments of all parties to the conflict in Yemen to an unconditional humanitarian pause to start on Friday ... until the end of Ramadan,” he said. Both sides largely observed a five-day humanitarian truce brokered by the UN in May.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has extended the correction period for Yemenis until Saturday, Aug. 15.
The initial period ended on Tuesday, July 7, but the Yemeni government had asked the Saudi government to extend the period because there was a growing backlog of cases.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman issued a royal decree on Thursday extending the period. This would allow Yemenis to correct their status and benefit from the renewable six-month work visas offered by the Kingdom, the royal court stated.
The Passport Department has announced that 338,352 Yemenis have corrected their status over the past two months in the Kingdom.
The concession is only for Yemenis who had not corrected their status, and who were in the Kingdom before April 10. They should have legitimate passports, which must be presented to any Saudi passport office in the country. They also have to undergo medical tests in accordance with the Kingdom’s residency laws.
— With input from agencies
UN: Yemen truce from today till Ramadan end
UN: Yemen truce from today till Ramadan end
Saudi Arabia’s KAUST named FIFA’s first research institute in MENA
- KAUST President Prof. Sir Edward Byrne said that the university’s selection as the fifth FIFA Research Institute in the world — and the first in the region — marks a significant achievement, reflecting Kingdom’s growing presence in international football
RIYADH: FIFA has designated the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology as its first research institute in the Middle East and Asia to support the development of innovative football research, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Tuesday.
The recognition highlights KAUST’s commitment to integrating sports, academic research and industry through advanced, high-level initiatives grounded in rigorous scientific methodologies, contributing to the advancement of football studies.
KAUST President Prof. Sir Edward Byrne said that the university’s selection as the fifth FIFA Research Institute in the world — and the first in the region — marks a significant achievement, reflecting Saudi Arabia’s growing presence in international football.
The accreditation aligns with national efforts to invest in research and development and promote the knowledge economy, supporting Saudi Vision 2030’s goals of building an advanced sports system based on innovation and sustainability.
The collaboration’s first project focuses on developing advanced AI algorithms to analyze historical FIFA World Cup broadcast footage, transforming decades of match videos into structured, searchable data, according to the KAUST website.
This work opens new opportunities to apply state-of-the-art computer vision techniques and deepen understanding of how football has evolved over time.
The second project uses player and ball tracking data from the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar and the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 in Australia and New Zealand to compile comprehensive datasets capturing in-game dynamics.
These datasets provide deeper insights into human movement, playing techniques and performance dynamics through AI-driven analysis.
