The latest news is that Yemen’s embattled president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, agreed to be flown to Saudi Arabia today for urgent medical treatment, a day after being wounded in a bold attack on the presidential compound..
According to Saudi officials.. this is a move that would leave Yemen leaderless amid an intensifying political crisis.
Now the word from Yemeni sources is, that Saleh has not left the country.. But if he has..Analysts fear that a sudden departure by Saleh, after 33 years in power, would create even deeper chaos in Yemen.. the government has already lost control of some outlying provinces and Al Qaeda and other jihadists have appeared to exploit the political turmoil to move more freely.
Tribal confrontations continue in the country, with the Presidential compound attacked yesterday.. seven members of Saleh's staff were killed in the attack.. and Saleh himself injured.. But still the man remains defiant, urging the army to confront his tribal opponents, who he blamed for the attack..
Now this is quite the humiliation for the President.. and with the escalation of the fighting between government troops and tribal rebels.. he must be looking for an equitable way out..
He had put several conditions for his departure and, when an initiative by the Gulf Co-operation Council was signed by the opposition, he changed his mind.. this escalation against protesters and rival tribes appears to be calculated to press his case.. President Saleh wants more than what is being offered by the GCC initiative.. It seems the whole deal hinges on the resignations of three of the sons of the Opposition leader.. to compensate for the resignation of the President, and his three sons.. a nephew might be part of this nonsense as well.. It's hard to tell..
Middle Eastern politics is something of a Gordian Knot..

Residents and a militant active in the area announced today that one of Pakistan’s most wanted militant commanders, Ilyas Kashmiri, was killed in an American drone strike in the tribal territory of South Waziristan.. .. But Pakistani and American officials cautioned that they had not been able to confirm his death.. This man was touted as 'the new bin Laden..

Meanwhile, in Greece.. Jean-Claude Juncker, the chairman of the Eurogroup, said after meeting the Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou that he expected eurozone nations to provide fresh aid on top of the €110 billion (£98 billion) bailout agreed in March last year.
No figures have been mentioned.. but analysts said that at least €30 billion of new loans would be needed, two thirds of which are likely to come from eurozone nations and the rest from the International Monetary Fund. Private sector creditors such as banks and fund managers will also have to shoulder some of the burden of shoring up Greece’s finances.
This may well be a case of throwing good money after bad..

If a maybe-candidate for president does not issue an “official schedule” to the news media as she tours around in something that closely resembles a campaign bus, did the tour really happen..? It did.. as evidenced by the all-terrain coverage that..true to precedent.. trailed Sarah Palin wherever she motored last week.
But how dare she disregard the media like that?
“I don’t think I owe anything to the mainstream media,” she said in an interview aboard her bus with Greta Van Susteren of Fox News... why Fox god only knows.. But..whatever... This is all part of the familiar Palin approach..
Call it “The Politics of Doing Whatever the Heck I Want.” There she went again, disrespecting the almighty “process,” playing by her own rules and seeming not to give a flying hoot what anyone thought about it. That included the so-called key Republicans, party insiders and self-important activists whom she also seemed to ignore en route. These are many of the same people who trashed Palin’s bus tour as ill-conceived and disorganized in ..often anonymous.. comments to the wild-goose-chasers.
Mitt Romney.. look out..

This story is one to bring a wry smile..
Two identical twin brothers, both Franciscan Monks, died today within hours of each other... they were 92..
Both died of heart failure..
Julian and Adrian Riester did it all together.. school.. travelling.. joining the Franciscan order together... Most of their lives were spent at St Bonaventure University in New York... and a spokesman for the university said "It really is almost a poetic ending to the remarkable story of their lives.."
Indeed..