The world in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Those responsible for this accident will be held accountable.”

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi,

after a train-bus collision killed 51 people, mostly children.

Article, 9AParis rally protests gay-marriage bill

PARIS - Groups opposed to President Francois Hollande’s plans to legalize gay marriage and gay adoptions took to the streets Saturday across France.

Hollande said he would enact his “marriage for everyone” plan within a year of coming to power in May, but vocal opposition from religious leaders, some politicians and parts of rural France has divided the country.

Saturday’s protest, called the “March for Everyone,” included Catholic groups. Several thousand people marched in Paris, carrying signs with slogans such as “One child = one father + one mother.”

Their final destination was the Invalides monument, the final resting place of Napoleon Bonaparte, the French leader who invented the country’s prized civil code, which is still in force today. It states that marriage is a union between a man and a woman, a point the gay-marriage bill seeks to overturn. Hollande would also replace the entries in a child’s registry book from “father” and “mother” to “parent 1” and “parent 2.”

A recent survey found that most French favor gay marriage, while support for adoption by gay couples hovers near 50 percent.

U.N. force kills 151 rebels in Congo

KINSHASA, Congo - U.N. attack helicopters targeted M23 rebels Saturday in eastern Congo after fighting resumed after a months-long lull in violence, a local official said.

Two army officers and 151 rebels were killed in a battle beginning Thursday that the U.N. called the worst clash between the M23 group and the military since July. Attack helicopters for the U.N. mission in Congo, known as MONUSCO, had been on standby.

“MONUSCO helicopters this morning bombarded the M23 positions in the city of Kibumba,” said North Kivu Gov. Julien Paluku. He said the Congolese army had earlier retreated from Kibumba, which is 19 miles north of Goma, after thousands of Rwandans, who he says were backing the rebels, attacked early Saturday.

Reports by United Nations experts have accused Rwanda and Uganda of supporting the rebels. Both countries strongly deny any involvement. Uganda said that if the charges continue, it will pull its peacekeeping troops out of Somalia, where they are playing an important role in pushing out the Islamist extremist rebels.

Greeks march in honor of ’73 uprising

ATHENS, Greece - Greeks took to the streets by the tens of thousands Saturday to commemorate the 39th anniversary of a deadly student uprising against the country’s former dictatorship.

While the marches went on peacefully, clashes between anarchists and police broke out briefly in the capital, Athens and Greece’s second-largest city, Thessaloniki, in both cases far from where the marches took place. Police announced they detained 70 people in Athens and 19 in Thessaloniki.

With more than 6,000 police deployed in the city center, protesters marched from the National Technical University of Athens, where the 1973 uprising kicked off, to the U.S.

Embassy. They were led by students carrying a Greek flag bloodied during the uprising.

Many Greeks hold the U.S. responsible for backing the 1967-74 dictatorship. Protesters burned a U.S. flag outside the embassy, a yearly ritual.

A separate march by Communist Party supporters later went past the U.S. Embassy after police changed tack and unblocked the route.

Police said both marches involved about 22,000 people.

Croats’ overturned verdicts rile Serbs

BELGRADE, Serbia - Serb nationalists burned a Croatian flag Saturday to protest a decision by a U.N. war-crimes court overturning guilty verdicts against two Croatian generals, and the prime minister called the decision a blow to reconciliation in the postwar Balkans.

Many in Serbia are furious that appeals judges at the Netherlands-based tribunal on Friday freed Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac, who had been previously sentenced to lengthy prison terms for killing and expelling Serbs from Croatia during an offensive in 1995.

“This will have serious consequences at reconciliation in the region,” Serbia’s premier, Ivica Dacic, said. “How can someone demand that we condemn all crimes if others are allowed not to condemn the crimes against Serbs ?”

Front Section, Pages 10 on 11/18/2012

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