LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“We believe that it’s necessary to first agree about the future, reach an understanding on how the rights of different ethnic and religious groups will be protected, and only then make changes. Not the other way round: oust Assad and think what to do next.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, warning the West against pushing for the Syrian leader’s ouster Article, this page
Protests against Jordan’s king’s grow
AMMAN, Jordan - Calls for the ouster of Jordan’s King Abdullah II grew Friday, as thousands of protesters packed the streets of the capital and demonstrations resumed elsewhere.
Larger groups have demonstrated in Amman since the unrest sparked by fuel price increases started four days ago, but Friday’s march constituted the biggest single bloc yet to call for the end of the U.S.-backed monarch’s regime. The crowd of some 2,500 also chanted slogans reminiscent of last year’s uprisings in the region.
Jordan, a key U.S. ally, has so far weathered nearly two years of Arab unrest that has seen longtime rulers toppled in Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Tunisia. Its own street protests calling for political change have largely been peaceful and rarely targeted Abdullah himself.
Protests across the country turned unusually violent earlier this week, with one person killed and 75 others, including 58 policemen, injured.
Hezbollah chief wanted by U.S. freed
BAGHDAD - Iraq freed a jailed Hezbollah commander wanted by the United States on Friday, his lawyer said, returning him home to Lebanon in a move that underscores Washington’s waning influence in Baghdad since last December’s troop pullout.
The U.S. believes Ali Mussa Daqduq is a top threat to Americans in the Middle East, and had asked Baghdad to extradite him even before two Iraqi courts found him innocent of masterminding a raid that left five American soldiers dead in 2007. But Iraq’s Shiite-led government, which is close to Hezbollah’s top patron Iran, refused to hand him over.
The move complicates the Obama administration’s efforts to prosecute Daqduq, as Shiite Hezbollah dominates the Lebanese government, and the U.S. has no extradition treaty with the country. State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland said the U.S. was upset with the decision and had made its feelings known to the Iraqi government.
Putin, Merkel clash over band
MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday shot back at visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel for raising questions about the imprisonment of members of a punk band, suggesting she was poorly informed about the group’s true nature.
The exchange at a Russian-German business forum in Moscow came in the wake of growing German criticism of Russia’s human-rights record and its moves to crack down on dissent.
Merkel raised cautious criticism of the two-year prison sentences imposed on two members of the band for a guerrilla performance in Moscow’s main cathedral of a so-called punk prayer entreating the Virgin Mary to save Russia from Putin.
But Putin asked whether Merkel knew that one of the women had previously taken part in a performance-art demonstration where several dolls representing migrant workers and homosexuals, one of them also identified as Jewish, were hung from nooses.
The 2008 demonstration was actually in support of those groups, but Putin interpreted it differently.
“We cannot support, with you, people who take an anti-Semitic position,” Putin said.
Japan’s Noda dissolves parliament
TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda dissolved the lower house of parliament Friday, paving the way for elections in which his ruling party will likely give way to a weak coalition government divided over how to solve the nation’s myriad problems.
Elections are set for Dec. 16. If Noda’s center-left party loses, the economically sputtering country will get its seventh prime minister in six and a half years.
The opposition Liberal Democratic Party, which led Japan for most of the post-World War II era, is in the best position to take over. The timing of the election likely pre-empts moves by more conservative challengers, including former Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, to build electoral support.
The Democratic Party of Japan, in power for three years, has grown unpopular largely because of its handling of the Fukushima nuclear crisis and its recent doubling of the sales tax.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 11/17/2012