While a tentative ceasefire keeps Yemen's capital Sana'a in a relative state of tranquility, denizens of the city are aware that the longer political uncertainty drags on, the greater the risk of war becomes. This fear became apparent when the news reached Sana'a last Wednesday that President Ali Abdullah Saleh had had successful surgery in neighboring Saudi Arabia, where he had been whisked to after being severely injured in an attack on his residence. Chaos erupted in the ...

Residents of Yemen's capital Sana'a awoke on Tuesday to a dawn chorus of bird song and machine-gun fire. An uneasy truce between rebel tribesmen and loyalist troops had prevailed over the weekend. But now the two sides were back at it, launching shells at each other as windows rattled across the city and plumes of dark smoke rose into the crystal blue sky. Despite four months of mass protests and defections from within his army, party and tribe, ...

Oliver Wendell Holmes once observed that every profession is great that is greatly pursued. Boxing in the early '60s, largely controlled by the Mob, was in a moribund state until Muhammad Ali--Cassius Clay, in those days--appeared on the scene. "Just when the sweet science appears to lie like a painted ship upon a painted ocean," wrote A.J. Liebling, "a new Hero...comes along like a Moran tug to pull it out of the ocean." Though Ali won the gold medal at ...

Yemen's revolution has been a slow-burning one. Three months after an 18-day whirlwind of protests tossed Egypt's Hosni Mubarak from power, Yemen's youthful protesters are still in the thick of their own Arab uprising. However, though hounded and abandoned by senior members of his party, army and tribe, President Ali Abdullah Saleh somehow continues to cling to power. Time and again, Saleh has reneged on apparent agreements to step down. But time may now be running out as ...

Calm and composed in a sharp suit and dark sunglasses, Yemen's embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh took to the podium on Friday and before a massive crowd announced that he was ready to transfer power — but only to the right people. And yet, while that may have sounded cynical to most of his opponents, Saleh also chose to address the heart of the popular movement against him, directly speaking to the young activists who had begun ...

Leave it to Libya's Muammar Gaddafi to show the world how a tyrant goes down: with bluster, belligerence and blood. Not for him, the quiet escape of Tunisia's Zine el Abidine Ben Ali or the noisy — but broadly peaceful — exit of Egypt's Hosni Mubarak. When the Arab youth uprising that has toppled despots on either side of his North African nation arrived on his doorstep, Gaddafi gave notice that the region's longest-surviving dictatorship would not succumb to revolutionary ...

Yemen's President, Ali Abdullah Saleh, flew into the Gulf of Aden on Nov. 7 to celebrate the first exports of liquefied natural gas from a sprawling $4.5 billion plant — the biggest ever investment in his otherwise impoverished desert country. A brass band played and politicians applauded the gas tanker as it set sail for South Korea, but Saleh's attention was elsewhere — on the attacks that Saudi Arabia's military forces were waging against antigovernment Shi'ite rebels in the ...

Pakistan denied Wednesday that it is harboring a Sunni rebel leader accused of orchestrating a suicide attack in neighboring Iran. Tehran has vowed "a crushing response" to the Sunni rebel group Jundallah for Sunday's suicide bombing in Sistan-Baluchestan province that killed 42 people. Iran has accused the United States and Pakistan of having links to Jundallah. Iran has demanded Pakistan hand over Jundallah leader Abdul Malik Rigi, whom Tehran blames for plotting the attack. But Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik ...

Wrestling legend and reality TV star Hulk Hogan reveals in a new book that he would have committed suicide were it not for a surprise phone call, according to a story in the New York Daily News. Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, credits boxer and "Gladiators" co-star Laila Ali with making the call that prevented him from taking his own life. In his new book "My Life Outside the Ring," the former wrestler describes how he hit rock ...

Tehran's new uranium enrichment plant will be operational soon, and "will blind the eyes of the enemies," Iran's semi-official news agency Fars reported Saturday, quoting a senior Iranian official. Also Saturday, the head of Iran's atomic energy program said U.N. nuclear experts would be allowed to inspect the plant, according to a report from Iran-funded Press TV. Ali Akbar Salehi, the atomic energy chief, said a date would be arranged for such an inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency, ...