LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY “This is a fair judicial court ruling against
those whose hands are still bloodied.” Kamil Jassim,
an Iraqi teacher and Shiite, after Saddam Hussein ally Tariq Aziz was sentenced to death for persecution of Shiites Article, 1A
Netanyahu touts troops for May raid
ATLIT, Israel - Israel’s leader praised on Tuesday the naval commandos who participated in a deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla last May that drew international condemnation.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on a special visit to a northern military base, told the men that they acted “heroically” and “ethically” to stop “people who sought to kill you.”
The commandos killed nine pro-Palestinian activists from Turkey in the May 31 raid, which worsened alreadystrained ties with Turkey and ultimately forced Israel to ease its land blockade of Gaza imposed after Iranian-backed Hamas seized control of the Palestinian territory in 2007.
A naval blockade remains intact - a measure Israel says is needed to prevent arms from reaching Gaza’s Hamas rulers - and subsequent efforts to break it have been quashed without violence.
The May raid turned deadly when commandos rappelled onto the lead ship of the flotilla and met activist resistance as they came down from helicopters.
After Netanyahu delivered his remarks, he met privately with four of the wounded commandos on the base.
Link seen of 2 bodies, party massacre
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - The bodies of two men, one of them decapitated, were found in a Mexican border city Tuesday, and police suspect that they may have been behind the slaying of 14 young people at a birthday party.
The bodies were found inside a sport utility vehicle in Ciudad Juarez, said prosecutor Jorge Gonzalez Nicolas. One of them had been decapitated, and his head was left in the car. Both bodies had their hands and feet bound and bore signs of torture.
A sign left with the bodies accused them of killing women and children.
Gonzalez said the message raised the possibility that the two men were involved in the attack on the party Friday night.
Gunmen pulled up to two houses next door to each other in a lower-middle-class Ciudad Juarez neighborhood and opened fire on about four dozen partygoers gathered for a 15-year-old boy’s birthday party.
The dead ranged from 13 to 32 years old, including six women and girls.
15-nation polio-ending push starts
KAMPALA, Uganda - The World Health Organization on Tuesday announced a polio vaccination campaign in Africa, the same day Ugandan health officials announced an outbreak of the highly infectious disease.
WHO officials in Geneva said the 15-country campaign would start as early as next week in Angola and Congo, neighboring central African nations that together have more than 50 cases. The bulk of the volunteer-staffed campaign will focus on West Africa, where Nigeria, the most populous nation in sub-Saharan Africa, has never managed to eradicate the disease.
Ugandan Health Minister Stephen Malinga said Tuesday that a 2-year-old boy was first diagnosed last week, and four other children from his neighborhood tested positive. Uganda, which was most recently declared polio-free in 2009, is not part of the vaccination campaign.
Oral vaccines will also be given in Chad and Sudan, two neighboring nations that also struggle with polio.
The $42.6 million, donor-financed vaccination campaign aims to reach 72 million children in 15 countries. The campaign is a joint effort involving the WHO, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USAID, Rotary International, UNICEF and the governments of Germany and Japan.
U.N. condemns U.S. embargo on Cuba
UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelming Tuesday to condemn almost a halfcentury of U.S. sanctions against Cuba, demanding an end to what member states say is a Cold War anachronism that hurts only ordinary people.
The final vote by U.N. member states was 187 in favor of ending the sanctions, with two countries - the United States and Israel - in favor of keeping them. The Marshall Islands, Palau and Micronesia abstained.
It was the 19th consecutive year that the General Assembly took up the symbolic measure, calling for the “necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba.”
Front Section, Pages 6 on 10/27/2010