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Cuban private business finally in Yellow Pages
The latest edition of the Cuban Yellow Pages
(CBS News) HAVANA -- As Cuba restructures its economy, the limited private sector is claiming more public space, even making it into the new edition of the state-owned phone company's Yellow Pages.
It's a sign that private enterprise is here to stay. This phone directory, for the first time, has 12 pages of listings and advertisements for non-state businesses: From bed and breakfasts, restaurants and photo studios, to party planners, electricians and florists.
For $10, small mom & pop companies get a listing with their company name, address and phone number. But well-established enterprises such as the "Monte Barreto Bar--Restaurant" paid bigger bucks -- about $1,300 -- and took full page color ads. La Guarida, a private restaurant popular with tourists, took a half-page ad at a cost of approximately $800. But there are also large ads for beauty salons and gyms, and photo studios specializing in weddings and other social events.
Cubans wanting granite stairs, tiles, floors or countertops will focus in on an ad by Yovany, who offers free delivery.
There's a listing for a pet hotel and three listings for swimming pool rentals, and even more for those offering rural settings with amenities for weddings and birthday parties.
In a country where billboard advertising is non-existent, the possibility of marketing in the Yellow Pages is a boom to Cuba's new private entrepreneurs. And it also represents revenues for the State.
In the absence of other advertising possibilities some private restaurants have been sending text messages or e-mails. A fairly new Indian restaurant, Bollywood, is one of the most persistent text senders. La Casa, whose owner Alejandro Robaina missed the deadline to place an ad in the Yellow Pages, sent out an e-mail earlier this week announcing the return of their former chef after ten years working cruise ships in the Caribbean and the Mediterranean and touting a newly designed menu.
But given the generally limited access to the Internet and the low percentage of cell phone subscribers, most Cubans will, for the time being, be getting their information on what's on offer from their phone books, given free to them when they paid their May phone bills.
Most observers agree that, for private businesses, access to the Yellow Pages is a step forward and they expect that in the future many more people will chose to advertise.
GlobalPost: Syria's doctors risk danger to help wounded
A woman embraces an injured Syrian boy in a Lebanese Red Cross ambulance after he was smuggled into the northern Lebanese border town of Wadi Khaled for treatment, May 30, 2012.
(Credit: AFP/Getty)(GlobalPost) JABAL AL ZAWIYA, Syria -- The pickup truck swerved around the corner as three frantic men stood on the back screaming,"Go! Go!" Bouncing painfully between their legs was a man drenched in blood.
He was one of seven injured in a series of tank blasts last week in the village of Deersonpol, in Syria's northern Idlib province. Four others were killed instantly in the attack by government security forces. Of the seven who took the harrowing route to the nearest "safe" hospital in Deir Alsharky, 12 miles of bad road away, three survived, three died and the whereabouts of the fourth remains unknown.
There were many hospitals much closer to the scene, but these were government run. The risk of execution or arrest, particularly for those arriving with battle wounds, is so high that citizens throughout the area endure these dangerous journeys every day.
Continue »Blind activist: China justice system "farcical"
Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng speaks to the media upon arriving on the campus of New York University May 19, 2012, in New York City.
(Credit: Getty Images)
(CBS News) Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng, the blind lawyer whose escape from house arrest sparked a weeks-long diplomatic standoff between China and the United States, called his homeland's judicial system "farcical" and revealed new details about the alleged retaliation against his family still in China in a New York Times op-ed piece published Wednesday.
The standoff surrounding Chen came to a resolution when China allowed him and his family to leave for New York, where he's studying as a fellow at New York University School of Law. In the op-ed, translated from Chinese to English, Chen reaffirms he won't apply for political asylum, preserving his right to return to China.
Pakistan: Doc jailed for militancy, not CIA help
Pakistani doctor Shakil Afridi was given a 33-year prison sentence for conspiring with a leading militant, not for helping the U.S. track down Osama bin Laden, a court judgment shows.
(Credit: CBS)That judgment could further complicate U.S. arguments that he should be released.
The case against Dr. Shakil Afridi has attracted widespread attention in the U.S. after his arrest on charges that he conspired against the state. Pakistani officials had previously said Afridi's arrest was tied to a fake vaccination program he ran in the months leading up to bin Laden's killing in May 2011, which obtained blood samples from some of bin Laden's family members to establish the presence of the world's most notorious militant at a sprawling compound in the northern city of Abbottabad.
The subsequent U.S. Navy SEAL raid that ended in bin Laden's death caused a deep rift between the two countries, with Pakistani officials angry at being kept in the dark about the operation and U.S. officials questioning how bin Laden could have been living in the country for years, apparently undetected.
Senate panel cuts Pakistan aid over conviction
Doctor who helped U.S. in bin Laden raid gets 33 years
Though U.S. officials have previously said Afridi's role was not central to tracking down bin Laden, a Pakistani government minister earlier this year told CBS News that it was, "enough for Pakistan to charge this man and award a stern punishment because of his work for the CIA."
On Wednesday, a Pakistani government official in the northern city of Peshawar told CBS News on condition of anonymity that, "while the charges of Dr. Afridi's work for the Americans remains a serious matter in Pakistan, his more immediate charges are to do with his work with militants."
The official said Afridi was convicted for conspiring with Mangal Bagh, a notorious militant commander in the northern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province which borders Afghanistan. Human rights activists have already criticized the trial which took place in the semi autonomous tribal region along the Afghan border under an antiquated legal system known as the Frontier Crimes Regulations, in which defendants do not necessarily have access to a lawyer.
In a "60 Minutes" interview in January, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Afridi wasn't "in any way treasonous" toward Pakistan and called the case against him a "real mistake."
"This was an individual, who, in fact, helped provide intelligence that was very helpful with regards to this operation. And he was not, in any way treasonous towards Pakistan. He was not, in any way, doing anything that would have undermined Pakistan. As a matter of fact, if Pakistan's - and I've always said this - Pakistan and the United States have a common cause here against terrorism. ... And for them to take this kind of action against somebody who was helping to go after terrorism, I just think is a real mistake on their part ... They can take whatever steps they want to do to discipline him, but ultimately he ought to be released."That sentiment has been echoed by other top U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who have since called for Afridi's release. Lawmakers have also expressed their outrage, with a Senate panel voting to reduce foreign aid to Pakistan by $33 million, a million for every year of Afridi's sentence.
A senior Western diplomat in Islamabad, who also spoke Wednesday to CBS News on condition of anonymity, said the latest twist to the charges against Afridi, "still makes the case very controversial."
"In legal terms, connecting this man to militants may strengthen the case for Dr. Afridi to serve time in Pakistan rather than be released and sent to the U.S. But in political terms, this case is already on the radar screen of the U.S.," said the diplomat. "Many in Washington believe he was wrongfully punished to begin with."
Afridi's family and legal team have vowed to appeal the conviction.
Analyst: Egypt elections "potentially worrisome"
In the latest edition of CBSNews.com's series "Flash Points," CBS News senior national security analyst Juan Zarate and national security correspondent Bob Orr discussed recent elections in Egypt.
"The two candidates who have come out of this represent the essence of the power struggle in post-Mubarak Egypt," Zarate said. "It was a fairly clean primary election."
The two candidates -- a veteran of ousted leader Hosni Mubarak's regime and a member of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood -- face a runoff election in mid-June.
"This is potentially worrisome because you have the potential of the Muslim Brotherhood controlling the presidency and questions as to what that means for Egypt and their peace treaty with Israel," Zarate said.
Continue »Reagan son blasts purported sale of father's blood
A vial said to contain a blood sample from President Ronald Reagan is being auctioned online.
(Credit: PFCAuction.com)According to PFCAuctions.com, the 5-inch glass vial contains dried blood residue from President Reagan, from a sample taken at the time of the assassination attempt on the president in 1981.
As of Tuesday afternoon, bidding for the vial passed 7,000 pounds (around $11,000). The online auction ends Thursday at 2 p.m. ET.
Greek chaos provides opening for far-right party
(Watch a report at left)
Journalists were told to stand up in a sign of respect while the party leader made a grand entrance. Nikolaos Michaloliakos, a former mathematician who was recently involved in a prostitution scandal, gave a rambling speech which included the proclamation that the official account of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz was widely exaggerated.
Golden Dawn, which some call a neo-Nazi party, is not new to Greece. Its members and ideology have been around for years. What is new and different today is the legitimacy they've been granted by the votes of a deeply frustrated nation.
Gitmo prisoner in limbo begs for military trial
Abu Zubaydah, in an undated photo
(CBS News) NEW YORK - The al Qaeda operative known as Abu Zubaydah, the longest-held "high value" detainee currently incarcerated at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is asking the government to please bring charges against him.
"It appears to us as though they have resolved in their mind the desirability of just leaving him there and forgetting about him," Joseph Marguiles, his defense attorney, told CBS NEWS in a telephone interview.
Seeking an end to Zubaydah's legal limbo, Margulies, a professor at Northwestern University School of Law, in Chicago, has written a letter to the convening authority for the military commissions at Guantanamo asking for proceedings to begin "at the earliest possible date."
"Come on let's go. Call you first witness," Margulies said in the interview. "He's just on anyone's radar anymore."
Continue »Al Qaeda mag: Airline plots a "good bargain"
Remnants of the underwear and explosive device allegedly carried by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab aboard Delta Flight 253.
(Credit: FBI)(CBS News) The author of al Qaeda's latest bomb-making magazine said that the terror group will continue to pursue attempts to blow up U.S. jetliners and isn't concerned that such plots might be foiled because they represent "such a good bargain."
Abdullah Zul Bejadayn, believed to be a Saudi explosives expert who has been featured in previous bomb-making video tutorials, said in the second edition of "Al Qaeda Airlines" that the militants "do not mind at all in this stage if [plots] are intercepted. It is such a good bargain for us to spread fear amongst the enemy and keep him on his toes in exchange [for] a few months of work and a few thousand bucks."
A double agent working with U.S., Saudi and British intelligence recently infiltrated al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and thwarted a plan to use an underwear bomb to attack a U.S.-bound airplane - a plot similar to a failed attack on Christmas Day 2009. The agent volunteered to carry out the suicide mission, which originated in Yemen, and instead delivered the updated non-metallic explosive device to American officials.
Continue »Bowe Bergdahl: Prisoner of war, politics and diplomacy
This image from a video released by a Taliban affiliated group on Nov. 24, 2010, shows captive U.S. Army Spc. Bowe Bergdahl alongside his suspected captor, Mullah Sangeen Zadran.
(Credit: CBS)(CBS News) In June 2009, U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl was captured in Paktika Province, eastern Afghanistan, by men loyal to the Haqqani Network, a militant group based across the border in North Waziristan, Pakistan.
The Haqqani network is tied to, but not directly under the control of, Mullah Muhammad Omar, leader of the Afghan Taliban.
Bergdahl would have been taken away quickly on narrow paths through steep, rolling mountains and pine forests, through valleys, past small villages, and then down across the unmarked border into Pakistan.
The patriarch of the Haqqani Network is Jalaladin Haqqani, who was a U.S. ally in the 1980s, when America supplied his militants with billions of dollars in weaponry to fight the Soviet Union - then a common enemy which had invaded Afghanistan.
Bergdahl's parents, afraid of the Taliban, of the drone warfare in the tribal areas, and frustrated because they don't feel the U.S. is doing enough to try to free their son, have given their first interviews to newspapers, in a move aimed at putting pressure on the Obama administration.
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