Merry Chistmas to all, and to all a good sub … Front Page of the Day … Reuters will no longer let reporter who worked for Saleh cover Yemen …
Yemen
Compare and contrast: Yemen and Saudi Arabia
Promises of reform in two neighbouring mid-east countries: in Yemen, president Ali Abdullah Saleh calls for early elections and says he is committed to a peaceful transfer of power. In Saudi Arabia, king Abdullah has announced that from 2015 women will be allowed to stand and vote in local elections.
UN: Yemen used excessive deadly force against peaceful protesters
A UN report released this week has called for immediate international action in Yemen and claims the government unnecessarily killed hundreds of peaceful protesters, reports Nick Cumming-Bruce.
Media wrap: ailing president has Yemen holding its breath
Revelations that Yemen’s president Ali Abdullah Saleh was more gravely injured than previously reported have cast doubts over his ability to resume leadership in coming days. And protesters continue to exert pressure, writes Iona Salter.
Freedom fighters in Yemen
Protests about Yemen’s troubled government started back in January, but with the government still clinging on to power, it’s meant months of military clashes and public demonstrations.
Crikey Says: Stalemate in Libya
The failure to intervene elsewhere does not undermine the rationale for, or raise questions about the motive of, the intervention in Libya. The international community was faced with a stark choice about whether to act to prevent a mass slaughter.
interactive 
Domino Effect tumbles the Middle East
There’s been much discussion of the recent unrest in the Middle East, but this animated map by Slate clearly explains what’s happened on a daily basis — and where — from the first protests in Tunisia in December to yesterday in Yemen.
Mid-East uprising stopped in its tracks by West’s strategic uncertainty
The uprisings in the Middle East have been stopped dead in their tracks by a ferocious reaction from some of the world’s worst dictatorships, emboldened by international apathy.
Libya latest: no force, says Gaddafi, but threatens to kill dissenters
Muammar Gaddafi defiantly declares he won’t step down in his first real televised speech since anti-government protests began across the country last week. Crikey intern Sophie Cousins wraps the latest from the Middle East.
Middle East on fire: the latest from Bahrain, Libya and Yemen
Bahrainis the latest country in the region to be engulfed in anti-government demonstrations, inspired by the recent uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. Crikey covers the latest, including more violence in Libya and Yemen.
80 more boat people drown
It depends on where you drown, whether dead boat people become news in Australia, suggests Richard Farmer. When you capsize off the coast of Yemen you obviously don’t rate, based on the recent reports of 80 asylum seekers drowning.
Wikileaks 
Nine shocking WikiLeaks revelations
The latest epic document dump from WikiLeaks contains plenty of nuggets of controversy, and The Daily Beast have whittled the list down to nine of the most shocking - including Yemen covering up for the US and China hacking Google and the Dalai Lama.
The child-brides of Yemen
Over half of girls in Yemen are married off by their fathers before they’re 18, usually to men at least a decade older than them, with girls as young as 10 becoming mothers — and that’s if they’re lucky enough to survive the pregnancy.
Undercover in Yemen’s radical mosques
For four years, American writer Theo Padnos went deep undercover into the world of radical Islam in Yemen. But his cover was blown last year, and now he’s speaking out about his experiences.
VIDEO: A crash course on Yemen
What did you know about Yemen before a guy with a Yemeni mum tried to blow up an American plane? Al Jazeera shines a spotlight on the country that could be “the next Afghanistan”.
Crikey Clarifier: All roads lead to Yemen
Yemen has been big new lately, since alleged Christmas Day bomber, Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, admitted to terrorist training in the country and put it firmly back on the map. But what do we actually know about Yemen? Crikey gets a background briefing.
Warning to the US: tip toe softly, softly into Yemen
It’s still not clear exactly what US military intervention is going to occur in Yemen, but Barack Obama needs to be careful of the ripple effect that intervention will have in the Horn of Africa, writes Simon Tisdall.
Terrorists, nukes and war: the tumultuous 12 months ahead
How will the US battle terrorist forces in Yemen? Will Iran’s nuclear program be halted? Can the war in Iraq end in a peaceful democracy? David Ignatius puts in his predictions for the biggest global political issues of the year ahead.
Yemen: next stop for the War on Terror?
The would-be-bomber on the Northwest Amsterdam-Detroit flight claims he was trained and armed by al-Qaeda in Yemen. How did Yemen become the destination of choice for international jihadi’s planning terrorist attacks?
Hitchens: A global perspective on Polanski’s child rape
The West’s “Hollywood exceptionalism” that has seen many give Roman Polanski a pass for having sex with a 13-year-old is vile, but it’s still better than countries like Yemen, where being married by that age is the norm, says Christopher Hitchens.
Al-Qaida’s recruitment crisis
Militant Islam just isn’t pulling in the punters like it used to. Eight years since 9/11, the group’s failed to have any big “hits” in the West since the 2005 London bombings, despite expanding its operations. Has it jumped the shark?
