An unknown number of refugees at a U.N. refugee camp in Saada, a province in northern Yemen, were killed in fighting between government troops and Shi'ite rebels.
Details are sketchy, according to Al-Arabiya, but it's believed that a rocket or mortar round landed in the camp. Some of the victims were women and children.
Around 500 people live in the camp, on the outskirts of Saada. More than 150,000 people have been displaced by the fighting since it began earlier this year.
Robert Fisk reports that the Gulf Arab states will stop selling oil in dollars by 2018, moving to gold in the short term and perhaps some other reserve currency in the long term. (Coincidentally -- or perhaps not -- the price of gold hit an all-time high today.)
I'm covering a Senate hearing this morning on Iran sanctions, so I don't have time to write more on this story, but I do want to highlight one particularly troubling paragraph:
The Americans... are sure to fight this international cabal which will include hitherto loyal allies Japan and the Gulf Arabs... Sun Bigan, China's former special envoy to the Middle East, has warned there is a risk of deepening divisions between China and the US over influence and oil in the Middle East. "Bilateral quarrels and clashes are unavoidable," he told the Asia and Africa Review.
In other words: The Middle East will be the battleground for yet another proxy war, this time between the U.S. and China.
Geithner's trip, which hasn't gotten a lot of American press attention, had a pretty simple goal: reassure our rich allies in the Gulf that it's a safe bet to keep their money invested in the U.S.
