LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY “Our shared assessment is that we are still a long way from getting the Syrians together.” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, after talks with special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi Article, 1ARemains of king taken back to Serbia
BELGRADE, Serbia - The remains of Yugoslavia’s last king - Peter II Karadjordjevic, who died in the U.S.
in 1970 - were flown back to Serbia in a solemn ceremony on Tuesday despite protests by some Serb royalists in America.
The former king fled the Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia at the start of World War II and never returned because communists took over at the end of the war. He died in exile at the age of 47 and was buried at a Serbian Orthodox Church monastery in Libertyville, Ill. - the only European monarch laid to rest on U.S. soil.
His son - Crown Prince Alexander, who lives in Belgrade - wanted the remains returned to Serbia. That reportedly upset some Serbian-American groups, who claimed the remains were being secretly exhumed and that before the king had died he asked to remain buried in the United States.
However, Alexander said in a speech at the Royal Palace in Belgrade on Tuesday that his father wanted to return to his homeland and his people, “whom he loved more than anything else.”3 arrested in big 2012 Dutch art heist
THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Romanian authorities have arrested three suspects in last year’s multimilliondollar art heist from a Netherlands art gallery, Dutch police said Tuesday. But the paintings, by artists including Picasso, Matisse and Monet, have not been recovered.
The announcement marked the first breakthrough for police since thieves broke open an emergency exit and swiped the seven pieces on Oct. 16 in a late night raid at the Kunsthal gallery in Rotterdam.
It was the biggest art theft in more than a decade in the Netherlands. The stolen works have an estimated value of tens of millions of dollars if they were sold at auction, but art experts said that would be impossible after the theft.
“Three people have been arrested, but unfortunately we have not got back the paintings,” Rotterdam Police spokesman Yvette van den Heerik said.
2 charged in British tabloid bribe case
LONDON - The defense editor of Rupert Murdochowned tabloid The Sun and a former police officer have been charged in connection with the bribing of public officials for information, British prosecutors said Tuesday.
The Crown Prosecution Service said journalist Virginia Wheeler and Paul Flattley, a former constable, were charged with conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office.
Prosecutors claim that Flattley was paid the equivalent of at least $10,225 between 2008 and 2011 for information on “accidents, incidents and crimes.”
Alison Levitt, legal adviser to the director of public prosecutions, said “the information provided included information about the tragic death of a 15-year-old girl, as well as details about both suspects and victims of accidents, incidents and crimes.”
She said some of the information was about “highprofile individuals and those associated with them.”Bali drugs gets Briton death sentence
JAKARTA, Indonesia - An Indonesian court sentenced a 56-year-old British woman to death Tuesday for smuggling $2.5 million worth of cocaine onto the island of Bali, a decision that went far beyond the prosecutors’ recommendation of 15 years in prison.
In May, according to investigators, customs officials at Bali’s airport discovered 8.4 pounds of cocaine hidden in the lining of the travel bag carried by the woman, Lindsay June Sandiford. A grandmother, she said she was forced to carry the drugs into the country by a gang that had threatened to hurt one of her children.
Dismissing the prosecutors’ call for a prison term, judges at the Denpasar District Court decided on death after finding that Sandiford, by ferrying in the drugs, had damaged the image of Bali as a tourism destination and weakened the government’s drug-prevention program.
Television footage showed Sandiford sobbing. She is expected to appeal.
The British Embassy said, “Britain remains strongly opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances.”
Indonesia, known for its tough treatment of people who commit drug offenses and other crimes, has put five foreigners to death in drug cases since 1998. Forty foreigners are on death row for drug and other offenses.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 01/23/2013