QUOTE OF THE DAY
“This funeral was not a military post or a ministry building, yet it was still targeted. This shows that no place and no one is safe in Iraq.”
Hussein Abdul-Khaliq, a government employee who lives near a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad where two suicide bombers attacked a funeral, killing at least 72 people and wounding more than 120 Article, this page
Thousands flee weaker Typhoon Usagi
TAIPEI, Taiwan - The most powerful typhoon of the year swept through the Luzon Strait separating the Philippines and Taiwan on Saturday, battering island communities with heavy rains and strong winds as it headed for Hong Kong.
Typhoon Usagi weakened from a super typhoon - those with sustained winds of at least 150 mph - and veered westward during the day, likely sparing southern Taiwan from the most destructive winds near its eye.
In Taiwan, more than 3,000 people were evacuated from flood-prone areas and mountainous regions as the government deployed military personnel into potential disaster zones. The storm system dumped up to 20 inches of rain along the eastern and southern coasts in a 20-hour period, with officials warning that more than 39 inches could drop before the storm leaves today.
In the Philippines, a 50-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman drowned when a passenger boat capsized in rough waters off northeastern Aurora province, the Office of Civil Defense said Saturday.
By Saturday evening, the storm had maximum sustained winds of 108 mph and gusts of up to 131 mph, and was 94 miles southwest of Taiwan’s southernmost point, the Central Weather Bureau said.
Greenpeace rejects piracy comparison
MOSCOW - Greenpeace has dismissed suggestions by a Russian agency that its activists engaged in piracy while attempting to board an offshore drilling platform owned by state natural-gas company Gazprom.
Greenpeace International’s General Counsel Jasper Teulings said in a statement Saturday that the Russian Investigative Committee’s announcement that it was formally considering charges of piracy for the group was not valid and “smacks of desperation.”
Since the Greenpeace ship was stormed by Russia’s Coast Guard in Arctic waters Thursday, Greenpeace has been unable to reach it by phone. The activists remain aboard the vessel, which is being towed to the nearest port, Murmansk.
Russian Presidential Chief of Staff Sergei Ivanov said Saturday that Greenpeace had “acted too radically” and compared its protest with “Somalian-style piracy.”
Divided Yemenis return to negotiations
SANA, Yemen- Yemen’s former president denounced southerners’ demands for greater autonomy from the north as “treason,” though his ruling party returned to negotiations tackling the issue on Saturday after walking out just days before over the proposal.
Southern Yemeni representatives in talks with the north are seeking to turn the country into a two-member federal union that would give them greater powers. South Yemen was an independent state until unification in 1990, and a movement demanding outright independence continues to have influence there, with southerners complaining of discrimination by the north.
An attempt by the south to regain independence in 1994 was crushed in a three-month civil war by northern forces.
The north-south talks are part of a U.S-backed power-transfer deal that saw former President Ali Abdullah Saleh hand over power to successor Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
The ruling General People’s Congress party - of which both Saleh and Hadi are top members - walked out Monday on a 16-member committee tasked with finding a blueprint for the country’s future makeup. The committee has an equal number of envoys from the north and south.
Greek police probe fascist link in killing
ATHENS, Greece - Greek authorities said a man with ties to an extreme right party accused of fatally stabbing an anti-fascist rapper has been jailed after testifying to an examining magistrate and a prosecutor.
Court officials said the 45-year-old suspect, whose name hasn’t been officially released, had said he was being attacked by a group of people and was acting in self-defense when he stabbed 34-year-old Pavlos Fyssas in the chest Wednesday.
Police officials said Saturday that the suspect has acknowledged “loose” ties with extreme right party Golden Dawn, saying he has only helped in distributing food to the poor.
Authorities are examining cellphone records to find whether the attack on Fyssas was coordinated. The suspect denied having talked to any Golden Dawn officials before the attack.
Front Section, Pages 8 on 09/22/2013