LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Iran is not providing the necessary cooperation to enable us to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities.”
Yukio Amano, U.N. nuclear chief Article, this page
South Sudan boots U.N. rights officer
KAMPALA, Uganda - South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan last year after decades of civil war, has expelled a U.N. human-rights officer after the government objected to a report raising allegations of atrocities by South Sudan’s army.
Hilde Johnson, head of the U.N. mission in South Sudan, described the expulsion as a “breach of the legal obligations” of South Sudan’s government “under the Charter of the United Nations.”
The report, published by the United Nations in June, accused South Sudan’s military of widespread abuses while trying to disarm civilians in South Sudan’s Jonglei State after a surge of ethnic violence. South Sudan condemned the report as one sided.
The officer, who was identified by a colleague outside the United Nations as Sandra Beidas, is now in Entebbe, Uganda, according to the statement, “pending a decision on her future status.”
Officials from South Sudan’s Information Ministry and the president’s office could not be reached for comment.
Japan, U.S. begin 12-day joint drill
TOKYO - The militaries of the United States and Japan began an enormous joint drill Monday, though leaving out a key part of the exercise that might have angered China.
Japan’s Defense Ministry said 37,000 Japanese and 10,000 American military personnel would be taking part in the 12-day drill, which involves U.S. Navy ships transporting Japanese troops. The top government spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura, said the drill, near Okinawa, was not aimed at a specific country.
But the Japanese government canceled a joint amphibious landing on a remote island in what experts described as an effort not to provoke China, which is locked in an emotional dispute with Japan over control of uninhabited islands near Okinawa in the East China Sea.
In Bahrain, 5 bomb blasts kill 2, hurt 1
MANAMA, Bahrain - A series of bomb blasts in Bahrain’s capital killed two people Monday, authorities said, a sign that some factions within the opposition may be increasingly turning to violence in the nearly 21-month uprising against the Gulf nation’s Western-backed rulers.
The apparently coordinated string of five explosions in Manama - described by officials as “terrorism” - comes less than a week after Bahrain banned all protest gatherings in attempts to quell the deepening unrest.
Two Asian men were killed and a third person was injured as at least five homemade explosive devices were detonated, the Interior Ministry said. The blasts took place over five hours. One man died after kicking a bomb and triggering an explosion, and the other died from injuries in a separate blast, officials said.
The dead were a 29-year old Indian and a 33-year-old citizen of Bangladesh, they said. A 33-year-old Indian was wounded.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 11/06/2012