LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
"The law of the jungle cannot last eternally."
French Immigration Minister Eric Besson,
on the destruction of an illegal alien camp at the port of Calais commonly known as "the jungle" Article, this page
GI charged in contractor's Iraq death
BAGHDAD - A U.S. soldier has been charged with murder in the slaying of a civilian contractor on an American base in Iraq, the military said Tuesday.
Spc. Beyshee Velez of Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, was charged Monday in the Sept. 13 shooting death of a contractor who worked for Houston-based KBR at Camp Speicher in the city of Tikrit, a military statement said.
The 31-year-old suspect faces dishonorable discharge and a maximum sentence of life in prison if found guilty.
He is being held in Hawaii pending the outcome of the trial. He was also charged with assault and fleeing arrest.
Velez is assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 7th Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division.
The military statement gave no other details and said the investigation into the shooting was ongoing.
The slain KBR employee, 27-year-old Lucas Vinson, was from Leesville, La.
Authorities told Vinson's family that he was shot three times after offering a ride to an American soldier who flagged down his vehicle on the base, according to his mother.
Somalia clash at Africans' base kills 8
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Islamic insurgents attacked an African Union peacekeeping base Tuesday, sparking a battle that killed at least eight people and wounded more than a dozen, witnesses and officials said.
A spokesman for the African Union force, Bahoku Barigye, said no peacekeepers died in Tuesday's attack or the subsequent fighting. Witnesses reported seeing at least eight corpses.
"The bodies were beyond recognition," said witness Hassan Mohamoud. "There was blood and flesh everywhere."
The powerful al-Shabab insurgent group is trying to topple Somalia's government and install strict Islamic law.
Last week, the Islamists launched two suicide car bombs on the main African Union base, killing 21 people. It was the deadliest single attack on peacekeepers since they arrived in 2007.
Al-Shabab said that attack was in retaliation for a U.S.
commando raid on Sept. 14 that killed al-Qaida operative Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan in southern Somalia.
Girls school in Pakistan is blown up
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Suspected Islamist militants blew up a girls school close to the main city in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, police said. The school was empty at the time of the blast, and no one was injured.
A timed explosive device is believed to have caused the explosion that badly damaged the school on the outskirts of Peshawar, police officer Hamdullah Khan said.
Al-Qaida and Taliban militants hold sway across much of northwest Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan and have often targeted girls schools in both countries because they believe that women should not be educated.
The military has launched large offensives across parts of the region to rein the militants in, but they remain strong in much of the mountainous, lawless zone.
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani said Tuesday that the global fight against terrorism requires not just a military solution but also gaining the trust of civilians in regions where insurgents operate.
5 die as German bus plunges to river
RADEVORMWALD, Germany - A bus went off the road and plunged down a river embankment in western Germany on Tuesday, killing five people and injuring several others, authorities said.
One person was seriously injured in the late-morning crash at Radevormwald, east of Duesseldorf, and six others escaped with light injuries from the bus, according to police. The driver, a 45-year-old man, was among the dead.
The bus was on a regular local route and had set off from a stop about 400 yards from the accident site. There were about 15 people onboard at the time of the crash.
Police said the bus gained speed on a steep downhill stretch for reasons that were not immediately clear, before breaking through a crash barrier on a bend and plunging about 65 feet down the embankment of the Wupper River.
The bus came to rest on its side at the bottom of the wooded embankment, with part of its rear section in the river. Fire officials had to cut down several trees to clear room for a crane to recover the bus.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 09/23/2009