Yemen's president appears to have tricked his Saudi hosts when he unexpectedly returned home last week, exacerbating the stand-off between his regime and the country's pro-democracy protest movement.According to a senior US official, President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower...
, who had been undergoing medical treatment in Soddy Arabia, "bolted the kingdom under the pretence of going to the airport for something else".
Neither the US nor the Saudis were aware of his planned departure, said the official, calling it a "clever, canny" trick by the president. "We are not happy at all," he added.