QUOTE OF THE DAY
“These allegations are politically motivated, and I will fight them in the trial court, where the truth will eventually prevail.”
Former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf, in a message posted on his Facebook page after he was arrested in a case concerning his decision to fire senior judges while in power Article, 10A
Letter to German blown up, was harmless
BERLIN - German authorities on Friday destroyed a letter addressed to the country’s president that was suspected of containing explosives, but the scare turned out to be a false alarm.
A spokesman for President Joachim Gauck’s office said the letter was found during routine checks on mail Friday morning. Experts then decided to carry out a controlled detonation of the letter in the park outside the president’s Bellevue palace in downtown Berlin.
The Interior Ministry said several hours later, however, that investigators found no explosives.
The presidential office spokesman said there was never any danger to Gauck, Germany’s largely ceremonial head of state, who wasn’t at the premises at the time. The spokesman spoke on condition of anonymity in line with department rules.
It wasn’t immediately clear where the letter came from.Bombs, shells kill 9, hurt dozens in Iraq
BAGHDAD - Mortar shells and bombs targeted worshippers shortly after noon prayers on Friday at two mosques north of Baghdad, killing nine people and wounding more than two dozen others, police said.
Police said the first attack occurred as worshippers left the Sunni mosque of al-Muthana in Khalis, a former stronghold of the Sunni insurgency about 50 miles north of Baghdad. Seven people were killed and 14 others were wounded when mortar shells destroyed the mosque.
Later, in the city of Kirkuk, a roadside bomb exploded among Shiite worshippers as they were heading home after prayers at the al-Tamimi mosque. Police said two worshippers were killed and 14 others were wounded.
Medics in nearby hospitals confirmed the death toll. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.
Quake hits China; 41 dead, 600 injured
BEIJING - A powerful earthquake jolted China’s Sichuan province early this morning and left at least 41 dead and more than 600 injured near where a devastating quake struck five years ago, prompting state media to warn the casualty toll could climb sharply.
The quake - measured by China’s seismological bureau at magnitude 7.0 and the U.S. Geological Survey at 6.6 - struck the steep hills of Lushan county shortly after 8 a.m. Lushan time, toppling buildings, many of them older brick structures. Tiles fell from roofs, and pictures dropped from walls, sending people into the streets in their underwear and wrapped in blankets.
The People’s Daily newspaper said 41 people had been killed, including at least 28 in the epicenter of Lushan.
Xu Mengjia, Communist Party secretary for Ya’an, which administers Lushan, told China Central Television that at least 32 people had been killed and more than 600 injured.
The quake’s shallow depth, less than 8 miles, likely magnified the impact. The official Xinhua News Agency said that the quake rattled buildings in the provincial capital of Chengdu 70 miles to the east. It caused the shutdown of the city’s airport for about an hour before reopening, state media said.
Lushan, where the quake struck, is home to 1.5 million people where the fertile Sichuan plain meets foothills that eventually rise to the Tibetan plateau.
Egyptian rally devolves into fight; 80 hurt
CAIRO - Supporters and opponents of Egypt’s Islamist president battled in the streets near Tahrir Square on Friday as an Islamist rally demanding a purge of the judiciary devolved into violence.
Thousands of President Mohammed Morsi’s supporters - mostly backers of the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist hard-liners - held rallies Friday outside the High Court building in Cairo and in the coastal city of Alexandria, demanding the “cleansing of the judiciary.”
Islamist lawmakers who dominate the legislature have announced plans to begin debating a bill regulating the judiciary, presenting it as aimed at ensuring the independence of courts they contend are dominated by supporters of ousted leader Hosni Mubarak.
But opponents believe that the Islamists aim to remove judges and install new ones who support their agenda.
Youths from both sides waved homemade pistols and beat each other with sticks. More than 80 people were injured, according to the state news agency MENA.
Front Section, Pages 7 on 04/20/2013