LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I like to believe he’s got the message. We’ve made it pretty
clear. Others have as well.” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, on whether he believed Syria’s president was heeding Western warnings against using chemical weapons Article, 1A4th Chavez surgery
called a success
CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez was recovering in Cuba on Tuesday after an operation targeting an aggressive cancer that has defied multiple treatments.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro spoke on Venezuelan television after the surgery, saying the operation was “complex” but was completed “correctly and successfully.”
Maduro made the announcement flanked by other Chavez aides and military commanders. He then led an outdoor vigil where the president’s supporters joined hands in prayer and sang along with a recording of Chavez singing the national anthem.
It was the fourth cancerrelated operation that Chavez has had since June 2011.
Three days before the surgery, Chavez had announced that he needed to have surgery again after tests showed “some malignant cells” had reappeared in the same area where tumors were previously removed.
Cayman Islands
premier arrested
KINGSTON, Jamaica - The leader of the Cayman Islands’ government was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of theft, abuse of office and breach of trust in the famed Caribbean tax haven.
Premier McKeeva Bush was arrested at his home in the West Bay section of Grand Cayman island by officers from the financial unit of the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service, police spokesman Janet Dougall said.
By evening, Bush had been released on overnight bail after a series of interviews. Police said he would be questioned further today.
The 57-year-old Bush was detained “in connection with a number of ongoing police investigations,” Dougall said in a statement. She said the probes concern suspected theft related to misuse of a government credit card, and breach of trust, abuse of office and conflict of interest in the purported importation of unspecified explosive substances without valid permits.
Mandela suffering from lung infection
JOHANNESBURG - After three days of silence on the illness of Nelson Mandela, South African President Jacob Zuma’s office issued a three-line statement Tuesday announcing that the antiapartheid figure and Nobel Peace Prize winner is suffering from a lung infection.
Mandela’s hospitalization Saturday for medical tests caused national alarm. Zuma’s office said Monday that the former president was “in good hands” without commenting on his condition.
On Tuesday, presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said new tests indicated that the 94-year-old Mandela was suffering from a recurrence of a previous lung infection.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 12/12/2012