The world in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I’m calling for a boycott of the Olympic Games. What is happening today -

releasing people just a few months before their term expires - is a cosmetic measure.” Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, one of two members of a Russian punk rock band freed from prison Monday in a move largely viewed as an attempt to soothe criticism of Russia’s human rights record before the games in Sochi in February Article, this page Thais slip by protesters, sign up to run

BANGKOK - Anti-government protesters determined to unseat Thailand’s prime minister surrounded a Bangkok sports stadium Monday in an unsuccessful attempt to block political parties from registering for February elections.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who is popular among the rural majority but disliked by the urban middle class and elite, called the Feb. 2 elections to defuse tension after several weeks of sometimes violent demonstrations in the Thai capital.

The attempted blockade comes after the main opposition Democrat Party said over the weekend it will boycott the vote, which Yingluck’s ruling party likely would win.

Officials from her party and eight others managed to sign up for the election by slipping into the stadium in the middle of the night despite the presence of some protesters who had camped out overnight, the state Election Commission said.

With registration continuing for two weeks, the protesters have vowed to continue their blockade.

Rebels target Iraqi troops, TV station

BAGHDAD - A new wave of attacks across Iraq, including an assault on a TV station, killed at least 26 people Monday, officials said, as the government pressed on with its offensive to hunt down al-Qaida-linked militants in the country’s volatile western desert.

Five attackers stormed the offices of the channel owned by the provincial government of Salaheddin in the city of Tikrit north of Baghdad, one blowing up a suicide car bomb at the gate and two more setting off explosive suicide belts inside, police said. Two more were killed by security forces.

Six channel staff members died in addition to the attackers, and six others were wounded, police and health officials said. A security source said one of the dead was a female news presenter.

Two of the attacks Monday were against the military. Militants fired mortar rounds into a base near Baghdad’s western suburb of Abu Ghraib, killing three officers and three soldiers, a police officer said. Seven soldiers were wounded in that attack. Hours later, a bomb went off next to a passing military patrol in the same area, killing two, an officer and an enlisted man, he added. Two other soldiers were wounded.

Medical officials anonymously confirmed the casualty figures.

Libya delays steps toward democracy

TRIPOLI, Libya - Libya’s interim parliament voted Monday to extend the country’s post-revolutionary transition, giving itself an extra year to oversee the writing of a constitution and the holding of new elections, members said.

Islamist lawmaker Mohammed Sammoud said that 102 members out of 120 who attended the session voted in favor of the new transition plan, setting a deadline for drafting the country’s constitution to August. That will be followed by elections, with a new parliament to be handed power by Dec. 24, 2014.

According to the old timetable, the current interim parliament should have elected a constituent panel, drafted the constitution, held a referendum on it and then called for parliamentary elections before February.

Police-station blast kills 14 in Egypt

CAIRO - A powerful explosion believed to be caused by a car bomb rocked a police headquarters in a Nile Delta city north of Cairo early today, killing at least 14 people and injuring scores, according to the state news agency and a security official.

The attack came a day after an al-Qaida-inspired group called on police and army personnel to desert or face death at the hands of its fighters.

The group and several others have claimed responsibility for a surge of attacks on security forces since the popularly backed July coup that toppled the country’s former Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi. In response, Egypt’s armed forces launched an offensive against militants in the Northern Sinai province in August.

The news agency MENA said the explosion took place at 1:10 a.m. at Daqahliya security headquarters in the Nile Delta province of Daqahliya, collapsing part of the five-floor building. A security official says 14 people were killed and nearly 100 injured, including the city’s security chief. Most of those killed were police officers inside headquarters, their bodies buried beneath the debris.

The interim government accused the Muslim Brotherhood of orchestrating the attack, the first major one in the Nile Delta.

Front Section, Pages 6 on 12/24/2013

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