The world in brief

Saturday, December 14, 2013

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I appeal to our citizens. Calm down and stop the confrontation. Confrontation has never led to anything good.”

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, urging the tens of thousands of demonstrators calling for changes at the highest levels of government to stop protesting Article, 7A

15 Iranians killed at Iraq pipeline site BAGHDAD - Gunmen in Iraq killed 15 Iranian pipeline workers and two Iraqi guards northeast of Baghdad on Friday, officials said.

A senior security official said the nighttime attack on the pipeline workers took place in the al-Nida area, where gunmen opened fire on the men working on the gas pipeline planned to connect Iraq’s gas network to supplies from neighboring Iran. Al-Nida is about 90 miles northeast of Baghdad.

Four people, including two Iranians, were wounded in the attack.

Earlier Friday, 22 Iraqis facing terrorism charges escaped from a prison in northern Baghdad after killing a security guard, officials said. The jailbreak from al-Adela prison ended with one of the escaped prisoners dead and 13 rearrested. Eight remained at large.

Meanwhile, separate attacks across the country Friday killed 23 other people.

Snow wreaks havoc on Jerusalem, Gaza

JERUSALEM - A powerful storm left Jerusalem covered in snow Friday, forcing police to block access to and from the city as a cold snap drove some Israelis to seek treatment from emergency medics.

Israelis were told over media and public broadcasts Friday not to enter or leave Jerusalem, and some 1,500 people were evacuated from stranded vehicles overnight, said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. Three emergency centers treated 350 people for cold-related symptoms, Rosenfeld said.

In the West Bank and Gaza, U.N. relief teams offered emergency services to the worst-hit communities.

In Gaza, which was experiencing its first snow in a decade, more than 500 people were evacuated from their homes, Hamas spokesman Ihab Ghussein said.

In Egypt, rare snow also fell in Cairo’s suburbs and the port city of Alexandria while a blanket of white covered St. Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai.

Nazi guard suspect under investigation

BERLIN - A former Nazi concentration-camp guard living in the Berlin area is being investigated on suspicion of murder after authorities received a tip from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, prosecutors said Friday.

The 87-year-old man, identified only as Horst P., is alleged to have been involved in killings while serving as a guard at the Dachau camp near Munich, Berlin prosecutors’ spokesman Martin Steltner said.

He refused to provide further details, citing the ongoing investigation.

Germany’s Bild newspaper published an interview with the suspect Friday in which he is quoted as denying involvement in any killings.

German authorities are investigating about 30 former Auschwitz guards under new legal thinking that anyone who served in a death camp, whose sole purpose was to kill, can be prosecuted as an accessory to murder.

Front Section, Pages 6 on 12/14/2013