QUOTE OF THE DAY
“You don’t play around with the lives of children.”
Pope Francis, who took personal responsibility for the “evil” of priests who sexually abused children and said the church must be bolder in its efforts to protect the young Article, this page
Burma papers protest journalists’ arrests
RANGOON, Burma - Several private newspapers in Burma printed black front pages Friday to protest the recent arrests and sentencing of journalists.
The black front pages - which included a protest message - in the influential Daily Eleven newspaper and other papers followed a court decision Monday in which a video journalist for Democratic Voice of Burma was sentenced to one year in prison for trespassing and obstructing a civil servant while doing a story on education.
Burma only recently emerged from a half-century of military rule. It is often called Myanmar, a name that ruling military authorities adopted in 1989. Regime opponents refused to adopt the name change, as did the U.S. and Britain.
One of the most visible changes since a new, nominally civilian government came to power in 2011 was a freeing up of the press. But in the past four months, at least six journalists and a chief executive of a news journal have been arrested on criminal charges, such as violating the state secrets act or trespassing. Two have been sentenced to jail.
Rebel-infighting deaths hit 68 in Syria
BEIRUT - The death toll from infighting between rival Islamic rebel groups in an eastern Syrian town rose to 68, with some shot after being captured alive, activists said Friday.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said battles raged Friday for a second day in the oil-rich Deir el-Zour province near the Iraqi border. It said the fighting concentrated in the village of Haseen after members of the al-Qaida breakaway group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant were forced out of the nearby town of Bukamal.
Rebels from the Islamic State and fighters of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front and other Islamic groups have been fighting each other in the province for weeks over territory previously captured from President Bashar Assad’s forces, including oil fields.
The Observatory said 68 fighters died in fighting around Bukamal on Thursday. The Observatory said that of the 68 killed in the fighting, some were “executed” by members of the Islamic State.
Iraqi deputy premier survives attack
BAGHDAD - Iraq’s deputy prime minister escaped an assassination attempt in which militants dressed as soldiers opened fire on his convoy west of Baghdad on Friday, according to an Iraqi lawmaker and a statement from the deputy premier’s office.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but Islamic militants have in the past frequently targeted officials in their effort to undermine confidence in the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Sunni lawmaker Talal al-Zobaie said he was accompanying Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq, also a Sunni, and several other government officials on a visit to the villages in the Abu Ghraib area, west of the Iraqi capital, when the attack took place Friday.
A group of armed men in army uniforms and driving military vehicles opened fire at their convoy, triggering a shootout with guards and soldiers protecting al-Mutlaq, said al-Zobaie.
Three of al-Mutlaq’s guards were wounded in the shootout and the attackers fled the scene, the lawmaker added.
Palestinians join Geneva Conventions
GENEVA - Twenty-five years after making their first bid for membership, the Palestinians can join the Geneva Conventions governing the rules of war and military occupations, the Swiss government said Friday.
Israel had opposed the move, arguing that there is no universally recognized Palestinian state and that it would complicate peace talks.
The Palestinian Authority signed letters of accession to several international treaties after Israel failed to carry out a planned prisoner release in March. Switzerland, as the depositary of the Geneva Conventions, said “the state of Palestine” acceded to the conventions effective April 2.
One aspect of the Geneva Conventions that has raised particular concern in Israel is the prohibition on colonizing occupied land. Israel has said this should not apply to the West Bank and Gaza because the two territories exist in sovereignty limbo - no longer claimed by Jordan and Egypt, who ruled them before 1967, while the Palestinians have never had a state.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 04/12/2014