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(Continued from page 53)
position in a dispute that leaves little space for the cooperation against al-Qaida in North Africa that Washington and its allies want.
• Morocco has long made gaining international recognition for its 1975 annexation of the former Spanish territory on Africa's Atlantic coast a top diplomatic priority. With Algeria backing the movement seeking independence, the two countries have been at loggerheads for decades.
• Last month, Morocco temporarily recalled its ambassador -- a major escalation that one former Algerian diplomat called an attempt to gain U.S. backing for its claim to Western Sahara.
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Israeli leader faces test in US case accusing Bank of China of facilitating militant funding
• JERUSALEM (AP) -- Over the decades, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cultivated an image as a tough-talking leader in the global struggle against terrorism. That reputation could be put to the test this month in a landmark court case that could force him to choose between supporting victims of Palestinian violence and risking a diplomatic rift with China.
• Netanyahu's government must decide whether to allow a former Israeli security official to testify as a star witness who could tip the scales in the case, filed by families of victims of suicide bombers who accuse the Bank of China of facilitating terrorist funding via accounts in the U.S.
• Critics say that after initially encouraging the claims against the bank, Israel is now having second thoughts, fearing it could jeopardize valuable trade ties with China if it allows the former official, who is sworn to secrecy, to testify.
• "Israel has to decide whether they are fighting terrorism and continuing the struggle which they initiated ... or collapsing to the pressure of China and abandoning the terror victims," said Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, an Israeli lawyer involved in the case.
• Darshan-Leitner is representing 22 families of people who were killed in Palestinian suicide bombings.
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Longtime Madoff employee tells NY jury he didn't ask questions as fraud ballooned around him
• NEW YORK (AP) -- In the many years he spent as a trader at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, David Kugel learned that investments that Madoff (Continued on page 55)
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