F18 - yum update broken?

[Paul Erickson]

Has yum update broken? For some reason when I went to update today, if 
got the following message:

[root@localhost ~]# yum update
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, langpacks, presto, refresh-packagekit
updates/18/x86_64/metalink                               |  16 kB 
00:00
Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "/bin/yum", line 29, in <module>
     yummain.user_main(sys.argv[1:], exit_code=True)
   File "/usr/share/yum-cli/yummain.py", line 319, in user_main
     errcode = main(args)
   File "/usr/share/yum-cli/yummain.py", line 144, in main
     result, resultmsgs = base.doCommands()
   File "/usr/share/yum-cli/cli.py", line 485, in doCommands
     return self.yum_cli_commands[self.basecmd].doCommand(self, 
self.basecmd, self.extcmds)
   File "/usr/share/yum-cli/yumcommands.py", line 405, in doCommand
     return base.updatePkgs(extcmds, update_to=(basecmd == 'update-to'))
   File "/usr/share/yum-cli/cli.py", line 899, in updatePkgs
     self.update()
   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/yum/__init__.py", line 4739, 
in update
     updates = self.up.getUpdatesTuples()
   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/yum/__init__.py", line 1033, 
in <lambda>
     up = property(fget=lambda self: self._getUpdates(),
   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/yum/__init__.py", line 840, in 
_getUpdates
     self._up = rpmUtils.updates.Updates(self.rpmdb.simplePkgList(), 
self.pkgSack.simplePkgList())
   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/yum/__init__.py", line 1014, 
in <lambda>
     pkgSack = property(fget=lambda self: self._getSacks(),
   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/yum/__init__.py", line 780, in 
_getSacks
     self.repos.populateSack(which=repos)
   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/yum/repos.py", line 313, in 
populateSack
     self.doSetup()
   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/yum/repos.py", line 138, in 
doSetup
     self.retrieveAllMD()
   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/yum/repos.py", line 84, in 
retrieveAllMD
     dl = repo._async and repo._commonLoadRepoXML(repo)
   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 1407, in 
_commonLoadRepoXML
     if self._latestRepoXML(local):
   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 1385, in 
_latestRepoXML
     repomd = self.metalink_data.repomd
   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 885, in 
<lambda>
     metalink_data = property(fget=lambda self: self._getMetalink(),
   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 872, in 
_getMetalink
     self._metalink = metalink.MetaLinkRepoMD(result)
   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/yum/metalink.py", line 210, in 
__init__
     max_connections = int(celem.get("maxconnections"))
TypeError: int() argument must be a string or a number, not 'NoneType'

I have never encountered this before. Any suggestions?

cheers, Paul