The world in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I think the greatest sadness I felt in my life was when I had to eat a dead body.”

Roberto Canessa, 59, a member of the Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes in 1972, stranding survivors for 72 days and forcing them to eat human flesh to stay alive Article, this page

Libyan congress taps new premier

TRIPOLI, Libya - Libya’s 200-member General National Congress has elected a former congressman and human-rights lawyer as the country’s new prime minister.

Ali Zidan, who resigned as a congressman to run as a candidate in the election, won 93 votes, securing him a majority from those present in voting.

Zidan was a diplomat under Moammar Gadhafi before defecting in the 1980s and joining Libya’s oldest opposition movement, National Front for the Salvation of Libya, from Geneva where he resided.

The congress selected the new prime minister Sunday after last week’s dismissal of Mustafa Abushagur after just 25 days in the post for failing to present a Cabinet list that satisfied legislators. Zidan had previously run against Abushagur and lost.

Peace pact draws Philippine rebels

MANILA, Philippines - About 200 Muslim rebels led by their elusive chief arrived in the Philippine capital on Sunday for the signing of a preliminary peace pact aimed at ending one of Asia’s longest-running insurgencies.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s decades-long rebellion has killed tens of thousands of people and held back progress in the south, where Muslims make up a sizable minority. Government and rebel negotiators forged the framework peace agreement Oct. 7 in Malaysia after 15 years of tough negotiations.

The pact’s signing today will be witnessed by President Benigno Aquino III, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and rebel chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, who will set foot for the first time in Manila’s Malacanang presidential palace.

About 300 Muslims from Manila and southern provinces held a noisy rally outside the palace on Sunday in support of the preliminary accord, yelling “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great.” They called for more development in the resource-rich but impoverished southern Mindanao region, the homeland of minority Muslims in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation.

Security has been tightened in the capital, although no disruptions were expected.

Rafael storming toward Bermuda

CHARLOTTE AMALIE, U.S. Virgin Islands - The outer bands of strengthening Tropical Storm Rafael drenched the Caribbean’s Leeward Islands on Sunday as its center moved over open ocean on a track toward Bermuda.

There were no immediate reports of any significant damage or injuries in the islands as the center of the tropical storm churned toward the north-northwest. By late Sunday morning, it was about 170 miles northeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and was packing winds of roughly 60 mph.

Forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Rafael could strengthen into a hurricane by late today as it spins over the open Atlantic.

Rafael is expected to approach the wealthy British Atlantic territory of Bermuda on Tuesday. The Bermuda Weather Service issued a tropical storm watch for the storm-hardened territory of about 70,000 people late Sunday morning.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 10/15/2012

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