Word: norths
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...surprise twin retirements announced this week by Democratic Senators Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota cap a dismal month for Democrats. Early in December, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi moved to stem the tide of lower-chamber retirements after four veteran moderate, so-called Blue Dogs announced that they would not run for re-election. Then, instead of a retirement, another Blue Dog - this time Alabama freshman Parker Griffith - jumped ship to the Republican Party. Only a year after celebrating an expected six GOP Senate retirements in 2010 and nearly a dozen in the House (that number...
...eyes of many political observers, Dorgan and Dodd were simply bowing to reality. They faced long odds of winning re-election in their home states - though Dems believe they now have a much better chance at holding on to Connecticut than North Dakota. Dodd, as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, had unpopular bailouts to contend with and a scandal over allegedly special treatment on his mortgage; Dorgan likely faced a tough battle against a popular GOP governor in a Republican-leaning state that disapproves of his vote for health care reform by a 2-to-1 margin. But there...
...City in Sana'a, the capital of Yemen, about a war they cannot yet imagine. Workers, students and the old men who sit outside the ancient mosques are wondering what fighting between al-Qaeda and the government would look like. Would it be like the conflict in the north, where extremist insurgents occupy villages with gunfire and government bombs rain down from the sky? Is al-Qaeda an army or just a bunch of ill-equipped gangs? "All citizens are scared," says Jamal al-Najjar, an English-language translator, while waiting for a group of foreign journalists at the airport...
...Sana'a, war has always been near. Rarely, however, does it breach the mountains that are topped with military bases and surround the capital. Much of the populace credits Yemen's President of 30 years, Ali Abdullah Saleh, with unifying north and south Yemen in 1990 and with holding on to the unification during a civil war four years later. "You should have seen it," Ghalib Onkumah, a teacher, says, shaking his head and making a face. In the dark days before Saleh took over, there were endless tribal and civil wars, he says. Onkumah, like many Yemenis, is confident...
...insurgency in the north, a secessionist movement in the south and the growing presence of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) all threaten the state, while a water crisis and relentless poverty threaten the people. Resources have become even more scarce with constant waves of refugees from Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea. Meanwhile, the government, which has little power outside of the cities, is disorganized and weak. The ministries and the parliament technically have some power, but almost all leaders are connected - if not actually related - to the President. Nepotism and corruption are an everyday occurrence, and the television...