REPORT: Yemeni president quits, throwing nation deeper into chaos

Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi resigned on Thursday, a government spokesman said, throwing the country deeper into chaos days after Houthi rebels battled their way into his presidential palace.
 
Hadi, an ally of the United States, stood down abruptly shortly after Prime Minister Khaled Baha had offered his government's resignation, saying it did not want to be dragged into "an unconstructive political maze".
 
This was an apparent reference to a stand-off between Hadi and the Shi'ite Muslim Houthi movement which has been holding the president a virtual prisoner in his own official residence.
 
"We apologize to you personally and to the honorable chamber and to the Yemeni people after we reached a dead end," a government spokesman quoted Hadi's resignation letter as saying.
 
It was addressed to the speaker of parliament, who becomes interim head of state under the constitution.