Jack Straw faces legal action over Libya rendition claims
Libyan commander Abdel Hakim Belhaj takes legal action against former foreign secretary, alleging complicity in his torture
A former Libyan dissident who was abducted and flown to one of Muammar Gaddafi's prisons in a so-called rendition operation mounted with the help of MI6 has started legal proceedings against Jack Straw, who was British foreign secretary at the time.
Lawyers representing Abdel Hakim Belhaj confirmed on Wednesday that they had served papers on Straw alleging his complicity in the torture that Belhaj subsequently suffered, as well as misfeasance in public office.
Straw is already facing the prospect of being questioned by Scotland Yard detectives after an announcement by the Crown Prosecution Service earlier this year that a criminal investigation was being launched into the rendition operation.
Argentina forces Spain closer to the precipice
Assets seizure deals new blow as Madrid struggles with bond sale
When it rains in Spain these days, it truly pours misery. Argentina announced on Monday that it is planning to nationalise an oil company, YPF, in which a Spanish firm, Repsol, has a majority stake. Coming at a time when the government in Madrid has just rammed through the most severe budget since the death of General Franco, this must feel like an economic insult for Spain on top of already intolerable injury.
The Spanish government has promised an "overwhelming" response to the threat to Repsol's financial interests in Argentina and the country's Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, is in South America to gather support from friendly governments such as Mexico and Colombia.
Amid Pulitzer glory, the 'girl in the green dress' still has nightmares
April 18, 2012 - 10:31AM
Down a rutted dirt alley in Old Kabul, the “girl in the green dress” — the subject of AFP's Pulitzer-winning photograph — still has nightmares about the day a suicide bomber made her image world famous.
Tarana Akbari, 11, no longer wears her best dress, which was drenched in her own blood and that of her relatives who were among 70 people who died around her at a religious festival on December 6 last year.
AFP photographer Massoud Hossaini, 30, won the prestigious US journalism prize for his “heartbreaking image of a girl crying in fear after a suicide bomber's attack at a crowded shrine in Kabul,” the Pulitzer committee said.
Britain 'planned poison gas tests in Botswana'
RICHARD NORTON-TAYLOR LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - Apr 18 2012 07:47
Britain planned to test a very virulent type of poison gas in what is now
Botswana, previously secret documents from the UK's colonial archive
have revealed.
The plan for "practical trials" carried out on a "considerable scale" was first proposed by the Ministry of Aircraft Production in 1943. It was looking for an "isolated area" of about 26 square kilometres that was free of people, Britain's high commission in Pretoria was told.
The Pretoria government quickly told the British that there was no suitable area within the Union of South Africa, according to the hitherto secret file marked "FORENSIC", the codename given to the planned operation.
How Pakistan makes US pay for Afghan war
By Dilip Hiro
The following ingredients should go a long way to produce a political thriller. Mr M, a jihadi in an Asian state, has emerged as the mastermind of a terrorist attack in a neighboring country, which killed six Americans. After sifting through a vast cache of intelligence and obtaining a legal clearance, the State Department announces a $10 million bounty for information leading to his arrest and conviction. Mr M promptly appears at a press conference and says, "I am here. America should give that reward money to me."
A State Department spokesperson explains lamely that the reward is meant for incriminating evidence against Mr M that would stand up in court. The prime minister of M's home state condemns foreign interference in his country's internal affairs.
Thousands housed in trailers after Katrina may get payments
By Reuters
NEW ORLEANS -- More than 20 mobile home manufacturers have agreed to pay $14.8 million to thousands of U.S. hurricane victims who said they were harmed by formaldehyde in the trailers.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs, who lived in trailers after being left homeless by Gulf Coast hurricanes Katrina and Rita, filed the preliminary settlement in federal court in New Orleans on Friday, asking U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt to approve it.
The settlement could affect tens of thousands of people who lived in trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency after Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast and left thousands homeless in August and September 2005.
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