Running yum and sosreport fails with error: "struct.error: unpack requires a string argument of length 4"

Issue

• yum fails with:

# yum
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/yum", line 28, in <module>
    import yummain
  File "/usr/share/yum-cli/yummain.py", line 34, in <module>
    import cli
  File "/usr/share/yum-cli/cli.py", line 29, in <module>
    from optparse import OptionParser,OptionGroup,SUPPRESS_HELP
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/optparse.py", line 418, in <module>
    _builtin_cvt = { "int" : (_parse_int, _("integer")),
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/gettext.py", line 568, in gettext
    return dgettext(_current_domain, message)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/gettext.py", line 532, in dgettext
    codeset=_localecodesets.get(domain))
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/gettext.py", line 480, in translation
    t = _translations.setdefault(key, class_(open(mofile, 'rb')))
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/gettext.py", line 180, in __init__
    self._parse(fp)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/gettext.py", line 273, in _parse
    magic = unpack('<I', buf[:4])[0]
struct.error: unpack requires a string argument of length 4

• sosreport fails with:

# sosreport
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/sbin/sosreport", line 20, in <module>
    from sos.sosreport import main
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/sos/sosreport.py", line 30, in <module>
    from optparse import OptionParser, Option
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/optparse.py", line 418, in <module>
    _builtin_cvt = { "int" : (_parse_int, _("integer")),
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/gettext.py", line 568, in gettext
    return dgettext(_current_domain, message)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/gettext.py", line 532, in dgettext
    codeset=_localecodesets.get(domain))
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/gettext.py", line 480, in translation
    t = _translations.setdefault(key, class_(open(mofile, 'rb')))
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/gettext.py", line 180, in __init__
    self._parse(fp)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.6/gettext.py", line 273, in _parse
    magic = unpack('<I', buf[:4])[0]
struct.error: unpack requires a string argument of length 4