LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It’s too soon to know, and maybe it’s just
accidental firing, but if this proves to be
intentional firing, North Korea could be trying to send a signal that they are living up to their words.”
Paik Hak-soon,
director of the Center for North Korean Studies at the Sejong Institute near Seoul Article, 1AArgentine ex-president buried privately
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Former President Nestor Kirchner was buried Friday in the southern city where he was born, ending two days of mourning that saw tens of thousands of Argentines fill the streets to pay their respects.
Kirchner, who died Wednesday of a heart attack at age 60, was laid to rest in his family’s small pantheon in a cemetery in Rio Gallegos, capital of southern Santa Cruz province where he and his wife began their political careers.
The only people allowed at the private ceremony were his wife, current President Cristina Fernandez; the couple’s children Maximo and Florencia; close government officials;
and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the last of the Latin American leaders who visited Argentina remaining in the country.
Earlier Friday, Argentines filed past a flag-draped coffin to pay their respects to Kirchner, then lined Buenos Aires’ rainslicked streets for a glimpse of his hearse as it passed by.
Tens of thousands of people emerged from apartment buildings, businesses and government offices to applaud the man credited with helping the South American nation recover from a crippling economic crisis in the early 2000s.
Tropical Storm Shary nears Bermuda
HAMILTON, Bermuda - Bermuda canceled ferry services and urged islanders to secure their boats as Tropical Storm Shary swirled toward the tiny British Atlantic territory Friday.
The storm had sustained winds of 70 mph and could gain strength before passing near or just east of the island by early this morning, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.
On Friday afternoon, Shary’s core was about 85 miles east-southeast of Bermuda, near latitude 31.9 north and longitude 63.3 west, according to the hurricane center. It was moving northeast at 21 mph.
Also Friday, Tropical Storm Tomas formed in the Atlantic, and forecasters said it could become a hurricane after passing over the Windward Islands today.
The hurricane center said Tomas had strengthened quickly Friday night with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph. It was about 100 miles southeast of Barbados, near latitude 12.2 north and longitude 58.4 west.
Tropical storm warnings were issued for Barbados, Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Russian volcanoes’ spewing abates
MOSCOW - Two volcanoes that erupted on the fareastern Kamchatka Peninsula, blanketing a town with dust and spreading ash clouds across the Pacific, have mostly stopped spewing ash and flights are no longer diverted, Russian officials said Friday.
Eurasia’s highest active volcano, the Klyuchevskaya Sopka, was pumping out insignificant amounts of dust and the Shiveluch volcano, 45 miles northeast, had ceased all activity, the Emergencies Ministry reported on its website.
Ash clouds from the remote volcanoes had billowed up to 33,000 feet after they erupted Thursday and had spread east across the Pacific Ocean.
Haitians rally at U.N. base over cholera
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Hundreds of protesters who blame U.N. peacekeepers from Nepal for Haiti’s widening cholera epidemic marched on a rural military base Friday to demand the soldiers leave the country.
Demonstrators waving tree branches and carrying anti-U.N. banners walked from the central plateau city of Mirebalais several miles to the gates of the base perched above a tributary of the Artibonite River, a waterway identified by health officials as a conduit for the infection.
The protesters chanted “Like it or not, they must go” as the Nepalese soldiers and other U.N. peacekeepers remained inside.
Cholera has sparked widespread fear in Haiti, where it was unknown before the outbreak was first noticed by authorities Oct. 20. As of Friday morning, more than 4,700 people have been hospitalized and at least 330 have died, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Front Section, Pages 10 on 10/30/2010