The world in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The option of invading Gaza after this victory is gone and will never return.”

Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas Article, 1A

Taliban bomber kills 23 in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD - A Taliban suicide bomber struck a Shiite Muslim procession near Pakistan’s capital, killing 23 people in the latest of a series of bombings targeting Shiites during their holiest month of the year, officials said Thursday.

The bomber attacked the procession about midnight Wednesday in the city of Rawalpindi, next to the capital, Islamabad, said Deeba Shahnaz, a state rescue official. At least 62 people were wounded by the blast, including six policemen. Eight of the dead and wounded were children, Shahnaz said.

Police tried to stop and search the bomber as he attempted to join the procession, but he ran past them and detonated his explosives, said senior police official Haseeb Shah. The attacker was also carrying grenades, some of which exploded, Shah said.

Earlier Wednesday, the Taliban set off two bombs within minutes outside a Shiite mosque in the southern city of Karachi, killing one person and wounding 15 others, senior police official Javed Odho said.

White tiger escapes, mauls 3 at zoo

PRAGUE - A rare white tiger attacked three employees in a Czech zoo Thursday after escaping from its enclosure, officials said.

Lenka Markovicova, spokesman for the rescuers in the northern city of Liberec, said one man was hospitalized with head injuries but was not in a life-threatening condition. Two women suffered minor injuries and were also taken to the local hospital for treatment.

Zoo spokesman Ivan Langr said the tiger, named Paris, has been tranquilized and poses no further danger. He said the zoo’s employees were shocked and that it was not immediately clear who was to blame for the escape.

The Liberec Zoo is the only one in the Czech Republic that has white tigers.

Sarkozy now a donation-case witness

PARIS - Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday was named a key - and potentially indictable - witness after 12 hours before a judge to answer questions about whether he accepted illegal campaign donations from 90-year-old L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt.

Bettencourt’s former accountant told police she handed over about $192,000 in cash she was told would be passed on to Sarkozy’s campaign treasurer. In July, a magistrate ordered the seizure of Sarkozy’s diaries, including his calendars.

The sum, although it pales in comparison to U.S. campaign funding amounts, shocked many French citizens because spending on political campaigns is tightly limited here. Individual campaign contributions to candidates are limited to about $5,930, and no candidate can spend more than about $28 million on an entire presidential campaign. The French government reimburses some of that money to the winner.

The Bordeaux prosecutor, Claude Lapland, told the Sipa news agency after Thursday’s hearing that Sarkozy was given the status of what in France is known as an “assisting witness,” with the possibility of facing charges later on allegations of abusing someone in an impaired state, swindling and abuse of confidence.

Calderon: Shorten Mexico’s name

MEXICO CITY - Mexican President Felipe Calderon, whose six-year term comes to an end next week, said he’s sending Congress a constitutional amendment to change the nation’s name to one that reminds people less of the United States.

Calderon proposed shortening the official name to “Mexico” from the “United Mexican States” during a speech Thursday in Mexico City. The decision in 1824 to adopt its current name was based on the example of the United States of America, and the name is outdated because it’s used only for formal occasions, he said. The name “Mexico” comes from the Nahuatl indigenous term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire of the 15th and 16th centuries, which included the nation’s present-day capital.

“The current name of our country is the result of a historical moment,” Calderon said in a speech at the presidential residence of Los Pinos. “It was a product of circumstance that no longer exists. Mexico doesn’t need a name that emulates another country and that none of us use on a daily basis.”

Front Section, Pages 7 on 11/23/2012

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