SDRPY Accelerates Work on Yemen's Heijat Al-Abed Road Rehabilitation Project

The road lacks essential traffic safety elements (Photo by SPA)
The road lacks essential traffic safety elements (Photo by SPA)
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SDRPY Accelerates Work on Yemen's Heijat Al-Abed Road Rehabilitation Project

The road lacks essential traffic safety elements (Photo by SPA)
The road lacks essential traffic safety elements (Photo by SPA)

The rehabilitation project for Heijat Al-Abed Road, a vital route connecting Taiz with other governorates, is progressing rapidly under the Saudi Development and Reconstruction Program for Yemen (SDRPY). This road is crucial for the lives of 5 million Yemenis, and the project aims to improve its efficiency, implement safety measures, reduce accidents, and alleviate the daily challenges faced by commuters, SPA reported.
Rehabilitating this essential road will ensure safe traffic flow and facilitate the movement of people and goods, including essential supplies like food and medicine, while reducing costs and travel time. Additionally, the project will create immediate employment opportunities and benefit various sectors, including the economy, services, education, and more.
With a significant elevation difference of 1,000 meters from the highest to the lowest point, the road lacks essential traffic safety elements, such as concrete barriers for vehicle protection, and is prone to rockfalls.
Rehabilitating the rain drainage system and constructing new drainage channels are also essential to prevent water penetration into the road pavement layers.

This project is part of 229 projects and initiatives implemented by SDRPY across various Yemeni governorates. These initiatives serve the Yemeni people in key sectors, including education, healthcare, water, energy, transportation, agriculture and fisheries, development and support of Yemeni government capacities, and developmental programs.



Oregon House Cat Died after Eating Pet Food that Tested Positive for Bird Flu

Test tubes are seen labelled "Bird Flu" in this illustration taken on Jun 10, 2024. (File photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration)
Test tubes are seen labelled "Bird Flu" in this illustration taken on Jun 10, 2024. (File photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration)
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Oregon House Cat Died after Eating Pet Food that Tested Positive for Bird Flu

Test tubes are seen labelled "Bird Flu" in this illustration taken on Jun 10, 2024. (File photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration)
Test tubes are seen labelled "Bird Flu" in this illustration taken on Jun 10, 2024. (File photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration)

An Oregon house cat died after eating pet food that tested positive for bird flu, Oregon authorities said, prompting a recall of raw frozen pet food that was sold nationwide.

Northwest Naturals, a pet food company based in Portland, Oregon, said Tuesday it had voluntarily recalled one batch of its two-pound Feline Turkey Recipe raw frozen pet food after it tested positive for the virus. The product was sold through distributors in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Wisconsin, as well as Canada's British Columbia.

“We are confident that this cat contracted H5N1 by eating the Northwest Naturals raw and frozen pet food,” Oregon Department of Agriculture State Veterinarian Dr. Ryan Scholz said in a Tuesday news release. “This cat was strictly an indoor cat; it was not exposed to the virus in its environment, and results from the genome sequencing confirmed that the virus recovered from the raw pet food and infected cat were exact matches to each other.”

The recalled product is packaged in two-pound plastic bags with “best if used by” dates of May 21, 2026, and June 23, 2026. The company and Oregon authorities said that consumers who bought the recalled product should throw it away immediately and contact the place of purchase for a refund, The AP reported.

No human cases of bird flu have been linked to the incident, but those who were in contact with the cat are being monitored for flu symptoms, Oregon authorities said.

More than 60 people in eight states have been infected, with mostly mild illnesses, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC. One person in Louisiana has been hospitalized with the nation’s first known severe illness caused by the virus, health officials said last week.

So far, the CDC has confirmed one human case of bird flu in Oregon. The person was linked to a previously reported outbreak at a commercial poultry operation and fully recovered after experiencing mild illness, according to a November news release from the Oregon Health Authority.

In late October, the US Department of Agriculture announced that a pig at a backyard farm in Oregon was found to have bird flu, marking the first detection of the virus in US swine.