Former Saudi ambassador to US becomes intelligence chief
Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who was Saudi Arabia’s US ambassador between 1983 and 2005, has been made the country’s chief of intelligence. Sixty-three-year-old Prince Bandar, who is a member of the ruling House of Saud, was already the head of Saudi Arabia’s National Security Council, a powerful anti-terrorist body. His predecessor Prince Muqrin resigned to become a counsellor to the King.
Rebels seize Syria-Iraq border checkpoint
Syrian rebels took control of the Albu Kamal border post on the country's Iraqi border Thursday. The information was confirmed by RT’s correspondent in Iraq, as well as security officials on the ground. An Iraqi border police lieutenant colonel told AFP that “at noon, the clashes began. And then in the evening, we saw the Syrian flag being brought down, and the flag of the Free Syrian Army replaced it.”
300 radioactive Japanese cars stopped at Russian border
Nearly 300 cars contaminated by last year's radioactive leak at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant were stopped by customs officials at the Russian-Japanese border. The head of Russia’s Consumer Rights Organization Gennady Onishchenko said a 24-hour monitoring of all imports and radiation control were immediately introduced at the country’s Far Eastern border.
US’s Chevron inks deal with Iraq's Kurds, defies Baghdad
US oil giant Chevron Corp. has signed a deal to acquire two oil drilling blocks in Iraq's northern Kurdish region. The company said on Thursday it would take over a share of India's Reliance Exploration and Production efforts to explore for oil north of the Kurdish capital of Irbil, AP reports. The deal makes Chevron the second US company to defy Iraq's central government by securing oil deals with Kurds. Exxon Mobil Corp. signed an agreement last October. Local authorities have been at loggerheads with Baghdad over how to distribute the region's oil wealth.
European hostages freed in Mali 'in exchange for Islamists' – reports
Three European aid workers released in Mali after being kidnapped by an Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group were “safe and sound” on Thursday in neighboring Burkina Faso, a negotiator said. The two Spaniards and one Italian were snatched in October 2011 from a Sahrawi refugee camp in Tindouf, Algeria, which hosues people from the disputed Western Saharan territory Algeria. The hostages were released “in exchange for Islamists,” the negotiator said, as cited by AFP. He was earlier quoted as saying a ransom was paid for Enric Gonyalons, Ainhoa Fernandez Rincon and Rossella Urru. A leader of the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa on Wednesday announced the hostages' release.
New defense minister takes oath in front of Assad – Syria TV
New Syrian Defense Minister General Fahad Jassim al-Freij took his oath of office in front of President Bashar al-Assad, Syria's state TV said on Thursday. Assad has not appeared in public since a bomb attack killed three of his top security officials on Wednesday. The broadcast, however, did not show any footage or pictures from the ceremony, Reuters reports. It is not known where it took place. Syrian official sources denied earlier in the day that Assad had left Damascus.
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