LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY "Those who used to chastise America for
acting alone in the
world cannot now
stand by and wait for America to solve the world's problems alone."
President Barack Obama, addressing the United Nations Article, 1A
Egyptian blames Jews for U.N. loss
CAIRO, Egypt - Egypt's culture minister Wednesday blamed a conspiracy "cooked up in New York" by the world's Jews for keeping him from becoming the next head of the U.N.'s agency for culture and education.
Farouk Hosny was defeated Tuesday by Bulgarian diplomat Irina Bokova in a tight race for chairman of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
"There are a group of the world's Jews who had a major influence in the elections who were a serious threat to Egypt taking this position," he said upon his return from Paris.
Hosny's candidacy raised an outcry because of a threat he made in the Egyptian parliament last year to personally burn any Israeli book he found in Egypt's famed Library of Alexandria. While he later apologized and Israel said it had withdrawn its opposition to his candidacy, several prominent Jewish activists spoke out against him in the runup to the vote.
Opposition came from other quarters as well. International human-rights activists, as well as some Egyptian artists and intellectuals, expressed concerns over his role in the Egyptian government's restrictions on freedom of expression.
France won't kick out camp's minors
PARIS - France's immigration minister said Wednesday that minors detained in a roundup of illegal aliens in the English Channel port of Calais would not be expelled from France.
Eric Besson said in an interview on France-Info radio that the youths detained Tuesday in the so-called jungle encampment which housed mainly Afghans trying to sneak over to Britain had been sent to special centers for youths pending examination of their cases.
France is "one of the rare countries ... which never expel lone minors," Besson said, referring to teenagers under age 18 who are not accompanied by a parent.
The encampment of tents made of logs and plastic was razed after the roundup Tuesday. The area of scrubland near the Calais port had served for years as a shelter for many hundreds trying to get to Britain.
Minors made up more than half of the 276 aliens led out of the Calais encampment, officials have said. The figure of those detained was initially put at 278, but the immigration minister later lowered it to 276.
20 die in collapse of plant's chimney
NEW DELHI - A large chimney under construction at a power plant in central India collapsed Wednesday, killing at least 20 people and injuring five others, police said. As many as 100 workers were feared trapped under the rubble.
The 250-foot chimney came crashing down in the plant's cafeteria, where the workers were having tea, said Vishwa Ranjan, the director-general of police in Chhattisgarh state, where the accident occurred.
"We have recovered 20 bodies so far," Ranjan said.
He said rescuers were using heavy cranes and cutters to rescue those in the rubble.
Five injured people have been hospitalized, he said.
Front Section, Pages 7 on 09/24/2009