International Glance
Guests at the going-away party for Carlo Maria Viganò couldn’t understand why the archbishop looked so forlorn. Pope Benedict XVI had appointed Viganò ambassador to the United States, a plum post where he would settle into a stately mansion on Massachusetts Avenue, across the street from the vice president’s residence.
“He went through the ordeal making it very clear he was unhappy with it,” said one former ambassador to the Vatican, who attended the Vatican Gardens ceremony in the late summer of 2011. “And we just couldn’t figure out, us outsiders and non-Italians, what was going on.”
Leaked papers of the pope depict a broken Vatican
Israeli government 'to compensate family of Prisoner X'
The Israeli government has reportedly offered to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation to the family of "Prisoner X" – an agent of the Mossad with Australian and Israeli citizenship who took his own life while secretly imprisoned for undisclosed "grave charges".
An unnamed source was quoted in the Haaretz newspaper claiming a compensation deal was agreed six weeks ago following the conclusion of an official inquiry into the death of Ben Zygier, who was imprisoned in 2010 under a false identity and who killed himself in Unit 15, a "secret prison" within Ayalon jail near Tel Aviv.
Qaher F313: Iran unveils home-made 'stealth' fighter
Iran has unveiled a new home-made combat aircraft, which officials say can evade radar. The single-seat Qaher F313 (Dominant F313) is the latest design produced by Iran's military since it launched the Azarakhsh (Lightning), in 2007.
President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad said it had "almost all the positive features" of the world's most sophisticated jets. He said the "development of the Iranian nation's military power is... for deterrence and defensive purposes".
Abbas: Palestine now a state
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says future official documents will use the term "State of Palestine."
Abbas said his order applies to all government institutions, including missions in other countries, the official Wafa news agency reported Friday. He said missions in countries that voted against granting the authority the status of a non-member observer state at the United Nations should consult the Palestinian Foreign Ministry.
Pakistan: Gunmen kill 5 female teachers, 2 aid workers possibly in retaliation for polio work
Gunmen on motorcycles sprayed a van carrying employees from a community center with bullets Tuesday, killing five female teachers and two aid workers, but sparing a child they took out of the vehicle before opening fire.
The director of the group that the seven worked for says he suspects it may have been the latest in a series of attacks targeting anti-polio efforts in Pakistan. Some militants oppose the vaccination campaigns, accusing health workers of acting as spies for the U.S. and alleging the vaccine is intended to make Muslim children sterile.
Israeli high court allows Arab MK to run
Israel's Supreme Court unanimously overturned a Central Election Committee decision to disqualify an Arab Knesset member. The court said Knesset member Haneen Zoabi, of the Balad party could run in the upcoming elections, Israeli media reported Sunday.
"This ruling proves again that the Central Elections Committee is a political body that abuses its authority and allows politicians to bar their rival for ideological reasons," Zoabi told Army Radio shortly after the high court decision.
Top Syrian general defects accusing military of 'committing massacres against innocent people'
A pan-Arab TV station says the general who heads Syria's military police has defected and joined the uprising against president Bashar Assad.
Major General Abdul-Aziz Jassem al-Shallal has appeared in a video aired on Al Arabiya TV saying he is joining "the people's revolution".
In the video aired late on Tuesday, al-Shallal said the army deviated from its mission of protecting the nation and became "a gang for killing and destruction".
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