NORTH AMERICA

SHERATON FINED $15K FOR ENFORCING CUBA EMBARGO

The Sheraton group has been fined $15,000 for ejecting 16 Cuban officials from its Maria Isabel Sheraton hotel in Mexico City in accordance with the American embargo on the communist-run island, the BBC reported. Mexican authorities claim the hotel chain, part of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc., unfairly discriminated against the Cuban government officials, who were in the city last month to meet American businessmen opposed to the boycott. The Mexican government argues that the embargo does not apply in a third country. Sheraton will appeal against the decision.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

WESTERN EUROPE

WAR CRIMINAL COMMITS SUICIDE IN PRISON

BRUSSELS, Belgium – A top Croatian Serb war criminal has committed suicide in his cell at the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, shortly after offering devastating testimony against a fellow rebel leader. A 50-year-old dentist turned “president” of the self-declared Krajina Serb republic, Milan Babic, had been brought specially to testify in The Hague, while serving a 13-year sentence for crimes against humanity.

He was held at an undisclosed location overseas for his own protection, after he enraged Serb hardliners by giving evidence against his former boss and a former Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic. Observers said he had appeared calm during two weeks of testimony against another Milosevic ally, Milan Martic, his successor as Croatian Serb leader.

– The Daily Telegraph

BRITISH COURT ALLOWS DUBAI COMPANY’S TAKEOVER TO PROCEED

LONDON – The takeover of British shipping company P&O by Dubai’s state owned DP World received the green light yesterday when Britain’s Court of Appeal dismissed a Miami firm’s objection to the deal.

The Court of Appeal declined to hear an appeal from Miami-based Eller & Co., which had tried to have the deal barred on technical grounds, arguing that American concerns about a United Arab Emirates company owning significant operations at six major American seaports could harm its business.

The lower High Court had already approved the $6.8 billion acquisition of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. and yesterday’s unanimous decision by the three judges of the Court of Appeal means that the deal is now free to proceed through the final regulatory stages.

In a statement following the decision, P &O said the takeover will now become effective on March 8 and that the shipping company’s shares will be delisted from the London, Sydney, and Tokyo stock exchanges on March 9.

– Associated Press

MIDDLE EAST

SHARON COULD WAKE UP

JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Sharon could still regain consciousness, even though he has been comatose since suffering a stroke on January 4, the director of the hospital treating the prime minister said yesterday.

“The condition of the prime minister is really serious, he is stable …Yes, there is a chance the prime minister will wake up. It’s not something that can be ruled out. The chances aren’t great but it’s not a situation that can be ruled out,” the director of Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef, said. “If the prime minister wakes up in what condition will he be? That is still an open question.”

– Associated Press