Chatter: Yemen is no country for Americans

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NEED TO KNOW

If you're in Yemen: you shouldn't be. The US State Department has issued an urgent travel warning advising all Americans to leave Yemeni soil immediately due to "extremely high" security risks. All non-emergency staff at the US embassy in Sanaa, which has remained closed out of caution since Sunday, have already been evacuated — so don't go looking for consular assistance if, as it's feared they plan to, terrorists attack.

The advisory comes after reports said that senior Al Qaeda commanders, including the co-founder of its Yemen-based faction, had been overheard discussing plans to attack US targets — the so-called terrorist chatter that's believed to have sparked this week's exceptional embassy closures. Fingers crossed all this attention has spoiled their big surprise.

Line of no control. Five Indian soldiers were shot dead early this morning near India's disputed border with Pakistan. In the latest outbreak of violence along the heavily guarded Line of Control that runs through Kashmir, Indian officials say their troops came under attack as they manned a border post.

Now, before anyone goes pointing fingers, Pakistani security officials have been quick to spread word that they had nothing to do with the deaths. Whatever happened, it bodes ill for the peace talks India and Pakistan have come tantalizingly close to resuming, and which were called off last time due to another Indian death on the border.

WANT TO KNOW

Another Fukushima emergency. Japan's nuclear watchdog says radioactive water spilling out of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant and into the Pacific Ocean is quietly creating a new crisis that the plant's owner is failing to deal with. Contaminated groundwater has breached an underground barrier and is rising toward the surface, Nuclear Regulatory Authority officials say, and operator Tepco is taking only temporary countermeasures.

The watchdog wants Tepco to introduce additional safety precautions. Today, of all days, you'd hope they'd listen: exactly 68 years ago, Hiroshima happened

The Amazon Post. After many years and some of the biggest scoops in media history, the Washington Post is being sold off. Long-time owners the Graham family will hand over the keys to the printing press (or just the online log-in) to the decidedly digital Amazon tycoon, Jeff Bezos. 

The Grahams say the enduring downturn in the print industry led to their decision to sell the flagship and other newspapers. At least Bezos still loves paper: he'll pay the $250 million price in cash.

Innovation, Indian style. Talented Indian tech pros have long dominated Silicon Valley. Now they're creating breakout startups back home — and US venture capital is getting interested.

In a new series, GlobalPost asks whether India's startup wallahs could hatch the next Google.

STRANGE BUT TRUE

There's a reason snakes are pretty low down in the "best pet" rankings. Proving yet again that they can't be trusted, news reaches us of the tragic death of two young Canadian boys who were strangled by a python. The reptile escaped from a New Brunswick pet shop and slithered its way up an air conditioning vent into the apartment above, where the two unlucky children were sleeping.

The snake, police assure us, is in custody.

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