QUOTE OF THE DAY “We are serious about having negotiations that would lead to a political solution. But if Assad is not serious, we are not going there for a photo op.”Louay Safi, of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, on an
international conference aimed at making peace between rebel groups and Syrian President Bashar Assad Article, this pageParis cathedral evacuated after suicide
PARIS - Some 1,500 visitors were cleared out of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris after a man put a letter on the altar of the 850-year-old monument Tuesday, pulled out a gun and shot himself in the head.
It’s the first suicide in decades at the landmark site, said Monsignor Patrick Jacquin, the cathedral’s rector.
The motives for the suicide, and the contents of the man’s letter, were unclear.
In a message on her Twitter account, French far-right politician Marine Le Pen named the victim as a far-right author and historian. Police officials could not be reached to confirm the identification.
Police ushered people out of the cathedral after the shooting, Interior Minister Manuel Valls said.
It’s highly unusual for the cathedral, visited by some 13 million people from around the world every year, to be evacuated.
Police, the Paris prosecutor and church employees gathered inside the cathedral, while puzzled tourists crowded outside on the island in the Seine River that has been home to the cathedral since the 12th century.
The cathedral was expected to reopen for a Tuesday evening service that church officials said would include a prayer for the man who committed suicide and other struggling souls.
Hijacked Chinese fishing boat released
BEIJING - Gunmen wearing North Korean military uniforms released a Chinese fishing boat Tuesday after holding its crew for two weeks, beating up the captain and stealing the vessel’s fuel, the boat’s owner said. He added that the hijackers did not get the $100,000 ransom they had demanded.
The seizure May 5 in what boat owner Yu Xuejun said were Chinese waters was the latest irritant in relations between North Korea and a Chinese government increasingly frustrated with its neighboring ally over tests of its nuclear and rocket technologies in defiance of U.N. bans. One of China’s North Korea watchers said rogue border guards were probably responsible, rather than the Pyongyang government itself.
Yu said in an interview that the men were allowed to move around the boat while they were held captive, but were locked in a room at night. He said the captain suffered an arm injury when he was beaten, but he has since recovered, and that no other crew member was harmed. They now planned to stay out at sea for another 10 days.
Moroccans sentenced for homosexuality
RABAT, Morocco - A Moroccan court has convicted two men of homosexuality and public indecency, and sentenced each to four months in prison.
Prosecutors at the Temara court near Rabat, the capital, said at Monday’s trial that the men, aged 28 and 19, were caught having sex in a car and arrested. The men denied the charges.
Moroccan law outlaws homosexuality and gives a penalty of six months to three years in prison and a fine of up to $115. According to the latest figures available from the Ministry of Justice, there were 81 trials in 2011 involving accusations of homosexuality.
Car bomb, other attacks kill 20 in Iraq
BAGHDAD - A car bomb exploded as Sunni worshippers were leaving a mosque after evening prayers Tuesday in Baghdad, the deadliest in a string of attacks that killed at least 20 people nationwide in a week of the most sustained sectarian violence in the country since U.S. troops withdrew more than a year ago.
Rising tensions between Sunnis and the Shiite-led government have resulted in a new round of bloodshed with 279 people killed since last week and scenes reminiscent of some of the worst carnage during the days when the two Islamic sects battled each other as well as U.S.-led forces in the chaotic years after Saddam Hussein’s ouster.
The explosion targeting the worshippers occurred in the western neighborhood of Abu Ghraib, the site of the infamous prison of the same name, killing 10 people and wounding 21, according to police and hospital officials.
A bomb also targeted a tea house in Baghdad’s mainly Sunni southern Dora neighborhood, killing three people and wounding 14, two police officers and a medical official said.
Several smaller attacks struck areas elsewhere in the country earlier Tuesday.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 05/22/2013