The world in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“We all hope that no anti-democratic initiative ever occurs in our country again.”

Binali Yildirim,

Turkey’s transportation minister, after a Turkish court convicted 326 military officers of plotting a coup Article, 8AGeorgia prison-abuse protests persist

TBILISI, Georgia - Thousands rallied Friday in Georgia to demand the prosecution of top officials fired in a prison abuse scandal that threatens to unseat the governing pro-Western party in the country’s Oct. 1 parliamentary election.

The protests, sparked by graphic videos showing guards in the former Soviet republic brutally beating prisoners and raping them with truncheons and broom handles, have ratcheted up the pressure on President Mikhail Saakashvili, whose party is facing a tough opposition challenge.

Saakashvili has sought to contain the damage by firing his interior minister and the minister in charge of the penitentiary system while also reshuffling prison personnel.

But despite these efforts, protesters increased their demands as rallies went into a third day Friday, insisting that former Interior Minister Bacho Akhalaya and his brother, who was a deputy defense minister, be brought to justice.

Militants attack Israeli post, kill 1

JERUSALEM - Well-armed militants from the Sinai Desert infiltrated Israel on Friday and attacked a military outpost, killing one Israeli soldier and wounding another. The three unidentified attackers were then killed by Israeli soldiers.

It was the most serious clash along the Israeli-Egyptian border since early August, when militants in Egypt attacked an Egyptian police station near the border and used stolen vehicles to break through an Israeli border fence. Sixteen Egyptian soldiers were killed in that attack.

About noon on Friday, the three militants broke through a part of the Egyptian-Israeli border near Mount Arif, where Israel has not finished constructing the border fence.

“They came across very well-equipped, with explosive belts and light arms,” said Israeli military spokesman Capt. Eytan Buchman.

It remained unclear whether the Israeli soldiers were wounded by gunfire or the detonation of one of the explosives belts worn by one attacker, he said. The attack lasted less than 30 minutes.

South warns N. Korean fishing boats

ISHIGAKI, Japan - South Korean patrol boats fired warning shots at North Korean fishing vessels in contested waters in the Yellow Sea on Friday, but the North’s boats fled without casualties, the South Korean military said.

The episode took place in South Korean-controlled waters along the western coast of the Korean Peninsula, not far from Yeonpyeong Island, the scene of a deadly North Korean rocket barrage two years ago. Naval clashes have been common in this area because North Korea has never recognized a sea boundary set by the United Nations after the 1950-53 Korean War.

That demarcation line was drawn without the North’s consent, making it one of the hottest flash points between the two Koreas, which are still technically at a state of war.

On Friday, high-speed South Korean patrol boats fired warning shots at six North Korean fishing vessels that had sailed about half a mile into South Korean-controlled waters, the South Korean military said in a statement. North Korean warships were not involved, and South Korean news media reported that there were no signs that the North Korean navy was responding to the episode.

Panetta arrives for New Zealand visit

AUCKLAND, New Zealand - Defense Secretary Leon Panetta arrived in this South Pacific island nation Friday, becoming the first Pentagon chief to visit here in three decades, an absence prompted by a breakdown in ties after New Zealand prohibited U.S. nuclear warships from its territorial waters.

In a sign of Washington’s efforts to increase militaryto-military cooperation, Panetta announced that the Obama administration had modified U.S. policy so that in the future, the defense secretary can authorize individual visits by New Zealand naval vessels to Defense Department or Coast Guard facilities.

Although New Zealand now participates in U.S.-led naval exercises, its ships must dock at commercial ports in the United States, and not at military bases - a reciprocal ban in response to that imposed by New Zealand on U.S.

warships.

Front Section, Pages 6 on 09/22/2012

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