LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Some of the guests jumped from the window into the hotel yard.They were hiding under trees or any safe place they could find.Three of the guests jumped into the lake and hid in the water.”
Mohammad Zahir, criminal-investigation director for Kabul police, on a Taliban attack on a lakeside hotel near the Afghan capital Article, this page
Russia: Avoid threats in Iran talks
MOSCOW - Russia’s foreign minister said Friday that Iran shouldn’t face threats over its nuclear program and that a quick settlement of the standoff over it isn’t realistic.
Sergey Lavrov said the latest round of talks in Moscow this week between six world powers and Iran has been “quite useful,” even though there was no breakthrough. He said talks must continue without “any artificial deadlines or ultimatums.”
Iran insists its uranium-enrichment program serves only civilian purposes, but the U.S., Israel and others suspect it’s a cover for building nuclear weapons. Israel has accused Iran of stretching out the talks to move closer to the ability to make an atomic bomb, and it has threatened to attack the Islamic Republic as a last resort.
“In order to settle the issue, it’s necessary to refrain from constant threats of using force, abandon scenarios aimed against Iran, and stop dismissing the talks as failure,” Lavrov said on Russia’s Rossiya 24 television.
Mexico, U.S. work to identify suspect
MEXICO CITY - Mexican and U.S. authorities said Friday that they are checking DNA and photographs of a detained drug suspect whom they introduced as the presumed son of fugitive drug kingpin Joaquin Guzman.
The Mexican navy presented a young man amid great fanfare Thursday, identifying him as Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, who is believed to be son of the head of Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa Cartel. But by Friday, both Mexico and the U.S. officials were scrambling after his lawyer told Mexican news media that he is Felix Beltran Leon, a car salesman from western Jalisco state who has no relationship to Guzman.
The lawyer, Heriberto Rangel Mendez, said he would show proof of the man’s identity, but did not immediately offer further comment.
The Mexican attorney general’s office issued a statement saying information identifying him as the son of Guzman came from the U.S.; the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency said the information came from Mexico.
New Greek finance chief hospitalized
ATHENS, Greece - Greece’s new finance minister was rushed to the hospital Friday, hours after officials announced the debt-struck country’s new prime minister was to undergo eye surgery for a detached retina.
Vassilis Rapanos, 65, was admitted to a private hospital in Athens complaining of intense abdominal pain, nausea, dizziness, sweating and weakness, the hospital said in a statement. His condition had stabilized and he was to undergo further tests to determine the cause of his condition, it added. Rapanos was expected to remain hospitalized overnight.
His swearing-in, which had been scheduled for Friday evening, was postponed. The Cabinet of Greece’s new three-party coalition government was sworn in Thursday, but the ceremony for Rapanos had been delayed to allow outgoing Finance Minister Giorgos Zanias to represent Greece at a eurozone finance ministers’ meeting in Luxembourg.
2 bombs kill 14 at Baghdad market
BAGHDAD - Two bombs exploded in an open-air market in Baghdad on Friday, killing at least 14 people in the latest round of spiraling violence six months after the last U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq.
More than 160 people have died this month in attacks mostly attributed to Sunni insurgents linked to al-Qaida.
They are targeting security forces and Shiite civilians in an attempt to weaken Iraq’s fragile government, which is mired in deadlock and struggling to provide security and even basic services such as electricity.
Friday’s explosions, timed within minutes of each other, came at mid-morning in the mostly Shiite neighborhood of Husseiniyah in northeast Baghdad. No one claimed responsibility.
The blasts killed at least 14 people and wounded 106, a medical official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
Front Section, Pages 7 on 06/23/2012