LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“If the epidemic makes its way to Port-au-Prince, where children and families are living in unsanitary, overcrowded camps, the results could be disastrous.” Dr. Estrella Serrano,
World Vision’s emergency response health and nutrition manager, on Haiti’s spreading cholera outbreak.
Article, this pageItalian trash crisis draws warning
ROME - The European Commission warned Italy on Saturday it may face sanctions if it doesn’t remove the 2,000 tons of trash that have piled up in the streets of Naples in the country’s latest garbage crisis.
For more than a week, protesters in Terzigno, a small town near Naples, have torched vehicles, burned Italian flags and hurled stones and firecrackers at police to protest the stench and filth at a dump, as well as plans to open a new one in Vesuvio National Park.
Clashes continued overnight and residents around Naples set fire to heaps of trash. The situation was calm by Saturday afternoon.
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi has promised a swift solution to the mess, saying the government will take over management of the dump and pledging $20 million in compensation to residents.
Naples and surrounding areas have suffered garbage crises for years, the result of corruption, poor management and infiltration by the local mob. Three years ago, Berlusconi intervened to help ease an emergency caused when collectors stopped picking up trash because dumps were full and residents were protesting the creation of new ones.
Bomb, police raids kill 6 in Russia
MAKHACHKALA, Russia - A car bomb and two police raids killed six people and wounded seven in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus region Saturday, authorities said.
In the republic of Dagestan, a suicide bomber in a car tried to attack a police dormitory in the town of Khasavyurt but an armored vehicle blocked his way, a police spokesman said. The explosion killed the suspected militant and a police officer, and wounded seven people.
In the village of Komsomolskoye, Dagestan, two suspected militants were holed up in a house early Saturday when police attacked, killing both of them, said the Dagestan police spokesman, Vyacheslav Gasanov.
In the Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, police shot and killed two militants in a car chase, police spokesman Madina Khadziyeva said, adding that the men were later identified as being wanted on terrorism charges. Police found two machine guns and ammunition inside the men’s car.
Bishops decry Israeli ‘occupation’
VATICAN CITY - Bishops from the Middle East who were summoned to Rome by the pope demanded Saturday that Israel accept U.N. resolutions calling for an endto its “occupation” of Arab lands.
In a final joint statement, the bishops also told Israel it shouldn’t use the Bible to justify “injustices” against the Palestinians.
The bishops issued the statement at the close of their two-week meeting, called by Pope Benedict XVI to discuss the plight of Christians in the Middle East amid a major exodus of the faithful from the birthplace of Christianity.
While the bishops condemned terrorism and anti-Semitism, they laid much of the blame for the conflict squarely on Israel.
They listed the “occupation” of Palestinian lands, Israel’s separation barrier with the West Bank, its military checkpoints, political prisoners, demolition of homes and disturbance of Palestinians’ socio-economic lives as factors that have made life increasingly difficult for Palestinians.
Tropical storm batters Honduras
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - Tropical Storm Richard gained strength Saturday, lashing the Caribbean coast of Honduras with strong winds and heavy rain that threatened to set off flash floods and landslides.
The storm was expected to pass “near or over” Honduras’ coast late Saturday and become a hurricane today, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. Honduran authorities declared a red, or maximum, alert in four coastal provinces.
Richard is also likely to pass near the Honduran island of Roatan, which is popular with tourists and divers, before making landfall in Belize late today or early Monday.
Hurricane warnings were issued for all of those areas, and storm warnings were also in place for Mexico’s southern Caribbean coast.
By Saturday evening Richard was just off Honduras’ coast, at a point about 160 miles east of the city of La Ceiba, and was moving west at about 8 mph.
Its maximum sustained winds strengthened to 65 mph and were forecast to reach hurricane strength by early today, according to the hurricane center.
Front Section, Pages 11 on 10/24/2010