QUOTE OF THE DAY
“We don’t know who to blame for these security breaches, but we are sure of one thing: Our people are bleeding every day.”
Clothes vendor Karim Sami, who was working near the site of a car bombing Saturday that was among a wave of seven in Baghdad that killed 46 people Article, 9A
Man airs views with Beijing airport bomb
BEIJING - A man in a wheelchair who was apparently airing grievances set off a homemade bomb in a crowded terminal at Beijing’s main airport on Saturday evening, injuring only himself, Chinese state media and witnesses said.
Order was quickly restored and no flights were affected by the explosion at the airport’s main international terminal, state-run China Central Television said on its microblog.
The official Xinhua News Agency said a Chinese man in a wheelchair set off the device outside the arrivals exit of Terminal 3 at Beijing Capital International Airport at 6:24 p.m. It said the man was being treated for injuries, but that no one else was hurt in the explosion.
It was not immediately clear why the man purportedly set off the bomb, but Xinhua said he had been stopped from handing out leaflets airing his complaints. Xinhua, which cited an initial police investigation, did not say what his complaints were.
Cooking-oil toxin killed Indian children
The source of poison that killed 23 school children last week in the Indian state of Bihar was the cooking oil used to prepare their lunch, an official said, citing a forensic report released late Saturday.
Monocrotophos, a highly toxic insecticide, was found in the oil container, the food and the utensil in which it was cooked, said R. Lakshmanan, who runs the midday-meals program in the state.
“This confirms our suspicion that the oil, or what was believed to be oil, was the source of poisoning,” Lakshmanan said.
The forensic report doesn’t indicate whether the poisoning was intentional, Lakshmanan said.
About 50 to 60 children were present as lunch was served Tuesday about 1 p.m., relatives said Thursday. The meal had been cooked outside on a stove made of bricks, which was destroyed during protests that followed the deaths.
The condition of three children undergoing treatment in the Intensive Care Unit of the Patna Medical College hospital had improved, the hospital said in a bulletin Saturday.
Court convicts 5 in Italian cruise wreck
GROSSETO, Italy - Five employees of an Italian cruise company were convicted Saturday of manslaughter in the Costa Concordia shipwreck that killed 32 people, receiving sentences of less than three years that lawyers for victims and survivors criticized as too lenient.
The guilty verdicts for multiple manslaughter and negligence were the first reached in the sinking of the cruise liner carrying more than 4,000 crew members and passengers near the Tuscan shore in January 2012.
The ship’s captain, the only remaining defendant, was denied a plea bargain and is being tried separately. He faces up to 20 years if convicted of manslaughter, causing the shipwreck and abandoning the ship.
The longest sentence went to the company’s crisis coordinator, who was sentenced to two years and 10 months. The court sentenced the Concordia’s hotel director to two years and six months, while two bridge officers and a helmsman got sentences ranging from one year and eight months to one year and 11 months.
G-20 focuses on growth, job creation
MOSCOW - The Group of 20’s finance ministers said Saturday that their countries consider strengthening economic growth and creating jobs to be top priorities.
In a communique at the end of their meeting in Moscow, the ministers noted that although there are signs of stronger economies in the United States and Japan, the group of 17 European Union countries that use the euro continues to suffer from recession and that economic growth in emerging markets is comparatively slow.
The ministers also said they were “mindful of the risks and unintended negative side effects of extended periods of monetary easing.” They did not directly address the situation in the U.S., where speculation that the Federal Reserve may soon wind down its bond-buying program has roiled markets around the world.
In a separate statement, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde said the meeting saw constructive discussions on “the spillover effects of monetary policies, the implications of recent market volatility, and the need for balanced and credible fiscal strategies.”
Front Section, Pages 8 on 07/21/2013