Shorter Question Everything

Puerto Rico

• A White House task force on Puerto Rico’s ties with the United States heard from islanders across the political spectrum Wednesday at a hearing that tapped into deep emotions surrounding a decades-old debate.
  U.S. Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli, a task force co-chairman, said the meeting was meant to gather opinions on what role the U.S. government can play in resolving the status question. He said President Barack Obama believes the U.S. territory must determine its own course and the task force has no particular preference for the road ahead.
  Many Puerto Rican participants said they were eager to learn more about their options from Washington.

Kyrgyzstan

• The US has renewed its lease on an airbase in Kyrgyzstan but it has been forced to pay more than three times the previous rate.
  The Manas base near the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek is seen as vital to the US-led war effort in Afghanistan.

Dubai

• Dubai police asked the FBI to investigate US-issued pre-paid credit cards used by 13 of the terror suspects in the killing of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Dubai daily The National reported Tuesday.
  The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has identified 27 suspects, mostly European passport holders, who entered the country in order to carry out the terrorist murder of al-Mabhouh in his hotel room on January 19.
  “Thirteen of the 27 suspects used pre-paid MasterCards issued by MetaBank, a regional American bank, to purchase plane tickets and book hotel rooms,” the daily quoted police as saying.

• Australian police arrived in Israel on Wednesday to investigate identity theft of dual nationals in connection with the Dubai assassination widely blamed on Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency. The use of forged passports has provoked a stern response, but is unlikely to jeopardize relations.
  Some observers have linked Australia’s abstention from a UN vote last week, calling on Israel and the Palestinians to investigate human rights violations during the Gaza war, to its displeasure over the assassination.

Britain

• A former MI6 spy stole top secret files on intelligence gathering techniques and offered to sell them for 2 million pounds ($2.9 million) to an unspecified foreign government, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
  Prosecutor Piers Arnold told a London court that Daniel Houghton, 25, is alleged to have attempted to sell the highly classified documents, but was arrested Monday after British intelligence officials posed as the potential buyer, The Associated Press reports.
  Piers Arnold, prosecuting, told City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court the alleged attempted sale came after he left the service.

US: Washington DC

• Same-sex couples in Washington, D.C., can head to city hall Wednesday to apply for marriage licences, as the federal district becomes the most recent place in the United States to approve gay marriage.
  Some city officials were expecting as many as 200 people to descend on city hall Wednesday in search of marriage licences. Rick Imirowicz, who hopes to marry his partner Terrance Heath, said he plans on being one of them.

possibly related posts:

• Shorter Question Everything (0)
• Shorter Question Everything (0)
• Report: U.S. companies transferred funds to suspects in Dubai hit (0)
• Gordon Brown pledges full probe into hit squad fake British passports (0)
• Six more British passports used in Dubai assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh (0)