The world in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“We do not have a civil war. It is about

terrorism and the support coming from abroad to terrorists to destabilize Syria.This is our war.”

Syrian President Bashar Assad

Article, 1AIllegal homes razed in South Africa

LENASIA, South Africa - Bulldozers moved in on a South African town Friday, destroying homes that officials said were constructed on illegally sold land, despite efforts by protesters to stop the demolitions.

A woman and her baby were removed from their home before police and bulldozers smashed it to pieces, witnesses said. Three bulldozers moved in on another sturdy brick house with an orange tile roof down the street, breaking it down in only 20 minutes.

The housing department of the province of Gauteng said it demolished 14 houses Friday in Lenasia. The department said it had identified 113 houses in the area that it said were illegally built on land intended for government houses.

Hundreds gathered to watch the destruction on streets littered with signs of protest, including the remains of burned tires and makeshift barricades of bricks and logs. Thirty-seven houses had been demolished Thursday and police fired stun grenades early Friday to break up protests.

Putin replaces military chief of staff

MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin replaced the head of the Russian military’s general staff and a number of top generals Friday, continuing an overhaul of military leaders that began with the removal of Russia’s defense minister earlier this week.

Col. Gen. Valery Gerasimov will replace Gen. Nikolai Makarov, who has served as chief of the general staff since 2008. The move was not unexpected, since the new defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, has the right to install his own team in top military posts.

Still, the shuffle has shed light on simmering disagreements within the military, which is about to receive an infusion of about $634 billion to be spent on new weaponry. Putin is known to dislike internal dissent and appears to have taken steps to calm a backlash against overhauls implemented by the departing defense minister, Anatoly Serdyukov.

Though Serdyukov was dismissed amid a corruption scandal, some analysts said the real cause was a systemic problem: Serdyukov had alienated many in the uniformed military with deep staffing cuts intended to streamline and update Russia’s vast conventional forces.

Fire from derailed Burma train kills 25

RANGOON, Burma - Twenty-five people were killed in northern Burma when a derailed tanker train burst into flames as they were trying to skim fuel from its overturned carriages, state television reported Friday.

The report said 62 other people were injured that morning after the train hauling seven carriages of gasoline and two of diesel derailed near Kantbalu about 500 miles north of Rangoon. It was traveling from Rangoon to the Kachin state capital of Myitkyina.

The cause of the accident was not given.

The report said the injured were being treated at two nearby hospitals.

A witness, Myint Kyi, told the U.S.-funded broadcaster Radio Free Asia that the dead included 16 men, seven women and two bodies so badly burned their sex was not immediately apparent. He gave the number of injured as 74.

China asset disclosure seen likely

BEIJING - Asset disclosure for Chinese officials is likely to be slowly phased in over time, a senior Communist Party leader said Friday, as the government grapples with the fraught task of rooting out the corruption that has fed widespread public anger.

The comments from Wang Yang, a member of the decision-making Politburo with a reputation as a reformer, came a day after the party opened a week-long congress to install a new leadership with a call to fight corruption.

Speaking to reporters, Wang said that the province he runs, Guangdong, is exploring methods for officials to declare their wealth and that in the future public disclosure of assets will be required of all officials.

“I believe Chinese officials, in accordance with central rules, will gradually make public their assets,” Wang said after a meeting with congress delegates from Guangdong. He did not give a time frame.

Front Section, Pages 6 on 11/10/2012

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