LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Dance, sing and
prepare. Prepare
to defend Libya, to defend the oil, dignity and independence.”
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi,
addressing supporters in Tripoli Article, 1A
3 kin of activist
slain in Mexico
MEXICO CITY - Mexican police Friday discovered the bodies of three people related to a human-rights activist who was killed last year in the volatile northern border state of Chihuahua.
The bodies of a sister and brother of Josefina Reyes and her sister-in-law were found in the desert outside Guadalupe Distrito Bravos, southeast of Ciudad Juarez, said Carlos Gonzalez, spokesman for the state prosecutor’s office.
The three had been missing since Feb. 7, when witnesses reported that armed men forced the three from a vehicle.
Josefina Reyes had led protests against purported abuses by Mexican soldiers in the Juarez Valley, which sits across from El Paso, Texas.
Ivorian blames
rival in attacks
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast - A spokesman for Ivory Coast’s incumbent leader said Friday that a mysterious group of people calling themselves “invisible commandos” is commanded by the man who was internationally recognized as the winner of last year’s presidential poll.
The group claimed to have killed 27 police and paramilitary forces loyal to incumbent Laurent Gbagbo earlier this week in the Abobo district of Abidjan.
Daily battles with machine guns, grenades and rocket launchers have continued throughout the city since.
On Friday, locals said four days of nearly continuous gunfire stopped about 5 a.m. in Abobo, which had been the flash point of the conflict. Not long afterward, streams of people fled the area with their families and possessions.
Gbagbo spokesman Ahoua Don Mello called the fighters who’ve taken up arms in Abobo “terrorists” and said they were drawn from the group of rebels allied with opposition leader Alassane Ouattara, who was internationally recognized as the poll’s winner but has been forced to govern from a hotel because Gbagbo remains inside the presidency.
Ouattara’s camp denies any connection with the commandos. Spokesman Patrick Achi said they are citizens tired of police attacks who are defending themselves.
Militant leader
killed, Iraqis say
BAGHDAD - Iraqi security forces killed the top military leader of an al-Qaida front group, surrounding his hide-out and firing shots that blew up his booby-trapped getaway car, officials said Friday.
The slain militant, al-Nasser Lideen Allah Abu Suleiman, was the so-called war minister of the Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaida front group responsible for bombings and suicide attacks across Iraq, said Maj.
Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, an Iraqi military spokesman.
On Thursday, security forces tracked Suleiman to Anbar province, said the chairman of the provincial council, Jassim al-Halbousi.
When troops approached his hide-out, Suleiman fled in a vehicle rigged with explosives, al-Halbousi said.
Troops opened fire at the car, setting off an explosion that killed Suleiman, al-Halbousi said.
Al-Moussawi said Suleiman was killed in Hit, a city 85 miles west of Baghdad.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 02/26/2011