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Venezuelan President Sent Letter to Khamenei Accrediting US Fugitive

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. (REUTERS file photo)
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. (REUTERS file photo)
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Venezuelan President Sent Letter to Khamenei Accrediting US Fugitive

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. (REUTERS file photo)
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. (REUTERS file photo)

A Colombian businessman was carrying a letter from Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accrediting him to Iran’s supreme leader when he was arrested on a US warrant last year, according to a new court filing in a politically charged corruption case ratcheting up tensions with the South American nation.

Attorneys for Alex Saab made the filing in Miami federal court on Thursday just hours after prosecutors in the African nation of Cape Verde said they granted the 49-year-old Colombian house arrest as he fights extradition to the US to face money laundering charges, The Associated Press reported.

US officials believe Saab holds numerous secrets about how Maduro, his family and top aides allegedly siphoned off millions of dollars in government contracts amid widespread hunger in the oil-rich nation.

He was detained last June when his jet made a refueling stop on a flight to Tehran, where he was allegedly sent to negotiate deals to exchange Venezuelan gold for Iranian gasoline.

Lawyers filed a motion seeking to dismiss the US charges, arguing Saab is immune from prosecution as a result of the many diplomatic posts he has held for Maduro’s government since 2018.

As evidence, they presented letters signed by Maduro’s foreign minister purportedly accrediting Saab as a special envoy for humanitarian aid as well as a resolution — signed last month — naming him Venezuela’s alternate permanent representative to the African Union in Ethiopia.

There is also a letter, addressed to Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in which Maduro asks the Iranian supreme leader to help Saab obtain an “urgent” shipment of 5 million barrels of gasoline following the arrival of several previous shipments from Iran.

Another apparent diplomatic note, from the Iranian Embassy in Caracas, refers to Saab’s upcoming “official” visit and a request for the delivery of Iranian-made medicines.

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World

US Military Strikes Another Alleged Drug Boat in Eastern Pacific, Killing 3

A shot of a boat targeted by a US raid in the Caribbean (archive - Reuters)
A shot of a boat targeted by a US raid in the Caribbean (archive - Reuters)
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US Military Strikes Another Alleged Drug Boat in Eastern Pacific, Killing 3

A shot of a boat targeted by a US raid in the Caribbean (archive - Reuters)
A shot of a boat targeted by a US raid in the Caribbean (archive - Reuters)

The US military said Friday that it has carried out another deadly strike on a vessel accused of trafficking drugs in the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

US Southern Command said on social media that the boat “was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations.” It said the strike killed three people. A video linked to the post shows a boat floating in the water before bursting into flames.

Friday’s attack raises the death toll from the Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug boats to at least 148 people in at least 43 attacks carried out since early September in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.

President Donald Trump has said the US is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”

Critics have questioned the overall legality of the strikes as well as their effectiveness, in part because the fentanyl behind many fatal overdoses is typically trafficked to the US over land from Mexico.

World

Afghanistan Quake Causes No ‘Serious’ Damage, Injuries, Says Official

Afghan men prepare meals during the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Kabul, Afghanistan, 19 February 2026. (EPA)
Afghan men prepare meals during the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Kabul, Afghanistan, 19 February 2026. (EPA)
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Afghanistan Quake Causes No ‘Serious’ Damage, Injuries, Says Official

Afghan men prepare meals during the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Kabul, Afghanistan, 19 February 2026. (EPA)
Afghan men prepare meals during the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Kabul, Afghanistan, 19 February 2026. (EPA)

A 5.8-magnitude earthquake that rocked eastern Afghanistan including the capital Kabul has resulted in only minor damage and one reported injury, a disaster official told AFP on Saturday.

The quake hit on Friday just as people in the Muslim-majority country were sitting down to break their Ramadan fast.

The epicenter was near several remote villages around 130 kilometers (80 miles) northeast of Kabul, the United States Geological Survey said.

"There aren't any serious casualties or damages after yesterday's earthquake," said Mohammad Yousuf Hamad, spokesman for the National Disaster Management Authority.

He added that one person had sustained "a minor injury in Takhar", in Afghanistan's north, "and three houses had minor damage in Laghman" province.

Zilgay Talabi, a resident of Khenj district near the epicenter, said the tremor was "very strong, it went on for almost 30 seconds".

Earthquakes are common in Afghanistan, particularly along the Hindu Kush mountain range, near where the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates meet.

In August last year, a shallow 6.0-magnitude quake in the country's east wiped out mountainside villages and killed more than 2,200 people.

Weeks later, a 6.3-magnitude quake in northern Afghanistan killed 27 people.

Large tremors in western Herat, near the Iranian border, in 2023, and in Nangarhar province in 2022, killed hundreds and destroyed thousands of homes.

Many homes in the predominantly rural country, which has been devastated by decades of war, are shoddily built.

Poor communication networks and infrastructure in mountainous Afghanistan have hampered disaster responses in the past, preventing authorities from reaching far-flung villages for hours or even days before they could assess the extent of the damage.

World

Serbia Urges Citizens to Quit Iran ‘As Soon as Possible’

People walk past an anti-US billboard in Tehran, Iran, January 26, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
People walk past an anti-US billboard in Tehran, Iran, January 26, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
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Serbia Urges Citizens to Quit Iran ‘As Soon as Possible’

People walk past an anti-US billboard in Tehran, Iran, January 26, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
People walk past an anti-US billboard in Tehran, Iran, January 26, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

Serbia has urged its citizens in Iran to leave the country "as soon as possible", after US President Donald Trump threatened military action over the country's nuclear program.

The Balkan nation had already invited Serbian nationals in mid-January to leave Iran and not to travel there, as the country's clerical authorities launched a bloody crackdown on a mass protest movement.

"Due to the deteriorating security situation, citizens of the Republic of Serbia are not recommended to travel to Iran in the coming period," the foreign ministry said in a statement on its website published overnight Friday to Saturday.

"All those who are in Iran are recommended to leave the country as soon as possible."

Iran said on Friday that it was hoping for a quick deal with the United States on Tehran's nuclear program, long a source of discord between the two foes.

But Trump, after ordering a major naval build-up in the Middle East aimed at heaping pressure on Tehran, said on Friday that he was "considering" a limited military strike if the negotiations proved unfruitful.