International Glance
They are the real heroes of the Haitian earthquake disaster, the human catastrophe on America's doorstep which Barack Obama pledged a monumental US humanitarian mission to alleviate. Except these heroes are from America's arch-enemy Cuba, whose doctors and nurses have put US efforts to shame.
A medical brigade of 1,200 Cubans is operating all over earthquake-torn and cholera-infected Haiti, as part of Fidel Castro's international medical mission which has won the socialist state many friends, but little international recognition.
Cuban medics in Haiti put the world to shame
Report: Incoming Mossad chief to apologize for use of U.K. passports in Dubai hit
Tamir Pardo, the incoming chief of the Mossad intelligence service, will apologize to British officials for the use of forged United Kingdom passports in the assassination last January of Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai, the British Daily Telegraph reported on Saturday.
The Telegraph report, which cited Mossad sources, also said that Pardo would promise that Israeli agents will never again use fake British documents in overseas operations.
Nigeria Drops Bribery Charges Against Cheney
The Nigerian authorities have dropped criminal bribery charges against Halliburton and Dick Cheney, the former vice president, following the oil services giant’s agreement to a $35 million settlement, the company said in statement this week. Nigerian officials said last week that the settlement would amount to $250 million.
Mr. Cheney was chief executive of Halliburton from 1995 to 2000. The Nigerian charges, filed in early December, were just the latest fallout from a $180 million bribery scheme that Kellogg Brown & Root, a former Halliburton subsidiary, has admitted carrying out with three other companies in a joint venture to develop a liquid natural gas facility in the Niger Delta.
Report: Bolivia follows neighboring countries in recognition of Palestinian state
Bolivia joined Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay by announcing it recognized Palestine as a sovereign state within the 1967 borders, Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported Friday.
Bolivian President Evo Morales made the announcement during the South American trade block Mercosur's summit which took place in Brazil. Morales was quoted as saying that Bolivia recognized the state of Palestine on the 1967 borders with Israel.
Israel shoots down 'balloon' near nuclear site
Israel says one of its fighter planes has shot down what appeared to be an unmanned balloon which had flown over a top-secret nuclear facility.
A military spokeswoman said an investigation had been launched into the incident. Israel has designated airspace above the Dimona site in the southern Negev desert a no-fly zone.
Nigeria: Halliburton plans plea bargain in Cheney corruption case
Halliburton is planning to make a plea bargain in former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's corruption case, Nigerian officials told GlobalPost. Nigeria's anti-corruption agency charged Cheney as the head of Halliburton when its engineering subsidiary, KBR, allegedly paid bribes totaling $180 million to secure contracts worth $6 billion.
KBR has admitted to bribing officials. Last year the company pleaded guilty in a U.S. federal court to paying the bribes to Nigerian officials prior to 2007, when it was a subsidiary of Halliburton. KBR, which is now independent from Halliburton, agreed to pay $597 million in fines, according to the Associated Press.
Ex-intelligence official blast lobbying to free Israeli spy
Jonathan Pollard’s ex-wife Anne and her father were settled in Israel by the government there this week, the latest chapter in a renewed campaign to free the confessed spy. Israel has angled periodically for Pollard’s release since 1998, when it admitted, after 13 years of denials, that the former naval intelligence analyst was not a rogue agent but an officially sanctioned spy.
Last September Prime Minster Binyamin Netanyahu relit the fires under the case when, according to Israeli Army Radio, he asked the Obama administration to release Pollard in exchange for a temporary halt in Israel's construction of Jewish settlements.
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