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QUOTE OF THE DAY

“This is a crisis of confidence that will be hard to overcome.”

Guenther Geis, dean of the cathedral chapter in the Limburg, Germany, diocese, on Pope Francis’ decision to indefinitely expel Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst pending an inquiry of the bishop’s new $43 million residence complex Article, this page

Suicide attack kills 2, injures 9 in Mali

DAKAR, Senegal - Assailants killed two Chadian peacekeepers and injured nine other soldiers and civilians in a suicide attack on a checkpoint in northern Mali, the United Nations said Wednesday.

The attack occurred in the town of Tessalit, located in northern Mali’s Kidal province, said Olivier Salgado, a spokesman for the U.N.’s peacekeeping mission in Mali.

Six of the wounded were peacekeepers, four of whom were “seriously injured,” Salgado said. The other three people injured in the attack were civilians, including one child, he said.

Aicha Belco Maiga, president of the government body representing the area of Tessalit, said she had heard from witnesses that there were three civilian deaths, although she was unable to confirm the news.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Iraqi bombings, shooting kill at least 15

BAGHDAD - Bombings at marketplaces and busy streets around Iraq’s capital and other attacks killed at least 15 people Wednesday, officials said, the latest in a wave of violence roiling the country.

The deadliest attack Wednesday targeted a market in the town of Madain, 14 miles south of Baghdad. There, authorities said a bomb killed five shoppers and wounded 13.

A bomb exploded during the morning rush hour on a commercial street in Baghdad’s western Amariyah neighborhood, killing four people and wounding 10, police said. A bomb at an outdoor market in the Abu Ghraib area, just west of the Iraqi capital, killed two shoppers and wounded eight, officials said.

Gunmen also shot dead two police officers as they were heading to work in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, authorities said. The city is the provincial capital of the western Anbar province and a former al-Qaida stronghold.

In the northern city of Mosul, a bomb exploded at a small restaurant, killing two people and wounding six, officials said.

China, India agree on border conduct

BEIJING - China and India sounded a new optimistic tone in their relationship Wednesday as they signed an agreement to boost meetings between their militaries to avoid any repeat of this year’s tense standoff along their disputed Himalayan border.

The accord followed a meeting in Beijing between Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who also had trade ties on the agenda as India seeks to gain greater access to Chinese markets and readjust a trade balance tilted heavily toward China.

The two sides agreed to improve communication about border maneuvers, hold periodic meetings at designated crossing points, and have patrols refrain from any provocations. They agreed that patrols should not follow or “tail” patrols of the other side in contested areas.

Lasting effects of injury to detainee told

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - Newly disclosed medical records show that an accused terrorist held at Guantanamo Bay suffered a head injury serious enough to cause lasting health problems while he was being held and interrogated by the CIA, his lawyer said Wednesday.

Ammar al-Baluchi, one of five Guantanamo prisoners charged with aiding the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, told medical officials at the U.S. base in Cuba that he suffered auditory hallucinations, memory loss and delusions as a result of the injury, attorney James Connell said at a pretrial hearing dealing with whether he had adequate avenues to report allegations of mistreatment.

The injury occurred between 2003 and September 2006, when al-Baluchi was held in the CIA’s network of overseas prisons and subjected to a special interrogation program for suspected terrorists that his lawyers say amounted to torture. The records do not indicate how or where the injury occurred.

Al-Baluchi was taken to Guantanamo in September 2006 along with 13 other men who had been held in CIA custody.

Front Section, Pages 6 on 10/24/2013

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