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/ 25 February 2008
Foreigners wander freely among the handsome stone and baked-brick houses of Sanaa’s Old City, but elsewhere in Yemen al-Qaeda attacks have damaged a fledgling tourism industry already hurt by tribal kidnappings. The government, which hopes tourism earnings can help offset flagging oil revenues, is struggling to shore up security by providing armed police escorts for travel to certain areas.
At least eight Yemeni soldiers were killed in a volcanic eruption on an island off the country’s Red Sea coast, the government said on Monday. A Defence Ministry official said the western part of the island had "collapsed" following the eruption. Yemen’s oil minister said several earthquakes felt on Sunday had triggered the eruption.