LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Raids are continuing right now.There were raids last night; there will be more this afternoon and tomorrow.”
French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, on the French-led effort to take back Mali’s north from Islamist rebels Article, 1A
Thousands protest adoption ban
MOSCOW - Thousands of protesters defied freezing weather to march through central Moscow on Sunday as a law banning the adoption of Russian children by U.S. citizens reinvigorated the opposition movement.
The rally, called the March Against Scum, follows a year of protests against President Vladimir Putin that began after disputed parliamentary elections in December 2011. More than 50,000 people joined the march, opposition leaders Sergei Udaltsov and Ilya Yashin said in postings on Twitter. The Moscow police estimated as many as 9,500 people had participated before dispersing the crowd about 4 p.m., according to their website.
Russia passed legislation last month barring U.S. adoptions in retaliation for American sanctions over the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who’d sought to expose corruption among Interior Ministry officers. Putin signed it into law on Dec. 28.
Protesters called for Russia’s parliament to be disbanded.
Serbia establishes guidelines for talks
BELGRADE, Serbia - Serbia adopted a set of guidelines for reconciliation talks with the leaders of Kosovo in a strong first signal that it is loosening its claim to its former province.
Serbia maintains it will never recognize Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence. But in a big shift in policy, an overwhelming majority of Serbia’s Parliament voted Sunday for a resolution calling for autonomy for minority Serbs within Kosovo’s borders, a de facto recognition of Kosovo’s sovereignty.
While outlining a government plan for the talks with Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leaders, Serbia’s Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said, “Serbia’s sovereignty over Kosovo practically does not exist.”
Progress in the talks is crucial for Serbia to get closer to European Union membership.
NATO bombed Serbia in 1999 to stop its crackdown against independence-seeking Kosovo Albanians.
Gunmen fire on Italian envoy in Libya
CAIRO - Unidentified gunmen opened fire on the Italian consul’s convoy in the eastern city of Benghazi, in the latest attack on foreign diplomats, a government official said.
The attack Saturday came as Libya’s prime minister met with his Algerian and Tunisian counterparts to discuss border security amid concerns that armed groups and weapons are moving freely through their shared borders.
The Italian diplomat, who was riding in an armored car, escaped uninjured, Guma Meshery, an official with the Interior Ministry, said by phone late Saturday.
The attack took place in Benghazi, the birthplace of the uprising that led to Moammar Gadhafi’s ouster and killing in 2011, and came four months after the U.S. ambassador to Libya was killed during an attack in the same city.
China orders official cars off roads
BEIJING - Beijing ordered government vehicles off the roads Sunday as part of an emergency response to ease air pollution that has smothered China’s capital for the past three days, while warning the smog will persist until Wednesday.
Hospitals were inundated with patients complaining of heart and respiratory ailments, and the website of the capital’s environmental monitoring center crashed. Hyundai Motor Co.’s venture in Beijing suspended production for a day to help ease the pollution, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Official measurements of PM2.5, fine airborne particulates that pose the largest health risks, rose as high as 993 micrograms per cubic meter in Beijing on Saturday night, compared with World Health Organization guidelines of no more than 25. Long-term exposure to fine particulates raises the risk of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases as well as lung cancer, according to the Geneva-based body.
“Pollution levels this high are extreme even for Beijing,” Li Yan, Beijing-based head of Greenpeace East Asia’s climate and energy campaign, said in a telephone interview. “Although the government has announced efforts to cut pollution, the problem is regional, and to fix Beijing’s problem, we also have to fix industrial pollution in neighboring regions like Hebei and Tianjin and even as far as Inner Mongolia.”
Front Section, Pages 6 on 01/14/2013