President Saleh orders authorities to turn historical buildings to cultural centers

SANA’A, March 19 (Saba)- President Ali Abdullah Saleh has ordered the concerned authorities to prepare a house of Yemeni writer Ahmed Ba Kathir and the palace of al-Rannad to become two cultural development centers.The two would-be cultural centers would be a basis to attract young people and rehabilitate them in various areas of cultural and knowledge development.Muath al-Shihabi, executive director of Tarim, the Islamic culture Capital 2010, said that the executive office of Tarim would receive next month the palace after the restoration ends to become the largest center for cultural development in Yemen.‘’The historical fort and palace of al-Rannad will be called the al-Rannad Center for Cultural Development and will include many cultural and creative departments’’, al-Shihabi added. As part of a plan of Culture Ministry to implement the directives of President Saleh, al-Shihabi said that the executive office of Tarim had received the house of the late writer Ali Ahmad Ba Kathir in Seyun town after the end of the restorations to become the Center of Ali Ahmad Ba Kathir for Cultural Development.YASaba