QUOTE OF THE DAY
“For a native of Santiago, like me, this is the saddest day.”
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, on a train derailment near Santiago de Compostela that killed 80 and hospitalized 94 Article, this page
Korean talks end in scuffle, warning
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea on Thursday threatened to restation troops at a stalled inter-Korean factory park just across the border separating the two Koreas, as minor scuffles reportedly broke out between delegates after failed talks meant to restart the complex.
Pyongyang has warned Seoul before that it would return the military units that were stationed at the North Korean border city of Kaesong before the factory park was set up there in 2004.
The complex was shut in April amid threats of war after United Nations sanctions against North Korea’s February nuclear test.
The talks Thursday, the sixth round of meetings this month, came as North Korea held ceremonies ahead of Saturday’s 60th anniversary of the armistice halting the Korean War.
Pool reports from South Korean media stationed outside the private meeting at Kaesong between the Koreas said frustrated North Koreans issued the warning directly to South Korean reporters after the talks ended without a breakthrough.
The reports said that brief scuffles broke out as Seoul officials tried to stop North Koreans from talking to journalists.
Chinese politician faces trial in weeks
BEIJING - Deposed politician Bo Xilai will go on trial on charges of corruption and abuse of power within weeks, wrapping up a scandal that China’s new leaders want disposed of as they cement their authority.
Bo, 64, was a rising political star who ran the metropolis of Chongqing until he fell from power last year after his wife was convicted of killing a British businessman. On Thursday, the official Xinhua News Agency announced that Bo was charged with bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power and will stand trial in the eastern city of Jinan.
Bo was believed to be backed by influential party members and was popular with residents of the city he ran, raising questions about whether the party could close ranks in deciding what to do with him.
Xinhua did not provide further details on the charges, but a report by a Beijing-backed Hong Kong newspaper, the Ta Kung Pao, on Wednesday said Bo was accused of bribery and embezzlement amounting to $4 million. Analysts who study corruption by officials say that amount indicates that he might face a prison sentence of 15 to 20 years.
Tycoon treated unfairly, court decides
MOSCOW - Europe’s top human-rights court Thursday dismissed claims that Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was prosecuted for political reasons, but said that some procedures during a trial against him were unfair.
The Strasboug-based European Court of Human Rights also said in its ruling Thursday that Russia unfairly charged Khodorkovsky huge tax arrears, and that Russian authorities unfairly sent him and business partner Platon Lebedev to faraway penal colonies in eastern Siberia to serve their sentences, thousands of miles from their families in Moscow.
Russia’s Justice Ministry said the court’s finding of unfair treatment could lead to the annulment of the 2005 verdict and a new criminal probe. Such a move, however, would be unlikely to set Khodorkovsky and Lebedev free, as they since have been convicted again in a second trial.
Khodorkovsky was convicted in 2005 for evading taxes and sentenced to nine years in prison. In a second trial, he and Lebedev were convicted of stealing oil from their Yukos oil company and laundering the proceeds and sentenced to 13 years in prison to run concurrently with their previous sentences.
Russia rabbi’s shooting called hate crime
MAKHACHKALA, Russia - A rabbi was gravely wounded by a gunman in Russia’s predominantly Muslim province of Dagestan in what officials Thursday described as a hate crime.
Ovadia Isakov, 40, was attacked late Wednesday as he left his car and was walking home in Derbent, a city on the Caspian Sea, said Rasul Temirbekov, spokesman for the regional branch of Russia’s Investigative Committee.
The rabbi was taken to a hospital where doctors were trying to save his life, Russia’s chief rabbi, Berel Lazar, said in a statement.
“We are calling on the law-enforcement agencies to not only track down and punish those who planned and conducted this attack, but also take the necessary legal action to destroy the jihadi rebels,” Lazar said.
Dagestan has become the epicenter of an Islamic rebellion that has spread across Russia’s North Caucasus region after two separatist wars in Chechnya. Militants seeking to carve out an independent Islamic state mount near daily raids on police and officials.
Front Section, Pages 8 on 07/26/2013