QUOTE OF THE DAY

“To the people of South Africa - people of every race and every walk of life - the world thanks you for

sharing Nelson Mandela with us.”

U.S. President Barack Obama, at a memorial service for Mandela, a former South African president and anti-apartheid activist Article, 1A

Thai premier vows to stay until elections

BANGKOK - Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Tuesday rejected demands by anti-government protesters that she step aside before the country’s February elections.

“I cannot retreat any further,” Yingluck said on national television. “Please be fair to me.”

There is no constitutional provision for Yingluck, who announced Monday that she would call fresh elections, to leave office before the elections, which the king quickly decreed would be held Feb. 2. Thai law says she and her Cabinet must serve as caretakers until a new government is elected.

The protesters, who have massed tens of thousands of people in Bangkok in their campaign to banish Yingluck and her powerful family from the country, have demanded that she relinquish her post in favor of a royally appointed caretaker government.

The demands have been widely derided by scholars, even those who have long opposed Yingluck and her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, a former prime minister and the patriarch of the country’s most influential political clan.

U.N. to start shipping Syria aid from Iraq

GENEVA - United Nations relief agencies are preparing to make their first deliveries of aid from Iraq to Syria this week, but it remains unclear whether it will be a regular channel of assistance, the U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday.

An airlift of 12 flights using Russian-built Ilyushin cargo aircraft is to start Thursday and last until Sunday delivering food and other assistance from Iraq to Kurdish areas of Syria’s northeastern Hassakeh province, said Amin Awad, the director of the Middle East and North Africa bureau at the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

Relief agencies believe there are 50,000 to 60,000 people in need of assistance in Hassakeh, where conflict has obstructed access by humanitarian agencies. The U.N. estimates that 6.5 million people inside Syria have been driven from their homes by fighting.

Egyptian police fire tear gas at students

CAIRO - Egyptian security forces fired tear gas to disperse students protesting outside Cairo University in support of the country’s ousted Islamist president Tuesday.

The clash began after the students tried to march out of the campus toward an intersection that links the school’s grounds with a bustling commercial neighborhood, a security official said. Students lobbed plastic bags filled with water at security forces and chanted against the police and the military before police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Across town, students at the Islamic Al-Azhar University in eastern Cairo have clashed sporadically with police since Sunday as they rally in support of 20 of their peers who were arrested and charged with protesting against the military-backed authorities.

Since the military removed President Mohammed Morsi from power in early July, Egypt’s security forces have conducted a crackdown against the ousted leader’s Muslim Brotherhood party, killing more than 1,000 of the group’s supporters and rounding up most of its leaders.

On Tuesday, 10 local and three international rights groups urged the Egyptian authorities to establish a fact-finding committee to acknowledge and investigate the crackdown.

They also called for sweeping changes in security agencies over allegations of abuse and excessive force.

Uruguayan Senate OKs ‘pot’ market bill

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay - Uruguay’s Senate gave final congressional approval Tuesday to create the world’s first national marketplace for legal marijuana.

The vote was 16-13, with the governing Broad Front majority united in favor. The plan now awaits the signature of President Jose Mujica, who wants the market to begin operating next year.

Mujica said he’s convinced that the global drug war is a failure and he feels bureaucrats can do a better job of containing addictions and beating organized crime than police, soldiers and prison guards.

Uruguay’s drug-control agency will have 120 days, until mid-April, to draft regulations imposing state control over the production, sales and consumption of marijuana.

Everyone involved must be licensed and registered, with government monitors enforcing limits such as the 40 grams (1.4 ounces) a month any adult will be able to buy at pharmacies, and the six marijuana plants that license holders will be allowed to grow at home.

Front Section, Pages 6 on 12/11/2013