QUOTE OF THE DAY “The excessive use of force means that the regime is becoming bare of any political cover, and it is declaring a war against its own people.” Khaled Omar,
a member of the Change Now youth movement, after
Sudanese security forces opened fire on mourners at a funeral as part of a crackdown on protests calling for the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir Article, 14A6.8 aftershock kills 15 more in Pakistan
QUETTA, Pakistan - A major earthquake rocked Pakistan’s southwest Saturday, killing at least 15 and sending panicked people running into the street just days after another quake in the same region killed hundreds, officials said.
The U.S. Geological Survey said on its website that a 6.8-magnitude quake was felt in Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province.
Pakistan’s Meteorological Department measured the earthquake at magnitude 7.2, saying its epicenter was about 90 miles west of the town of Khuzdar. Chief Pakistani meteorologist Arif Mahmood said Saturday’s earthquake was an aftershock and that such tremors could continue for weeks.
Baluchistan government spokesman Jan Mohammad Buledi said those killed Saturday died in the Mushkay area of Awaran. The death toll from Tuesday’s disaster was 359, he added.
Little might have been left to damage after Tuesday’s disaster. Few of the mud and homemade brick houses in the area survived the 7.7-magnitude quake that leveled villages and buried people in the rubble. Since then tens of thousands of people have been sleeping under the open sky or in tents.
Tunisia’s governing Islamists to resign
TUNIS, Tunisia - Tunisia’s governing Islamist party has agreed to resign in favor of a caretaker government in an attempt to resolve a political crisis that has paralyzed the country, officials said Saturday.
The assassination of a leftist politician at the end of July - the second in five months - was the turning point for the country’s disgruntled opposition, which pulled its deputies out of the parliament and staged a string of protests.
The opposition also faulted the governing Ennahda Party for ignoring a rising trend of Islamic radicals, some of whom attacked the U.S. Embassy in Tunis last year. But the government has since cracked down on those groups, throwing many of their members in jail.
The road map set forward by the negotiators has Prime Minister Ali Larayedh’s government resigning in three weeks as negotiations go forward on the selection of an apolitical figure to replace him and an interim, nonpartisan government.
Meanwhile, the boycotting legislators will return to work and finish the constitution over the next four weeks.
An election commission will be set up to fix a date and organize elections in the coming months.
Scores missing in Nigerian ferry wreck
LAGOS, Nigeria - A ferry carrying traders and their goods broke up in stormy weather on the Niger River, and rescuers were searching for about 200 passengers, a Nigerian emergency official said Saturday.
Spokesman Ibrahim Farinloye of the National Emergency Management Agency said the ferry was carrying traders to a weekly market at Malali village when the storm formed Friday afternoon.
He said Saturday that it was impossible to say how many people were on the boat, but initial indications were that about 42 had drowned and many were still unaccounted for.
The official News Agency of Nigeria reported 15 bodies had been recovered and buried alongside the river.
Syria vows to help destroy gas arsenal
BEIRUT - Syria’s prime minister said Damascus will fully cooperate with United Nations inspectors tasked with destroying the country’s chemical-weapons stockpile.
Wael al-Halqi’s comments Saturday came a day after the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to purge Syria of its chemical-weapons program.
Al-Halqi said in an interview with Lebanon’s Al Manar TV that Syria “welcomed the resolution” and “will fulfill its international duties.” He also said the government “will facilitate the work of the inspectors.”
The U.N. resolution passed Friday allows the start of a mission to rid Syria’s regime of its estimated 1,000-ton chemical arsenal by mid-2014.
Also on Saturday, Syrian rebels including members of an al-Qaida-linked group captured a military post on the border with Jordan after four days of fighting, an activist group said.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 26 soldiers were killed in the battle as well as a number of rebels, including seven foreign fighters. The post served in the past as the customs office on the border with Jordan. It was turned into an army post years ago.
Front Section, Pages 7 on 09/29/2013