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— QUOTE OF THE DAY

“It is clear that Savile cunningly built his entire life into gaining access to vulnerable children.”

Peter Watt, with the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, referring to the late British television host Jimmy Savile Article, this page

Toll climbs to 44 in China landslide

BEIJING - The death toll from a landslide that swept through a village in the steep, snow-dusted mountains of southern China on Friday has risen to at least 44, state media reported today.

The landslide smothered 14 homes in Zhaojiagou village in Yunnan province, burying 46 people, China News reported. It said two people were still missing.

A preliminary investigation blames saturation from more than 10 days of rain and snow for the disaster, said the local county government of Zhenxiong in a statement posted on its official website.

Photos posted on the website of the Yunnan Daily, the official newspaper of the provincial government, showed rescue crews in orange jumpsuits using construction machinery to sift piles of mud and earth. Behind them stood hillsides and pine trees covered in snow, signs of the unusually cold winter that has hit all of China.

Philippine fire kills 7; 3 are Americans

MANILA, Philippines - A fire swept through a hotel in a Philippine resort city early Friday, killing seven people, including three Americans, three Filipinos and a South Korean, authorities said.

The three American men and the South Korean man were found dead in separate rooms in the Dryden Hotel, a small two-story tourist hotel in Olongapo city, a former U.S. naval base west of the capital, Manila, said police Senior Inspector Gil Arizo Domingo. The bodies of three Filipino women were found in separate parts of the hotel, he said.

Adjacent bars and another hotel were not affected by the three-hour blaze, which started about 3 a.m., Domingo said.

The building’s facade and ground floor are made of concrete, but the second floor is largely wooden. The cause of the fire was under investigation.

Domingo identified one of the Americans as James Brigati of Kodiak, Alaska.

The two others were identified as Patrick Burt and Joseph Valuso, whose hometowns were not immediately available.

Pakistani Shiites protest bombings

QUETTA, Pakistan - Shiite Muslims hit by a twin bombing that killed 86 people refused to bury their dead Friday, demanding the Pakistani government do more to protect them from increasing violence against the minority sect.

The attack on a billiards hall Thursday night in the southwestern city of Quetta marked a bloody start to the new year after a human-rights group said 2012 was the deadliest ever for Shiites in the majority Sunni Muslim country.

Many of the attacks last year were carried out by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a militant group allied with al-Qaida and the Taliban that also claimed responsibility for the bombing of the billiards hall. The attack was one of three that took place across Pakistan on Thursday, killing 120 people.

Members of the Shiite community laid about 50 of their dead on the street Friday, saying they would not bury them until the government improves security in the area.

Islamic custom dictates the dead should be buried as soon possible.

Front Section, Pages 6 on 01/12/2013

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