yum on Centos stuck at "loaded plugins: fastestmirror"

When trying to install a package using yum on Centos, the command is getting stuck at the first part:

loaded plugins: fastestmirror

I've tried:

1. removing /var/cache/yum/timedhosts.txt See suggestion
2. yum update yum
3. making sure there are no other processes running and removing /var/run/yum.pid
4. yum clean all See suggestion
5. Checked that DNS works for all the servers in the /etc/yum.repos.d/*.repo files
6. Set the enabled flag in vi /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/fastestmirror.conf // enabled=0 See Suggestion

... still having the problem.

Any ideas?