UN to send rights mission to Yemen

The UN is sending a mission to Yemen on Monday to examine the human rights situation, amid persistent popular protests calling for the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a spokeswoman said on Friday. "We will be deploying a mission to Yemen, an assessment mission to Yemen beginning on Monday. This will be a 10-day mission and a team of three from our office will be going," said Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman at the UN human rights office. "The mission's goal is basically to assess... as you know information that's coming from Yemen has been really difficult to independently verify... the main goal of the mission is to go and assess the situation," she added.