World AM News Briefs For Wednesday, 14 February 2018

Good Morning Australia!! - Israeli police have a special valentine for Prime Minister Netanyahu - The FBI exposes another Trump administration lie - The case of the tell-tale saddlebags - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:

Israeli police say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be charged in a pair of corruption cases.  In "Case 1000", Netanyahu is suspected of taking gifts from a wealthy Hollywood producer and other billionaires in exchange for their political and financial interests. 
Meanwhile, "Case  2000" details an illegal alleged deal in which one newspaper gives Netanyahu positive coverage in exchange for him using his position to sabotage a rival publication.  Netanyahu has in the past denied wrongdoing.  Netanyahu spent much of the day expecting the recommendation and huddling with his lawyers to decide his next course of action.  The charges could give fuel to calls for him to resign.

The Trump administration has been caught in a lie about its defense of a prominent ex-staffer accused of multiple incidents of domestic abuse.  FBI Director Christopher Wrap - Trump's hand-picked choice for America's premier law enforcement agency - testified before Congress that the Bureau closed its background check on former top aide Rob Porter a year ago.  Last week when Porter resigned under a cloud, the White House claimed that probe "was ongoing".  This not only exposes a lie, but reveals that Porter was working with a temporary security clearance while handling highly classified bits of information going to and from the orange clown.  And it confirms that the White House knew about spousal abuse allegations against Porter from two of his ex-wives.

Embattled South African President Jacob Zuma plans to respond on Wednesday to his own party's demands that he step down.  Wednesday's cabinet meeting has been postponed.  The African National Congress's (ANC) National Executive Committee met this week and determined that the corruption-plagued Zuma has to go for the good of the country.  His term would end next year, if allowed to continue to its legal end.  The centrist Democratic Alliance and far-Left Economic Freedom Fighters are demanding that Zuma's removal be conducted through legal, parliamentarian means - not by international ANC politics.

Haiti's president is condemning the charity Oxfam over revelations that high ranking staff hired prostitutes while working on the impoverished nation's earthquake recovery in 2011.  President Jovenel Moise condemned the actions as an "extremely serious violation of human dignity".  Haiti isn't anywhere near recovered from the 2010 quake, which was followed by a killed Cholera outbreak that was brought to the country from UN peacekeepers.

Meanwhile, the chairman of Oxfam is in trouble, although not because of his tenure with the charity.  Guatemala arrested Juan Alberto Fuentes as part of an investigation into his time as the country's finance minister.  Oxfam says Mr. Fuentes has been open with his board about his situation with Guatemala.

The chief of Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) is stepping aside to let the party be run by leftist colleagues, which Martin Schulz will placate party members who aren't sold on the coalition deal he forged with center-right Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU).  Hey, it's not like the political and economic stability if Europe is on the line.  SPD members next month will vote on entering into a coalition government with the CDU.  Merkel's attempts to form a government with rival parties afterthe September election has dragged on for more than four months - a German post-war record.

Police in Portugal detained two men for drug smuggling because one of their bums didn't look quite right.  Visually detecting a little too much junk in the trunk, cops at Lisbon's international airport examined the hind quarters more closely and determined one of the suspects was wearing a fake arse stuffed with with a kilo of cocaine - enough for 5,000 doses of tush-cocaine, although one probably wouldn't want it up the nose knowing where it's been.  The man and his alleged accomplice had just arrived on a flight from Brazil.