News in Brief Helping Haiti
The United States has pledged to continue helping Haiti rebuild following January’s devastating earthquake.
On Tuesday President Barack Obama sent congratulations to the Haitian people on the anniversary of the creation of the Haitian flag.
But Obama acknowledged ongoing suffering in Haiti, where aid workers are trying to relocate thousands still homeless after the disaster that claimed more than 300,000 lives and left 1.3 million people homeless.
President Obama said the United States stands with the international community in its support for the government of Haiti and the Haitian people. US and international organisations are still trying to assist thousands of people left homeless by the quake.
Cuba on EU relations
Cuba’s Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodriguez, has called on the European Union to drop its common position on Cuba.
The EU position calls for progress on human rights and democracy before normalising relations with the Communist-run island.
Rodriguez told the online edition of Spanish daily newspaper El Mundo that he would “very much like the EU’s common position on Cuba be abandoned during the Spanish presidency of the EU”. The Cuban foreign minister said Havana wants to advance towards bilateral relations which are mutually decided with the European Union on a “reciprocal and non-discriminatory basis”.
He added that such relations should also be based on non-interference in internal issues.
Is Allen Stanford ‘losing it’?
Texas financier, Allen Stanford, is losing his mind in prison – that’s essentially the message behind the latest bid to win the alleged swindler bail. Stanford’s attorneys said on Tuesday that jail has reduced their client to a “wreck of a man”.
The description of his mental and physical condition was contained in a motion filed by his attorneys.
His lawyers say Allen Stanford is severely depressed, forgets conversations, can no longer see out of one eye, and believes that he is losing his mind.
The attorneys are asking a federal judge, for a third time, to grant the jailed financier a bond so he can be free while awaiting his trial that is scheduled for January of next year.
He is charged with bilking investors out of $7 billion as part of a massive Ponzi scheme.
