LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Make no mistake:A nuclear-armed Iran is not a challenge that can be contained.”
President Barack Obama,
addressing the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly Article, 1A
Yemen leader seeks al-Qaida talks
SANA, Yemen - Yemen’s president has said he would talk to his country’s branch of the al-Qaida militant network if it were to give up its weapons and extremist ideas and stop sheltering foreign fighters.
President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi said in a speech aired on television Tuesday that there was local pressure on him from mediators to accept dialogue with the militants.
Since he took office in February, Hadi has cracked down on the group, considered the world’s most active al-Qaida branch.
The militant group has given little indication that it would want such a dialogue.
Sri Lanka closes war refugee camp
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - The United Nations welcomed the closure of a camp for war-displaced civilians in northern Sri Lanka, but expressed concern about hundreds of people who have been unable to return home because their land is occupied by the military.
The U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Sri Lanka, Sabinay Nandy, said in a statement Tuesday that the closure of Manik Farm is a “milestone event” toward ending displacement in Sri Lanka.
But he said 346 people from 110 families who were among the last to leave the camp were sent elsewhere while they await confirmation of whether they will be allowed to return to their former homes.
Manik Farm housed 225,000 ethnic Tamil civilians after government troops defeated Tamil Tiger rebels in May 2009, ending a quarter-century civil war, and was considered the largest refugee camp in the world.
7 reported dead in Turkey explosion
ISTANBUL - A blast ripped through a vehicle carrying Turkish security forces in an eastern province Tuesday, killing six of them as well as a civilian walking in the road, media reported.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosion in the city of Tunceli, where Kurdish rebels are active. The blast sent up a huge plume of smoke. Ambulances and firefighters rushed to the scene, and the military began hunting the culprits.
The Dogan news agency and other Turkish media outlets said seven people died.
Fighting between Turkish forces and militants belonging to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party has escalated in recent months.
On Sept. 18, suspected Kurdish rebels attacked a military convoy in the southeastern province of Bingol with a rocket, killing 10 soldiers and wounding more than 70. Just two days earlier, suspected rebels detonated a bomb in Bingol, killing eight police officers.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last week that as many as 500 Kurdish rebels have been killed or captured in fighting in recent weeks, and he again urged the rebels to lay down their arms.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since the rebel group - considered a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies - took up arms in 1984. The group says it seeks self-rule in southeast Turkey.
N. Korea law adds year of school
PYONGYANG, North Korea - North Korea’s parliament convened Tuesday for the second time in six months, passing a law that adds one year of compulsory education for children in the socialist nation, the first publicly announced policy change under leader Kim Jong Un.
The Supreme People’s Assembly’s second meeting of the year was notable mainly as a departure from how Kim’s father did business. Before he died in December, Kim Jong Il convened his legislature just once in most years, and during one three-year period after his own father’s death it didn’t meet at all.
Kim Jong Un himself attended Tuesday’s session, which was adjourned after a single day, according to the official Korean Central News Agency. Foreign reporters were denied access.
North Korea’s Constitution allows political parties, but politics is overwhelmingly dominated by the Workers’ Party, founded by Kim Il Sung, grandfather of the current ruler. Many outside observers consider the body a rubber stamp for the regime’s policies.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 09/26/2012