LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The judiciary will look at our laws and soon come up with a legal framework that allows us to keep those people who pose a serious security threat.”
Aimal Faizi,
the Afghan president’s spokesman, on detaining terror suspects without trial Article, this page
Panetta tours two Chinese warships
QINGDAO, China - U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta got a rare glimpse inside a Chinese naval base Thursday and toured two of its ships.
But most details of his visit - like much of the information about China’s military - were off-limits to the media traveling with him.
Instead, the reporters got beer. Chinese officials refused to let reporters stay with Panetta as he went aboard the ships, so the media were taken to the nearby Tsingtao Brewery for a tour.
Meanwhile, Panetta checked out the frigate Yantai, which recently returned from an anti-piracy deployment in the Gulf of Aden, and the Great Wall 197, a conventionally powered submarine.
The U.S. has repeatedly called for China to be more transparent about its military. Panetta’s tour of the People’s Liberation Army’s North Sea Fleet capped a threeday visit in which the Pentagon chief met with China’s military and civilian leaders, urging greater cooperation and communication between the two nations.
Man held in officers’ killings, 2 others
LONDON - A 29-year-old man has been charged in the slayings of two unarmed police officers in the Manchester region of northern England, British authorities said Thursday.
Fiona Bone, 32, who was planning her wedding, and Nicola Hughes, 23, died Tuesday shortly after a gunman opened fire and set off a grenade in Hattersley, a suburban area about 10 miles from central Manchester.
The case provoked shock and anger in Britain, where fatal gun attacks on police are rare. Firearms are tightly controlled and few officers carry deadly weapons.
Dale Cregan, already the focus of an intense police manhunt as a suspect in two other killings, surrendered at a local police station shortly after the attack and was booked on murder charges.
Prosecutor Nazir Afzal said Thursday that Cregan has been charged with murder in the deaths of Bone and Hughes, along with father and son David and Mark Short, who were killed separately earlier this year.
Admiral: Persian Gulf drills no threat
MANAMA, Bahrain - The admiral in charge of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet on Thursday defended the large American-led naval exercises in the Persian Gulf and other strategic Mideast waterways as a means to ensure stability and security in the region, rebutting Iran’s concerns about what it sees as foreign military meddling.
More than 30 countries are involved in the anti-mine exercises. Although the Navy says the maneuvers are purely defensive and not directed at any country, they are widely seen as a message to Iranian officials, who have threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf.
Vice Adm. John Miller said the participation of such a large number of countries shows there is a broad, common interest in ensuring the region’s sea lanes remain safe.
Prisoners’ abuse still riling Georgians
TBILISI, Georgia - Street protests against abuse of prisoners escalated Thursday in the Georgian capital, fueling anger against the Western-allied government.
President Mikhail Saakashvili has sought to defuse the tensions by removing the Cabinet ministers most blamed for the abuse and completely reshuffling prison personnel.
Two days after television stations aired videos of guards beating inmates and raping them with truncheons and brooms, thousands rallied outside the Interior Ministry and the Tbilisi prison where the abuse occurred. The protesters, some carrying brooms, then marched down the capital’s main avenue to the presidential palace to demand the ouster of the interior minister.
The interior minister, Bachana Akhalaya, resigned late Thursday.
The simmering public anger threatens to damage Saakashvili’s party in the Oct. 1 parliamentary election and stands to boost support for the opposition Georgian Dream coalition led by billionaire philanthropist Bidzina Ivanishvili.
Front Section, Pages 7 on 09/21/2012