QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I sent him good wishes from people here, and he asked me to pass on wishes back, and, of course, I’ve tried to make sure that his family knows that he is well.”
Catherine Ashton, the top European Union diplomat, after she made the first visit with Egypt’s former president Mohammad Morsi since a military coup deposed him July 3 Article, this page
Rebels repeat terms to free ex-Marine
HAVANA - Colombia’s largest guerrilla army reiterated its willingness to free a former U.S. Marine it has been holding captive for more than a month, but insisted Tuesday that the government send a high-level delegation to retrieve him.
Speaking to reporters in Havana, where the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and Colombian government negotiators have been conducting peace talks since last year, a top rebel commander said the fate of captured American citizen Kevin Scott Sutay is in the government’s hands.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said last week that he would not send public figures such as leftist former Sen. Piedad Cordoba to retrieve Sutay, vowing the rebel organization would not be allowed to make a media spectacle out of his release.
Instead he asked the guerrillas to discreetly hand Sutay over to the International Red Cross.
Sutay was taken by the guerrillas June 20. The U.S. ambassador to Colombia said Sutay was not an active member of the military and was traveling through the South American nation as a private citizen.
However the rebel group has called him a “mercenary” and said his belongings raised suspicions about his activities in Colombia.
Zimbabwe president denies vote rigging
HARARE, Zimbabwe - On the eve of elections in Zimbabwe, longtime President Robert Mugabe denied Tuesday that his supporters have engaged in vote rigging, despite widespread allegations of irregularities in the run-up to the polls.
He also said he would step down if he loses the elections after 33 years at the helm of a once prosperous nation whose economy is now in dire shape.
Western governments have condemned previous elections won by Mugabe, alleging the vote was swayed by political violence, intimidation and ballot rigging. While this campaign has so far been far less violent than past elections, there are numerous signs that the electoral process has been vulnerable to manipulation.
He brushed aside allegations that loyalist commanders in the police and military will not accept a poll victory by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, 61, the former opposition leader, and allow him to succeed as the nation’s new president. In previous campaign appearances, however, Mugabe has leveled harsh attacks on Tsvangirai.
Mugabe described campaigning as peaceful except for “a few incidents here and there” and said any unrest surrounding contested results will be stopped.
But independent election monitors said the state election commission, dominated by Mugabe’s sympathizers, is poorly prepared to hold fair polls.
Polish face-transplant patient released
WARSAW, Poland - Poland’s first face-transplant patient was discharged from the hospital Tuesday, speaking with some effort at a news conference just 11 weeks after the extensive surgery that saved his life.
The 33-year-old man said he owes his doctors “everything” after a skin-and-bone transplant on May 15, three weeks after losing his nose, upper jaw and cheeks in an accident at the brick factory where he worked. Doctors said it was the world’s fastest time frame for such an operation.
In a later television interview, the man said he feels “fabulous.”
Doctors who performed the transplant at the Cancer Center and Institute of Oncology in Gliwice in southern Poland said the rehabilitation is proceeding faster than expected thanks to the “courage and determination” of the patient, identified only as Grzegorz.
He can breathe on his own, see, eat, taste and speak although his speech is hard to understand because the face muscles still need to regain mobility. When muscle mobility is achieved through intensive exercise, he will need surgery on his right eyelid, which remains motionless.
Swiss free train driver’s body from wreck
BERLIN - Rescue workers on Tuesday recovered the body of the driver of one of two regional trains that collided head-on in western Switzerland. Officials said it appeared likely that one of the trains ignored a signal.
The body of the 24-year-old driver was recovered from the mangled wreckage in the early morning, hours after the collision near the station at Granges-pres-Marnand, about 30 miles southwest of the capital, Bern.
Emergency workers had to separate the front of the two trains to reach the driver’s mangled cabin. The collision Monday evening left the trains locked together, partly lifted off the tracks by the force of the collision.
Of the 46 passengers on board the trains, 26 were taken to hospitals, none of them in life-threatening condition.
Jean-Christophe Sauterel, a spokesman for Vaud canton police, said the fire service will continue to comb the wreckage because authorities can’t yet rule out the possibility that someone may still be trapped inside.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 07/31/2013