The world in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“All of the attackers were killed, without success in achieving their goals - this again

demonstrates the futility of the Taliban’s efforts to use violence and terror to achieve their aims.”

U.S. Ambassador James Cunningham, after Taliban militants stormed the Afghanistan presidential compound in Kabul on Tuesday Article, this page

Brazilians protest despite leader’s plan

SAO PAULO - Protesters returned to the streets in smaller, sporadic protests in a handful of Brazilian cities Tuesday, demanding better education, transport and health services.

The protests came one day after President Dilma Rousseff proposed a wide range of actions to overhaul Brazil’s political system.

Protesters left a slum in Rio de Janiero and peacefully marched toward a rich beach neighborhood. In Sao Paulo, some groups blocked major highways while others marched earlier in the day in impoverished neighborhoods. About 1,000 people in Niteroi marched and other demonstrations took place in five other states.

On Monday, police in Rio charged into the Nova Holanda slum and killed at least eight people as they hunted for the killer of a police officer who died after a protest that devolved into a clash with demonstrators who looted stores and robbed bystanders.

Rescue helicopter’s crash kills 8 in India

GAUCHAR, India - An air force helicopter returning from a rescue mission in flood-ravaged northern India hit the side of a mountain and fell into a river Tuesday, killing eight people, officials said.

Bad weather has hampered rescue efforts in the state of Uttarakhand, where more than 1,000 people are believed to have died and thousands of others remain stranded in remote areas because of landslides and floods triggered by torrential monsoon rains. Other air force helicopters couldn’t take off because of poor visibility, Group Capt. Sandeep Mehta said.

The air force has ordered an inquiry into the crash in the temple town of Kedarnath, said Priya Joshi, an air force spokesman. Five crew members and three civilians were on board the helicopter, she said.

Joshi said 45 aircraft were involved in rescue and relief operations in Uttarakhand.

Authorities also prepared Tuesday to cremate the bodies of hundreds of people who perished in the floods. Health experts said there are dangers of disease outbreaks unless the bodies are cremated.

Troops also were trying to rescue about 5,000 people who remained stranded in the town of Badrinath eight days after the torrential rains began.

By Tuesday, the army had rescued about 90,000 people from hundreds of villages and towns hit by the floods.

Mandela remains critical; family meets

JOHANNESBURG - Singing crowds gathered outside the hospital where Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s former president, lay in a critical state for a third day Tuesday as family members held an emergency meeting at his ancestral village.

Mandela’s eldest daughter, Makaziwe, at least two grandchildren and clan elders gathered at Mandela’s retirement house in Qunu, the remote southern village where he grew up, according to media reports.

The subject of the meeting was not publicly disclosed, but Naplisi Mandela, an elder of the Mandela family, told the South African Press Association that they had gathered to discuss “delicate matters.”

Meanwhile, in Pretoria, doctors continued to treat Mandela for a lung ailment that he contracted on Robben Island, the notorious apartheid-era prison where he spent much of his 27 years behind bars until his release in 1990. He was hospitalized in Johannesburg on June 8, his fourth hospitalization since late last year.

German raids seek terror-plan evidence

BERLIN - German authorities are investigating two men of Tunisian origin suspected of planning to use model airplanes for terrorist attacks, prosecutors said Tuesday, as police in Germany and Belgium raided a series of sites searching for evidence of “possible attack plans and preparations.”

No one was arrested in Tuesday’s raids, which were carried out by about 90 policemen in the Stuttgart and Munich areas of southern Germany and in Saxony in eastern Germany, federal prosecutors said in a statement. One site in Belgium was raided, German officials said without elaborating.

Prosecutors said the investigation involved possible charges of “preparation of a serious, state-threatening act of violence,” but they did not mention membership in any specific terrorist organization.

The two Tunisians are suspected of “procuring information and objects to commit Islamic extremist explosive attacks with remote-controlled model airplanes,” prosecutors added.

They gave no further information on the two men and didn’t identify them.

Front Section, Pages 6 on 06/26/2013

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