Globe Trot 07.30

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney left Israel for Poland today with campaign coffers $1.25 million richer following a first-ever presidential fundraiser in Jerusalem. About 50 people paid $50,000 per couple to attend a breakfast with the candidate at the King David Hotel, where Romney spoke for 20 minutes.

China has deployed troops to the Paracel Islands following a month of heightened tension over disputed claims to the South China Sea. For the first time in 45 years, foreign ministers at a recent ASEAN meeting in Phnom Penh could not agree on territorial control over the waterway-the second busiest sea lane in the world, where one-third of all global shipping transits. Some regional leaders fear that China is attempting to exert control over the entire sea.

The role of female athletes competing at the Olympics gets highlighted today. At Friday's opening ceremony, Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, drew loud and sustained applause when he said: "For the first time in Olympic history, all the participating teams will have female athletes. This is a major boost for gender equality."

Egyptian-born Muslim Brotherhood leader Kamal Helbawy, speaking to a gathering on July 26: "If we use the capabilities at our disposal properly, America will be brought to its knees." Helbawy, who has worked for the Muslim Brotherhood for more than four decades in Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, served as official spokesman of the Muslim Brotherhood in the West from 1995-97. He lives in London.

We are watching: An expected verdict this week in Khartoum in the trial of U.S. aid worker Rudwan Dawod. Dawod has served for three years as a volunteer project coordinator for Sudan Sunrise, the Washington, D.C.-based charity started by deceased NBA basketball star Manute Bol. Earlier this summer Dawod joined "Arab Spring" protests during a visit to Khartoum, and was arrested, beaten, and charged with being a CIA operative by the Sudan government.