LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY “We will take severe action. The era of tolerance is over.
Anyone attending such rallies will be crushed.” Iran’s police chief Gen. Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, warning against new protests by the proreform movement Article, this page Slain 2 hang from Mexican overpass
CULIACAN, Mexico - The bound, beaten bodies of two men were found hanging by their necks from a highway overpass in northern Mexico on Wednesday, along with a handwritten message from a drug cartel.
The men’s hands were tied behind their backs, and shell casings at the scene in Los Mochis suggest the killers fired at the victims as they were hanging by their necks, said Sinaloa state prosecutors’ spokesman Martin Gastelum.
The cause of death was still under investigation.
Nearby, the message, written on a piece of cardboard, said in part, “This territory already has an owner.” The message appeared to be from the Beltran Leyva drug cartel, whose main leader, Arturo Beltran Leyva, was shot to death in a confrontation with Mexican marines on Dec. 16.
Australia wildfires take homes, fields
PERTH, Australia - Wildfires possibly sparked by fallen power lines roared across a swath of western Australia on Wednesday, razing almost 40 homes and sending hundreds of people fleeing for their lives, officials and witnesses said. At least three people were injured.
Two major blazes burned out of control overnight after breaking out Tuesday afternoon in a wheat and sheep farming district north of the coastal city of Perth, forcing the evacuation of the township of Toodyay and threatening a second town, Badgingarra, farther north.
The two fires scorched more than 33,000 acres of forest and farmland before cooler conditions Wednesday helped hundreds of firefighters contain them.
Two firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation, and a third was treated for a heat-related illness. Farmers also reported stock being killed. The extent of the damage was still being assessed, said emergency authority spokesman Allen Gale.
2 jetliners come close over Serbia
BELGRADE, Serbia - Two passenger jets nearly collided over Belgrade this week, Serbian air traffic authorities said Wednesday.
The Directorate for Civil Aviation said an Air France Airbus A318 and an Israeli El Al Boeing 777 came within 700 feet of each other Monday before the French airliner stopped descending under orders from Serbian air controllers.
The statement said an investigation has shown that the French jet was on an unauthorized flight course. It said the airliner was instructed to fly at 35,000 feet but was 300 feet farther down toward the Israeli jet, which was flying at 34,000 feet.
Asked for its comment Wednesday, Air France said only that “the pilots reacted to a proximity alert,” applying the necessary procedures, and “the flight continued normally.” A press official refused to answer questions, including the number of passengers the Airbus was carrying on its flight from Paris to Sofia, Bulgaria.
In Israel, El Al spokesman Ran Rahav confirmed that Flight 007 from Tel Aviv to New York, carrying 120 passengers, lowered its altitude over Belgrade to avoid an Air France aircraft, which, he said, had been given mistaken instructions by an air traffic controller.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 12/31/2009