U.N. raises $1.2 billion for Yemen aid:

United Nations raised about $1.2 billion from crisis-strained donors toward its $4.3 billion aid plan for Yemen, one of the world’s biggest humanitarian disasters despite a no-war, no-peace stalemate that has largely stopped fighting. The United States, Yemen’s top donor, pledged more than $444 million, bringing its total contribution since the start of Yemen’s war to $5.4 billion. Underfunding has seen agencies scale back Yemeni aid projects, including food rations, in the past couple of years. Last year donors gave $2.2 billion of the $4.27 billion sought, according to U.N. data. emerging from the desert to abduct them, kill some and ransom others for money.