developed
countries

Debt - external: $2 trillion for less developed countries (2000 est.)

Economic aid - recipient: traditional worldwide foreign aid $50
billion (1997 est.)

World Communications

Telephones - main lines in use: NA

Telephones - mobile cellular: NA

Telephone system: general assessment: NA

domestic: NA

international: NA

Radio broadcast stations: AM NA, FM NA, shortwave NA

Radios: NA

Television broadcast stations: NA

Televisions: NA

Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 10,350 (2000 est.)

Internet users: 407.1 million (2000 est.)

World Transportation

Railways: total: 1,201,337 km includes about 190,000 to 195,000 km
of electrified routes of which 147,760 km are in Europe, 24,509 km
in the Far East, 11,050 km in Africa, 4,223 km in South America, and
4,160 km in North America; note - fastest speed in daily service is
300 km/hr attained by France's Societe Nationale des Chemins-de-Fer
Francais (SNCF) Le Train a Grande Vitesse (TGV) - Atlantique line

broad gauge: 251,153 km

standard gauge: 710,754 km

narrow gauge: 239,430 km

Highways: total: NA km

paved: NA km

unpaved: NA km

Ports and harbors: Chiba, Houston, Kawasaki, Kobe, Marseille, Mina'
al Ahmadi (Kuwait), New Orleans, New York, Rotterdam, Yokohama

World Military

Military expenditures - dollar figure: aggregate real expenditure on
arms worldwide in 1999 remained at approximately the 1998 level,
about three-quarters of a trillion dollars (1999 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP: roughly 2% of gross world
product (1999 est.)

======================================================================

@Yemen

Yemen Introduction

Background: North Yemen became independent of the Ottoman Empire in
1918. The British, who had set up a protectorate area around the
southern port of Aden in the 19th century, withdrew in 1967 from
what became South Yemen. Three years later, the southern government
adopted a Marxist orientation. The massive exodus of hundreds of
thousands of Yemenis from the south to the north contributed to two
decades of hostility between the states. The two countries were
formally unified as the Republic of Yemen in 1990. A southern
secessionist movement in 1994 was quickly subdued. In 2000, Saudi
Arabia and Yemen agreed to a delimitation of their border.

Yemen Geography

Location: Middle East, bordering the Arabian Sea, Gulf