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After U.S. visit, Yemen's Saleh returns to Sanaa
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has returned to his residence in Sanaa, a spokesman for the country's embassy in Washington said late Friday.
Saleh had been in the United States for medical treatment for wounds suffered in a June assassination attempt at his presidential palace during battles between government troops and tribal fighters.
He was expected to return to Yemen in time for the inauguration of the next president.
FULL STORYCNN prime time: Revealing Palin e-mails, fake Denny's boss helps himself
Palin e-mail mentions divorce
“I can’t afford this job,” says Sarah Palin in newly-released e-mails that reveal frustration over legal costs and bring the health of her marriage into question.
Santorum: Romney on wrong team
Rick Santorum escalates his rhetoric, accusing Mitt Romney of false attacks and playing for the wrong team.
Fake Denny's boss cooks himself a burger
Talk about fake it ‘til you make it. A guy walks into a Denny’s, claims he’s the new boss, goes to the kitchen and cooks himself a burger and fries.
S.F. airport checkpoint closed over suspicious package
A security checkpoint that serves passengers intending to board Delta Airlines flights at San Francisco International Airport has been closed because of a suspicious package, an airport spokesman said Friday afternoon.
Authorities are investigating the package, said Mike McCarron, the airport's director Of community
affairs Mike McCarron.
Flights were continuing as normal, he said.
Lucy goes lawless protesting aboard drillship
Who wants to get in a fight with Xena the Warrior Princess?
It seems that a major oil corporation doesn't have much of a choice. On Thursday Lucy Lawless, the actress who played Xena, and six other Greenpeace activists illegally boarded a drilling ship leased to Shell Oil off New Zealand's western shore. The group reached a 174-foot drilling tower and held a sign "Stop Shell #SaveTheArctic."
CNN spoke with Lawless on the Noble Discoverer Friday morning, the middle of the night in New Zealand. It was cold and noisy and she wasn't getting much sleep. But the actress didn't seem bothered at all. Asked to describe how she and the other protesters got on board, she said, "We walked like human beings wearing hard hats (but) I don't want to give away any trade secrets."
Greenpeace, in a statement, said the group had actually scaled the drillship which was in the Port of Taranaki in New Zealand. The activists were told to get off. But Lawless and the protesters refused to cooperate.
"We thanked them for adhering to their protocol," Lawless said, stressing that the exchange between the activists and authorities has been peaceful. "We know we'll be arrested. We have no choice but to stay where we are and send our message to the world."
Lawless said the activists are prepared to hunker down until their anti-Arctic drilling point is made. By early Friday afternoon it appeared that it was - stories were popping up across the Web and in news outlets across the globe about the stunt.
"We feel very much that what happens in the Arctic doesn't stay in the Arctic anymore," Lawless said. "An oil spill can never be cleaned up because of the remoteness and the freezing temperatures. We risk trashing whole ecosystems and poisoning them from plankton on up. It's absolutely unthinkable."
The Noble Discoverer is owned by Noble Corporation and is contracted for operation by Shell, according to Shell spokeswoman Kelly op de Weegh.
Lawless and the other activists have "occupied" the drillship to prevent it from departing on a "6,000 nautical mile journey from New Zealand to the remote Arctic to start an exploratory oil drilling program that threatens to devastate the Alaskan coastline," Greenpeace spokeswoman Szabina Mozes said.
"We are disappointed that Greenpeace has chosen this method to protest," op de Weegh wrote in an e-mail to CNN. "Actions such as this jeopardize the safety of everyone involved. While we respect the right of individuals to express their point of view, the priority should be the safety of Noble's personnel and that of the protestors."
Shell is investigating how the activists got on board, op de Weegh wrote.
Lawless, a longtime environmental activist, has never done any protesting as extreme as this. She said she thought about her three children and her family when deciding whether to participate in the Noble Discoverer demonstration.
"The oil that is captured will be burnt in the air to rain more destruction down on our grand children," she said.
Lawless has no idea how many days she and the group will be out to sea. She brought some chocolate and peanuts with her.
"We're here as long as it takes," she said.
Haiti's prime minister resigns after months in office
Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille submitted his resignation Friday, President Michel Joseph Martelly announced.
Conille just assumed the position in October after being ratified by the country's Senate.
The prime minister is a former United Nations development specialist and previously served as chief of staff for former President Bill Clinton, the special U.N. envoy in Haiti. In that role, he was involved in international aid delivery to Haiti following the devastating earthquake in 2010.
In a post on his official Facebook page, Martelly said only that his office received Conille's resignation.
Martelly is expected to address the nation Friday evening.
This Week's Top Videos
Editor's Note: This post is a recap of the top five videos on CNN.com from the past week. So in case you didn't catch our best videos during the week, here is your chance to see what you missed.
This week's top videos ranged from bizarre, to humorous to just plain tragic. From crazy sea creatures to ogling royals to a heart-wrenching rescue, here are this week's five most popular videos.
Caught ogling her royal assets
Was the royal bosom ogled? CNN's Jeanne Moos reports on men caught up to their eyeballs in cleavage.
Woman shot with Taser now brain dead
A woman shot with a Taser by a trooper in Florida, falls into a coma. Jane Velez-Mitchell speaks with her parents.
Strange fish with 'wings' and 'legs'
Check out this strange fish found in a Chinese market, which one man thought had wings and legs.
Gov. Christie's harsh words for Buffett
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says if Warren Buffett wants to pay more taxes, he can just write a check
Passerby finds starved teen on roadside
The stranger who rescued a malnourished teen lying on the side of the road speaks with CNN's Brooke Baldwin.
7 people evacuated from Syrian city, Red Cross says
[Updated at 3:29 p.m. ET] Rescue crews evacuated a few wounded and sick women and children from the besieged Syrian city of Homs, a spokeswoman for the International Committee for the Red Cross said Friday.
The Red Crescent evacuated 7 injured people from the Baba Amr neighborhood in Homs on Friday, transporting them to the Al Amin hospital on the outskirts of the city, according to Hicham Hassan, Mideast spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Government forces have been shelling parts of the city - especially the neighborhood of Baba Amr, a bastion of anti-government sentiment - for about three weeks, damaging houses and other buildings and leaving many dead and wounded.
The shelling comes amid a nearly yearlong crackdown on people protesting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, activists have said.
In hard-hit Baba Amr, many homes have been destroyed by shelling, and streets were strewn with rubble, a CNN crew observed there last week. Hundreds have been living in makeshift shelters, having left their homes out of necessity or fear. The CNN crew reported that the shelters were running low on food, medical and other supplies.
Activists have reported several to tens of deaths daily in Homs since the shelling began three weeks ago.
The opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria claims more than 8,000 people have been killed throughout Syria since the uprising began last March.
Al-Assad has denied reports that his forces are targeting civilians, saying they are fighting armed gangs and foreign fighters bent on destabilizing the government. But many accounts inside the country say Syrian forces are killing civilians as part of a crackdown on anti-government opposition.
Friday's evacuations came as representatives of world powers met in Tunisia and called for a political solution in Syria, as well as what one diplomat called a "tsunami wave" of pressure that would peel away internal support for the embattled regime.
FULL STORYDisturbances prompt cancellations of some Nike releases
[Updated at 4:13 p.m. ET] Concerns about disturbances among large crowds waiting to buy special-edition Nike shoes tied to this weekend’s NBA All-Star Game prompted stores in several states to cancel the releases, media reports say.
Of particular interest among many would-be shoppers, according to the reports, was the $220 Nike Foamposite One Galaxy, a space-themed, glow-in-the dark shoe that nods to the space legacy of Florida, where this weekend’s game is happening in Orlando.
In Orlando on Thursday night, a Foot Locker House of Hoops store at Florida Mall cancelled a special 11 p.m. opening after police were called to handle a crowd of about 1,200 people, CNN affiliates Bay News 9 and WFTV reported.
The crowd outside the mall was moved across the street before the late-night opening. But at one point, people rushed toward the store, which was to sell the Foamposite One and other All-Star-related releases, the affiliates reported.
“People tried running over the cops. People tried just getting into that line,” witness Youssef Abounouadar told WFTV. “Everyone ran to the door, and it started getting really hectic.”
The latest legislative tool: Satire
For the very serious business of making serious laws for states with legitimately serious problems, there’s an unexpected streak of comedic wackiness running through governmental chambers.
Consider a sample of legislative work since the start of 2012:
Alaska Rep. Kyle Johansen, R-Alaska, proposed the federal government take over New York’s Central Park and make it a development-free wilderness area as a way to blast back at those he says are in the way of drilling the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Wyoming legislators followed up with a bill in support of Alaska's measure.
In Mississippi, Democratic lawmaker Stephen Holland introduced a bill to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. It's a swipe at Republicans who he says want to push everything having to do with Mexico out of the state.
To get more - ahem - personal, Democratic Oklahoma Sen. Constance Johnson wrote a provision for an anti-abortion bill that said men can ejaculate only into women’s vaginas, lest lives be wasted. Virginia Democrat Janet Howell amended an anti-abortion bill to require rectal exams for men before they could get erectile dysfunction medications.
This week Rep. Yasmin Neal, D-Georgia, tired of an anti-abortion debate she says ignored women’s points of view, introduced a bill that would block men from having vasectomies unless the procedure would prevent death or serious injury.
Nevermind filibusters, lobbyists and legislative majorities; when lawmakers really want the world to know their opinions, they crack a joke, keep a straight face and wait for the tweets to start.
“Irony has a lot of currency these days,” said Jeffrey P. Jones, author of "Entertaining Politics: New Political Television and Civic Culture" and director of Old Dominion University's Institute of Humanities. “It’s kind of a new public language.”
TV anchor gives interview after on-air dog bite
A Denver news anchor is speaking out for the first time after being severely injured when a dog bit her on the face during a TV interview. Earlier this month, Kyle Dyer was interviewing the owner of an 85-pound Argentine Mastiff who was rescued from icy waters. While petting the dog’s face, Dyer leaned in to kiss his nose when the dog lurched forward and bit her face.
Friday's live events
The race to the Republican presidential nomination continues on February 28 with the Arizona and Michigan primaries. CNN.com Live is your home for all the latest news and views from the campaign trail.
Today's programming highlights...
11:30 am ET - White House briefing - The situations in Iran and Syria will likely top Jay Carney's agenda with the White House press corps.
Nations to call on Syria to agree to cease-fire or face yet-to-be named response
World powers convening Friday in Tunisia are mapping out a plan to deliver humanitarian aid and give political legitimacy to the Syrian opposition, while details emerged that Arab nations have begun supplying arms to Syrian rebels, sources told CNN.
The diplomatic developments follow opposition claims that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces are now emulating elsewhere in the country the shelling attacks against the besieged city of Homs that have left hundreds dead.
More than 100 people were killed Thursday, including 14 children and a soldier who refused to open fire on civilians, according to the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, a loose network of opposition groups that documents government violence.
Diplomatic sources told CNN late Thursday that a number of Arab nations are supplying arms to the rebel Syrian army and militias.
The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, would not identify the countries.
FULL STORYNew inquest into baby's 'dingo' death
In a dusty campsite in central Australia more than 30 years ago, a mother's cries of "a dingo's got my baby" set the stage for one of the country's most intriguing murder mysteries.
The final scenes are set to be played out in court on Friday when a coroner will hear new evidence that her parents hope will once and for all confirm Azaria Chamberlain's official cause of death.
"We want a finding that Azaria was taken by a dingo," said Stuart Tipple, the lawyer representing Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton and her former husband Michael.
"There is a lot of new evidence. The last inquest was in 1995 and since then there have been a number of significant dingo attacks," Tipple said.
FULL STORYPresidential candidate carjacked, beaten in Egypt
Egyptian presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh was carjacked and beaten late Thursday as he was returning from a conference, his campaign manager said.
Aboul Fotouh was being driven on a highway when a car carrying masked gunmen intercepted him, said Ali Behnasawy, the campaign manager.
The suspects pulled the driver out of the car and beat him with their guns. Aboul Fotouh tried to intervene and he was also beaten, Behnasawy said. The gunmen then stole the car and fled.
FULL STORYRudd to contest Australian leadership
Former Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd announced Friday that he will seize a second chance to lead the country by launching a formal challenge to Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Rudd ended days of speculation as to his intentions following his shock resignation Wednesday while on an official trip to Washington.
"Rightly or wrongly, Julia (Gillard) has lost the trust of the Australian people. And starting on Monday I want to start restoring that trust," he told a press conference in Brisbane.
"And that is why I've decided to contest the leadership of the Labor Party."
FULL STORY
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