Why does registration using subscription-manager fail with the error "sslv3 alert handshake failure" in RHEL6.1?

Issue

• Registering to RHN using the command "subscription-manager" fails as follows:

# subscription-manager register --username xxxx --password yyyy  --auto 
sslv3 alert handshake failure
#

• The logs in /var/log/rhsm/rhsm.log show the following trace:

2014-12-01 16:53:59,955 [INFO] __init__() @connection.py:298 - Using certificate authentication: key = /etc/pki/consumer/key.pem, cert = /etc/pki/consumer/cert.pem, ca = /etc/rhsm/ca/, insecure = False
2014-12-01 16:53:59,955 [INFO] __init__() @connection.py:301 - Connection Established: host: subscription.rhn.redhat.com, port: 443, handler: /subscription
2014-12-01 16:54:00,069 [INFO] __init__() @connection.py:287 - Using basic authentication as: xxxx
2014-12-01 16:54:00,069 [INFO] __init__() @connection.py:301 - Connection Established: host: subscription.rhn.redhat.com, port: 443, handler: /subscription
2014-12-01 16:54:00,419 [DEBUG] __init__() @certlib.py:640 - Sorting product and entitlement cert status for: 2014-12-01 16:54:00.419062
2014-12-01 16:54:00,423 [DEBUG] _populate_all_products() @certlib.py:658 - Installed product IDs: ['69']
2014-12-01 16:54:00,423 [DEBUG] __init__() @certlib.py:649 - valid entitled products: []
2014-12-01 16:54:00,424 [DEBUG] __init__() @certlib.py:650 - expired entitled products: []
2014-12-01 16:54:00,425 [INFO] _request() @connection.py:147 - loading ca pem certificates from: /etc/rhsm/ca/
2014-12-01 16:54:00,425 [INFO] _load_ca_certificates() @connection.py:134 - loading ca certificate '/etc/rhsm/ca/fakamai-cp1.pem'
2014-12-01 16:54:00,426 [INFO] _load_ca_certificates() @connection.py:134 - loading ca certificate '/etc/rhsm/ca/redhat-uep.pem'
2014-12-01 16:54:00,427 [INFO] _load_ca_certificates() @connection.py:134 - loading ca certificate '/etc/rhsm/ca/candlepin-stage.pem'
2014-12-01 16:54:00,427 [INFO] _request() @connection.py:149 - work in insecure mode ?:False
2014-12-01 16:54:00,427 [INFO] _request() @connection.py:156 - using proxy xxxx.xx.xx:8080
2014-12-01 16:54:00,428 [INFO] _request() @connection.py:163 - handler: https://subscription.rhn.redhat.com:443/subscription/consumers/
2014-12-01 16:54:01,906 [ERROR] handle_exception() @managercli.py:46 - Error during registration: sslv3 alert handshake failure
2014-12-01 16:54:01,906 [ERROR] handle_exception() @managercli.py:47 - sslv3 alert handshake failure
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/share/rhsm/managercli.py", line 422, in _do_command
    facts=self.facts.get_facts())
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/rhsm/connection.py", line 323, in registerConsumer
    return self.conn.request_post('/consumers/', params)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/rhsm/connection.py", line 203, in request_post
    return self._request("POST", method, params)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/rhsm/connection.py", line 169, in _request
    headers=self.headers)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/httplib.py", line 914, in request
    self._send_request(method, url, body, headers)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/httplib.py", line 951, in _send_request
    self.endheaders()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/rhsm/connection.py", line 89, in endheaders
    httpslib.HTTPSConnection.endheaders(self)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/httplib.py", line 908, in endheaders
    self._send_output()
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/httplib.py", line 780, in _send_output
    self.send(msg)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/httplib.py", line 739, in send
    self.connect()
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/site-packages/M2Crypto/httpslib.py", line 182, in connect
    self._start_ssl()
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/site-packages/M2Crypto/httpslib.py", line 200, in _start_ssl
    self.sock.connect_ssl()
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/site-packages/M2Crypto/SSL/Connection.py", line 178, in connect_ssl
    return m2.ssl_connect(self.ssl, self._timeout)
SSLError: sslv3 alert handshake failure