LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The solution that we hoped for - that is to say, [Bashar Assad’s] fall, the rise of the opposition to power - there are no recent signs that are as positive as that.”
Laurent Fabius, France’s foreign minister Article, this page
Egypt protests leave dozens injured
CAIRO - Egyptian security forces fired tear gas and protesters hurled stones and Molotov cocktails in a day-long demonstration Thursday, raising fears of a violent anniversary of the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime authoritarian President Hosni Mubarak.
Youth activists and opposition groups have called for large rallies on the anniversary today in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and in front of the presidential palace in the upscale suburb, Heliopolis.
The protests, which left dozens injured, began before dawn in central Cairo when protesters tried to tear down a cement wall built to prevent them from reaching the parliament and the Cabinet building. The street clashes continued after darkness fell on the Egyptian capital.
Three weeks of mass protests that broke out Jan. 25, 2011, eventually forced Mubarak out of office.
Trial begins for 5 in India gang rape
NEW DELHI - The trial of five men charged in the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a New Delhi bus began in a closed courtroom Thursday with opening arguments by the prosecution in a special fast-track court set up just weeks ago to handle sexual-assault cases.
The attack last month set off protests across India and opened a national debate about the epidemic of violence against women. A government committee established in the wake of the attack has called for a complete overhaul of the way the criminal justice system deals with rape, sexual assaults and crimes against women in general.
The five men on trial - who face a maximum sentence of death by hanging if convicted - covered their faces with woolen caps as they walked into the courtroom Thursday surrounded by armed police. Two hours later, after proceedings were over, they were whisked away by the police.
A sixth suspect in the case has claimed he is a child and is expected to be tried in a juvenile-justice court.
Jordan critics win 37 assembly spots
AMMAN, Jordan - The surprise victory of 37 Islamist and other government critics despite an election boycott injects a degree of dissent into Jordan’s newly empowered parliament. The king has portrayed the assembly as a centerpiece of his overhaul package, but the opposition says it’s not enough and vowed Thursday to stage more street protests.
Initial results released Thursday showed the Islamists - who are not linked to the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood - and other opposition figures winning more than 25 percent of the 150-seat parliament, in sharp contrast to the outgoing legislature, which was almost entirely composed of the king’s supporters.
Loyalists of King Abdullah II, however, will remain in control of the new legislature, claiming a majority of the seats up for grabs in Wednesday’s parliamentary election - touted as the start of a democratization process.
Israeli rightists gain one more seat
JERUSALEM - The final ballots in Israel’s national elections were tallied Thursday, giving a rightist religious party one more seat in parliament and the Arab-dominated parties one fewer, but the result did nothing to alter the political shift that weakened Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and left him scrambling to form a stable coalition.
Netanyahu’s Likud-Beitenu ticket had 31 of 120 parliament seats, with the new, centrist Yesh Atid Party led by Yair Lapid - a former celebrity journalist and first-time candidate - holding its second-place finish with 19. Netanyahu and Lapid have already begun negotiations over forming a governing coalition.
While the new tally, fed mostly by votes of active-duty soldiers, gives a slim majority to Netanyahu’s current coalition of rightist and religious factions, those close to the prime minister say he wants to build a broader government, starting with Lapid’s Yesh Atid, Hebrew for There is a Future.
The likeliest candidates to join that coalition are Habayit Hayehudi - the Jewish Home - the rightist faction whose total grew to 12 from 11 with the soldiers’ votes, and Kadima, another centrist party, which has two seats. Tzipi Livni, the former foreign minister who quit Kadima and started another new party, Hatnua, which won six seats, also is a possibility.
Front Section, Pages 7 on 01/25/2013