Local Editor, 15-01-2010

Since the conflict in Yemen began in 2004, there have been an estimated 200,000 displaced citizens, a UN spokesman disclosed Tuesday.

When asked at the news briefing here Tuesday if the UN would try and resolve Yemen's problems politically, Nesirky indicated that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would be taking part in an international conference in London later this month to deal with the issue of Yemen where counter-terrorism and radicalization in that country will be discussed.

Yemen said on Tuesday that the international conference will not tackle Yemen's internal affairs. "The Yemeni government will not accept anything in the London government that will harm its sovereignty or lead to interference in its internal affairs," Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Abdullah al-Kurbi was quoted by official Saba news agency as saying.

This comes at a time when Saudi airstrikes have claimed the lives of at least 13 people in the north of Yemen, Yemen's Houthi fighters have said.