Embargo

Cuba and its foreign partners will begin exploring for oil this year in the Gulf of Mexico. Drilling will take place as close as 50 miles from Florida and in sites deeper than BP's Macondo well, the source of last year's disaster. About 5 billion barrels of oil and 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas lie beneath the gulf in land belonging to Cuba, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. If Cuba finds oil in commercially viable amounts, this would be transformative. Revenue from natural resources has the potential to provide long-sought stability for its economy and is likely to significantly alter Cuba's relations with Venezuela, Asia and other leading energy-producing and consuming nations.

Moammar Kadafi's loyalists appeared to have strengthened their grip on the Libyan capital, while chaos roiled much of the country and spilled over its borders in a wave of frightened refugees. The unrest in Libya has left hundreds dead and nearly frozen the country's oil-based economy. The United Nations reported Monday that more than 100,000 refugees, many of them laborers from nearby countries, have fled to Tunisia and Egypt over the last week to escape destitution and an outbreak of violence that has drawn international condemnation.

If Mohsen doesn't come up with $100,000 by the end of the week, he's a dead man. Or so the seemingly well-to-do Tehran businessman says as he fidgets in his chair, inhales another Marlboro Light and adjusts his fitted sports jacket, his eyes darting nervously back and forth in the cafe as if he were being hounded by a ghost. His company, he says, is a million dollars in the hole. "Do you know where I can get a $100,000 loan?" he demands of a friend, only half in jest.

A Thai court has agreed this week to hear an appeal by suspected arms trafficker Victor Bout, a move likely to frustrate, at least temporarily, U.S. efforts to extradite him on four terrorism-related counts. The former Russian military officer earned international notoriety in the post-Cold War era for allegedly arming a rogues' gallery of terrorist groups, militias and governments, many of which were under a United Nations weapons embargo. If the court proceeds with the appeal it accepted Wednesday, Bout could remain in a Thai prison beyond the Nov. 20 U.S. extradition deadline, a date determined after an earlier court decision.

Cuban President Raul Castro has been moving slowly but steadily over the last couple of years to relax his government's grip on the country's ailing economy, yet it is the news that half a million state workers will get pink slips in the coming months and will be expected to find jobs in the private sector that has created a front-page buzz in the United States. Change is underway in the Cuban economy. It is time for Congress to end the archaic and ineffectual U.S. trade embargo and get out of the way of U.S. investment in Cuba before American firms lose out to those from Europe, Brazil and elsewhere.

Glenn Shadix Character actor worked with Tim Burton Glenn Shadix, 58, a character actor best remembered for his portrayal of the portly, pretentious interior designer Otho in director Tim Burton's 1988 ghost comedy "Beetlejuice," died Tuesday at his home in Birmingham, Ala., according to his personal manager, Juliet Green. Shadix's sister, Susan Gagne, told the Birmingham News that he had been using a wheelchair for mobility and appeared to have fallen in his kitchen and struck his head.

David Alexander Longtime president of Pomona College David Alexander, 77, who brought national standing to Pomona College during a two-decade tenure as president, died Sunday in Claremont after a long battle with cancer, the college announced. Alexander was Pomona president from 1969 to 1991. During that time, the college's endowment grew from $24 million to $296 million and the faculty increased from 130 to 156. He oversaw a campus expansion that added 15 major buildings.

Let them eat cake — well, at least cookies, potato chips and jam. That's how many here viewed Israel's relaxation of border restrictions to permit a variety of new items into Gaza Strip. The list, announced Wednesday, includes soda, juice, jam, shaving cream, potato chips, cookies, candy and a variety of herbs, including coriander. Israel's move impressed almost no one in this impoverished seaside territory. Some accused Israel of tossing them a few scraps to score points with the outside world.

To his defenders, Mahmoud Reza Banki is the accomplished son of Iranian American parents, with degrees from UC Berkeley and Princeton and a business acumen that made him the logical person in the family to trust with more than $3 million. "My family is unusually generous to me, certainly beyond what is customary among U.S. families," Banki, 33, told federal authorities after they asked about the hundreds of thousands of dollars dropping into his bank account. Banki said the money came from his cousin Ali in Tehran.