Israel Israeli President Shimon Peres on Wednesday urged support for “the awakening of the Arab world,” saying the spread of democracy in the region could dramatically improve the staunch US ally’s circumstances. “We believe that the awakening of the Arab world is a great opportunity and that all of us should do whatever we can” to help those seeking “freedom and dignity in their lives,” Peres said after meetings with leaders of the US House of Representatives. “The moment that the Arab world will become free and open and peaceful it will be a major change in the world experience and in the annals of the Middle East,” he said during a public appearance with Republican House Speaker John Boehner and others. Peres thanked Washington for its “unbelievable support morally, politically and otherwise” as Israel struggled “alone as a democratic country in the Middle East, facing dangers and menaces” and fighting wars against its neighbors. Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor also attended the closed-door talks with Peres, who met later with key US senators.
Japan Japan began pumping nitrogen gas into a crippled nuclear reactor, refocusing the fight against the world's worst nuclear disaster in 25 years on preventing an explosive buildup of hydrogen gas at Fukushima Daiichi power plant. Workers started injecting nitrogen into the containment vessel of reactor No. 1 on Wednesday night, following a morning breakthrough in stopping highly radioactive water leaking into the sea at another reactor in the six-reactor complex. "It is necessary to inject nitrogen gas into the containment vessel and eliminate the potential for a hydrogen explosion," an official of plant operator Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) (9501.T) told a news briefing.
Ivory Coast A spokesman says fighters attempting to storm Ivory Coast's presidential residence in an attempt to force the strongman out of a bunker got as far as the gates but were repelled by heavy arms fire. Yves Doumbia, a spokesman for the armed group trying to topple incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo and install democratically elected president Alassane Ouattara, said their fighters on Wednesday pierced the perimeter of Mr. Gbagbo's compound. But he said that soon after, they were forced to retreat under heavy fire. He said they were regrouping for a second assault.
Mr. Gbagbo refused to cede power after losing a November election. He appeared to be on the point of surrender on Tuesday but told French radio on Wednesday that he was not negotiating and had no intention to resign.
Forces loyal to Ivory Coast presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara stormed the bunker where Laurent Gbagbo was defying efforts on Wednesday to force him to cede power, a spokeswoman for Ouattara told Reuters.
Yemen Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies are trying to broker a deal to have Yemen’s president step down and hand over power, possibly to an interim council of tribal and political leaders, sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
Ali Abdullah Saleh’s at times bloody response to protests, inspired by those in Egypt and Tunisia, against his 32-year rule has tried the patience of his US and Saudi backers.
A variety of official sources say they are now ready to push aside a long-time ally against Yemen-based al Qaeda in the hope of staving off a chaotic collapse of the poorest Arab state. Though diplomats familiar with the negotiations question whether a deal is anywhere close to being struck, the proposal by the Gulf Arabs involves Saleh finally agreeing to stand down and handing his powers for a short time to a national council. “The proposal is to have a governing council grouping all the various political parties and tribes for a period that would not exceed three months,” one Gulf official told Reuters on Wednesday of a plan to be presented to Saleh and his opponents at talks to take place soon in Saudi Arabia. A date is not set. “The council will set the way for elections,” the Gulf official added, echoing other sources in the region and beyond. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which groups Saudi Arabia with its small neighbours Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, made the invitations on Monday. Saleh told GCC envoys on Tuesday that he would come to the talks in Riyadh. The ambassadors were waiting for a response from opposition leaders who they met in Yemen on Wednesday.
Guatemalan Two Guatemalans who were injected with syphilis in 1940 by the US are demanding compensation. Although a lawsuit has already been filed against the US, now attention is being turned towards the Guatemalan state. The experiments that were carried out on prison inmates, women and mental patients. Federico Ramos, from the small rural town of Acasaguastlan, was a young man in the army when he was one of around 700 Guatemalans unwittingly injected with a disease so the US could test the then-new drug penicillin. “The injections were put into us in there, and one did not know what they were injecting into you. I had purgation [gonorrhea],” said Ramos. Ramos is now 86 and wants justice to be done. So does Manuel Gudiel, who is one year Ramos s junior and says he was infected after having sex with a prostitute who had received a US injection. “No one told the person what injection they were giving, only the doctor knew what was injected and the disease the person had. He knew and gave the person the injection,” explained Gudiel. In March, a group of Guatemalans filed a class action lawsuit against the US government for intentionally infecting them with syphilis.
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