For 26 years, Chilean business tycoon Carlos Cardoen has been unable to travel abroad for fear of arrest. Cardoen is accused of illegally importing the bomb-making element zirconium from the US, which added a potent incendiary effect to cluster bombs his company, Cardoen Industries, sold to Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime in the 1980s and 1990s.
George Herbert Walker Bush, the World War II veteran who was elected the 41st president of the United States and fathered the nation's 43rd, died late Friday at the age of 94, his family announced in a statement. The Republican spent decades serving in government before ascending to the nation's highest office, having served as United Nations ambassador, CIA chief and vice president under Ronald Reagan, a towering political figure still venerated by the GOP.
The following piece by Gideon Rose (*) was published in The New York Times Opinion page and helps to understand much about the Iraq war and ongoing instability.
The US military officially ended its war in Iraq, rolling up its flag at a low-key ceremony with Defence Secretary Leon Panetta nearly nine bloody years after the invasion that ousted Dictator Saddam Hussein.