LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I don’t like, and don’t want - and there is no need - to use exceptional measures. But
those who are trying to gnaw the bones of the nation must be held accountable.”
President Mohammed Morsi of Egypt
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Sierra Leone’s president re-elected
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone - Sierra Leone’s incumbent president handily won re-election and was sworn in late Friday by the country’s chief justice.
Ernest Bai Koroma won 58.7 percent of the vote. His closest rival, opposition leader and retired Brig. Gen. Julius Maada Bio, came in second with 37.4 percent, according to results announced Friday by the National Electoral Commission chairman Christiana Thorpe.
A total of eight challengers attempted to unseat Koroma in the Nov. 17 election, the third presidential poll since the end of Sierra Leone’s horrific civil war in 2002.
NY Times chief testifies in BBC case
LONDON - Mark Thompson, the president and chief executive of The New York Times Co., testified Friday in a closed inquiry investigating why the British Broadcasting Corp. canceled a contentious report into sexual abuse, a Times company spokesman said.
Thompson was the director general of the BBC in December, when its flagship Newsnight current-affairs program canceled an investigation into accusations of abuse against television host Jimmy Savile, who had died two months earlier at the age of 84. Thompson assumed his new post at The New York Times Co. Nov. 12.
Robert Christie, a senior vice president of corporate communications for The New York Times Co., confirmed in an e-mail that Thompson had appeared Friday before a BBC-appointed inquiry in London led by Nick Pollard, the former executive of Sky News, a commercial channel controlled by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. Christie’s e-mail, in response to an inquiry after The Guardian newspaper reported that Thompson was testifying, gave no detail of his statements to the inquiry, nor any other details.
Thompson could not be reached in London.
His testimony followed the disclosure earlier this month that a legal letter sent on his behalf by BBC lawyers to The Sunday Times of London while he was still the BBC chief included a summary of the abuse accusations against Savile, raising questions about Thompson’s assertions that he learned the specifics of the accusations only after leaving the BBC. He has not commented on the letter.
China: Hospitals must treat HIV, AIDS
BEIJING - China’s Health Ministry on Friday banned hospitals from turning away patients infected with HIV or diagnosed with AIDS.
A circular issued by the ministry Friday ordered health authorities at all level of government to guarantee treatment for HIV and AIDS patients.
The order covers both sufferers already known to have the condition and those whose infection is discovered while undergoing treatment. It requires authorities to ensure protective measures for health-care professionals.
It comes two days after Vice Premier Li Keqiang intervened to demand a hospital in the northeastern city of Tianjin provide treatment for a 25-year-old lung-cancer patient after the man was turned away for being HIV-positive.
A decade ago, Li helped cover up China’s initial AIDS outbreak in the central province of Henan, which was caused by illegal blood buying syndicates.
Sudan bombing run kills 7, South says
NAIROBI, Kenya - Sudan carried out aerial bombardment on the northern part of South Sudan in the last three days, killing seven people and wounding others, an official of South Sudan said Friday, accusing its northern neighbor of breaking an agreement between the two countries to end hostilities.
Sudanese Antonov planes dropped more than 27 bombs in a disputed region near the village of Kiir Adem in northern Bahr el Ghazal State, said Col. Philip Aguer, the spokesman for South Sudan’s military.
The attack is in violation of a security agreement signed between the two countries to end hostilities, he said. South Sudan is also accusing Sudan of frustrating its efforts to resume oil production.
He said the South Sudanese military has taken up defensive positions and will act in accordance with the country’s constitution to defend its citizens if it sees movement of ground troops from Sudan’s side.
Sudanese military spokesman Col. Sawarmy Khalid Saad said that government forces did not hit areas in South Sudan but were battling rebels nearby.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 11/24/2012