TwistedSifter

Every Wednesday you will find links and top-line summaries to current events around the globe.

Afghanistan CIA killings a major blow to US and Jordan [BBC]

- The revelation that the man who blew up himself, four CIA officers, three security guards and a Jordanian intelligence officer in Khost, Afghanistan, was a double agent is embarrassing for both the US and Jordan. One can only imagine how much false intelligence this al-Qaeda double agent had been feeding his handlers, before he killed them
- It appears that the bomber was, an al-Qaeda “triple agent” who had supposedly been turned against extremism by Jordanian intelligence while in prison, recruited to spy on al-Qaeda, sent to the Afghan-Pakistan border region to try to get close to al-Qaeda’s leadership, but who all the while had never abandoned his jihadi affiliations
- Named as Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, the Jordanian physician apparently completely fooled his Jordanian handler, named as Capt Sharif Ali Bin Zaid. Since Jordanian intelligence had vouched for him, the bomber was never properly searched and, early in his bogus “briefing”, he detonated the explosives on his body

Google unveils Nexus One “superphone” [Reuters]

- Google plans to use what it calls a “superphone” — the first of many types of smartphones that it will make — to expand its reach from the PC to the mobile world and ensure its online products and ads get prominent placement on a new breed of wireless Internet devices
- The highly anticipated Nexus One, which marks the first time the 11-year-old Internet search titan has designed and sold its own consumer hardware device, could provide Google with a viable challenge to the iPhone and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry
- The Nexus One phone comes a little more than two years after Google jumped into the mobile market with the announcement it was developing a free smartphone operating system. Google’s Android software is currently available on more than 20 phones from vendors including Motorola and Samsung Electronics

Colombia rebels, al Qaeda in “unholy” drug alliance [Reuters]

- Colombian guerrillas have entered into “an unholy alliance” with Islamic extremists who are helping the Marxist rebels smuggle cocaine through Africa on its way to European consumers, a U.S. official told Reuters.
Interdiction efforts have made it more difficult to send cocaine straight from Colombia and other Andean producer nations to the United States and Europe
- To reach the U.S. market, Colombian smugglers are meanwhile being driven to use disposable, fiberglass submarines. The homemade craft are constructed in the mangroves of Colombia’s Pacific coast, used to carry drugs to Mexico for transshipment to the United States, then sunk
- When sea interdictions stepped up, traffickers started using planes to get cocaine to Africa. Most flights appear to take off from Venezuela, which shares a border with Colombia.

Novartis to Pay $28 Billion for a Majority Stake in Alcon [New York Times]

- Novartis, the large Swiss drug maker, said Monday that it would take control of the eye care company Alcon by buying a majority stake from Nestlé for $28.1 billion. The move would raise its stake in Alcon to 77%, and Novartis said it was interested in acquiring the rest of the shares
- Novartis paid $10.4 billion for an initial stake last year and is now offering as much as $11.3 billion worth of its own shares to minority shareholders for the remaining 23%. Those deals combined would value the acquisition at $49.8 billion, making it the most expensive merger in Swiss history
- Incorporated in Switzerland, Alcon is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and has operations in Fort Worth, where it was founded. It has more than 15,000 employees, with offices in 75 countries and distribution to 180. Alcon’s research and development department, one of the largest of its kind, employs more than 1,300 people

World’s tallest building opens in Dubai [BBC]

- The Burj Khalifa was revealed to be 828m (2,716ft) high, far taller than the previous record holder, Taipei 101. Known as the Burj Dubai during construction, the tower has been renamed after the leader of Dubai’s oil-rich neighbour, Abu Dhabi. Last month, Abu Dhabi gave Dubai a handout of $10bn to help it pay off its debts
- Construction of the Burj Dubai began in 2004, at the height of an economic boom. Clad in 28,000 glass panels, the tower has 160 floors and more than 500,000 sq m of space for offices and flats. Though not complete on the inside, it was officially opened by Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum
- The tower also lays claim to the highest occupied floor, the tallest service lift, and the world’s highest observation deck - on the 124th floor. The world’s highest mosque and swimming pool will meanwhile be located on the 158th and 76th floors
- Burj Khalifa will be home to 1,044 luxury apartments, 49 floors of offices and eventually a 160-room Armani-branded hotel. Around 12,000 people are expected to live and work in the tower, which is part of a 500-acre development

China fights growing problem of tuberculosis [Reuters]

- China, saddled with the world’s second largest tuberculosis burden after India, is fighting an uphill battle against drug-resistant forms of the disease which will only drain the country’s health budget. Drug-resistant TB, far more expensive to treat, emerges when patients fail to follow treatment regimens and take substandard drugs or stop treatment too early
- China has 4.5 million TB cases currently; and each year 1.4 million people fall ill with the disease. TB killed 160,000 people in China in 2008, according to the World Health Organization. TB killed 1.8 million people across the world in 2008, or a person every 20 seconds. It is not only a scourge in poor countries but also in the West, where it has flared anew in the last 20 years because of AIDS, which weakens the immune system
- TB affects mostly poor people, who typically live in places where healthcare is not easily accessible. Many patients pay not only for treatment but also transportation, and any chronic, long-term disease can bankrupt entire families. In China, diagnosis and treatment is only free in specialist TB outpatient clinics. General hospitals, which have been self-financing since the 1990s, impose charges

- Tuna hits highest price in nine years at Tokyo auction [BBC]
- One on One: Jack Dorsey of Twitter and Square [New York Times]
- What’s in a Naming Right? Certainly Not Cash [New York Times]
- Television Begins a Push Into the 3rd Dimension [New York Times]
- Apple Buys Quattro, An Ad Firm [New York Times]
- Iceland faces crisis after Icesave rejection [Reuters]
- Buffett warns Kraft after it sweetens Cadbury bid [Reuters]
- Blair to face Iraq war inquiry, big demand for seats [Reuters]

The World’s Tallest Building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai via BBC



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