LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“People were waiting to take revenge on Fianna Fail, and they have certainly done so with great gusto.”
Batt O’Keefe,
one of 18 Fianna Fail incumbents who chose not to seek re-election, on projections that the Irish ruling party would be handily defeated Article, this pageMugabe talks revenge, marks birthday
HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe’s ruler of 30 years celebrated his 87th birthday Saturday, saying that even if his body “may get spent” he still has the political ideas of a young man.
President Robert Mugabe told supporters at his birthday party that the government also would take control of companies owned by Western interests in retaliation for the economic sanctions that target him and his associates.
Mugabe turned 87 on Monday but traditionally marks his birthday later with a mass meeting of the youth movement he founded. He returned home last Sunday from undergoing medical treatment in Singapore.
“87 is only 8 plus 7. I want to remain with you. My body may get spent, but I wish my mind will always be with you,” he told more than 6,000 supporters in an animated 70-minute address.
Mugabe was garlanded with flowers, and he listened to two hours of praise singing by choirs and music groups. Other supporters chanted slogans recalling the guerrilla war that swept Mugabe to power in 1980, ending British colonial rule.
Moscow man kills himself with grenade
MOSCOW - A man who apparently was distraught after an argument with his wife blew himself up near a Moscow supermarket, killing himself, ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
No other injuries were reported.
The man’s wife told police that her husband had quarreled with her about three hours earlier, after which he grabbed a gun and left their home, police spokesman Anatoly Lastovetsky was quoted as saying by ITAR-Tass.
Lastovetsky did not specify how the man blew himself up, but the Interfax news agency reported that witnesses said he parked his automobile near the supermarket, went to its entrance while muttering unintelligibly, pulled out a grenade and set it off.
Official: Jailed American a contractor
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - An American detained for visa violations in northwest Pakistan is a contractor who had worked on a U.S.-funded construction project in the region, a security official said Saturday.
Pakistan’s intelligence agency says it is scrutinizing the details of Americans in the country after the arrest last month of a CIA employee for shooting dead two Pakistanis in the eastern city of Lahore, but it was unclear whether the arrest of Aaron Mark DeHaven in Peshawar on Friday was directly related to that inquiry.
On Saturday, more than 300 Islamists from the Jamaatud-Dawa charity, which has militant links, rallied in Lahore, urging the government to hang the detained CIA contractor, Raymond Allen Davis.
“Expel all the CIA agents,” said Amir Hamza, a leader of the charity.
The rally came hours after DeHaven appeared in court in Peshawar, and a judge ordered that he remain in custody for 14 more days while police investigate him.
The security official said DeHaven, 34, from Virginia, who is married to a Pakistani woman, was a contractor who had worked on at least one construction contract for the U.S.
government in the region.
Cuba to release 9 political prisoners
HAVANA - Cuba has agreed to free another prominent political prisoner and send eight other inmates into exile in Spain, the Roman Catholic Church announced Saturday.
The release of Diosdado Gonzalez means just five of 75 peaceful activists, social commentators and opposition figures jailed in a 2003 crackdown remain behind bars.
Cuba has told Catholic leaders that it plans to free them all, and it is ridding its jails of many other prisoners whose crimes - some of them violent - had some political motivation.
Church spokesman Orlando Marquez announced the releases in a statement Saturday.
Gonzalez, a 48-year-old electrician and farmer, is the husband of Alejandrina Garcia, a leader of the Ladies in White opposition group, who briefly launched a hunger strike last month to demand his release.
Garcia said she has been walking on air since receiving word that she would soon have her husband home again.
“Can you imagine!” she said. “I am as nervous as a young girl waiting for her boyfriend to arrive.”
Front Section, Pages 9 on 02/27/2011