LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY “If the fighters seize full control of

Taftanaz air base and manage to keep

it, it would be the first major military

airport to fall into rebel hands.”

Rami Abdul-Rahman,

director of the Britain

based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Article, 8A

N. Korea warned

on curtailing Web

BEIJING - Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google, returned Thursday from a four-day visit to North Korea with a message for the reclusive nation’s young new leader, Kim Jong Un: Embrace the Web, or else.

Schmidt, part of a private delegation led by former Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico that also sought to press North Korea on humanitarian and diplomatic issues, said North Korea risked falling further behind if it did not provide more access to cell-phone service and the Internet.

“As the world becomes increasingly connected, their decision to be virtually isolated is very much going to affect their physical world, their economic growth and so forth and it will make it harder for them to catch up economically,” he told reporters during a stop at Beijing International Airport.

“We made that alternative very, very clear.”

Their visit, the highestprofile delegation of Americans since Kim took power upon the death of his father, Kim Jong Il in December 2011, comes at a precarious time for U.S.-North Korean relations after the North’s rocket launch last month drew international condemnation.

Kenya retaliation kills 10, fuels feud

MOMBASA, Kenya - One day after suffering a deadly attack, a Kenyan community retaliated with an assault Thursday, killing 10 people and furthering a tribal feud that threatens to explode as March elections approach.

Kenya Red Cross spokesman Nelly Muluka said the attack on the village of Kibuso in the Tana River region of eastern Kenya killed five children, three men and two women.

Witnesses said more than 100 people attacked and that many were armed with guns, spears and bows and arrows.

The attack appeared to be in revenge for an assault Wednesday in which at least seven people were killed, according to the initial death toll. Authorities say there is deep-rooted hatred between the Pokomo and Orma communities, who have been fighting for years. Police say they are investigating politicians, businessmen and powerbrokers for instigating the violence.

Mali Islamists beat

army, seize town

BAMAKO, Mali - The Islamists who rule northern Mali clashed with government forces for the first time in nearly a year, seizing a strategic city Thursday as the al-Qaida-linked militants pushed toward the government line of control in the center of the troubled country.

The capture of Konna marks an escalation in the Islamists’ confrontation with the Malian government, which is based hundreds of miles to the south in the capital, Bamako.

The Islamists seized the town of Douentza four months ago after a brief standoff with a local militia, but pushed no farther until clashes broke out late Wednesday in Konna, a town of 50,000 people, where fearful residents cowered inside their homes.

Front Section, Pages 5 on 01/11/2013