The world in brief

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“We are not making much progress.”

Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations mediator for Syria, on peace talks between the government and the opposition Article, this page

15 Iraqi troops killed in militant assault

BAGHDAD - Militants in Iraq attacked military barracks in a remote area in the country’s north and killed 15 troops overnight, officials said Tuesday.

An unknown number of gunmen staged the assault on the barracks in Ayn al-Jahish village outside the northern city of Mosul late on Monday, two police officials said.

The troops’ duties were to protect an oil pipeline that sends Iraqi crude oil to international markets and guard a nearby highway. Attacks on the pipeline are common in that area near Mosul, a former insurgent stronghold located about 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.

Eight of the soldiers were beheaded during the attack while the rest were killed by gunfire, a medical official said.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Violence in Iraq has spiked since April, when security forces cracked down on a Sunni protest camp north of Baghdad in clashes that left 45 dead. The situation further deteriorated in December, when security forces dismantled a protest camp near the Anbar provincial capital of Ramadi.

To defuse tensions, security forces withdrew from Ramadi and the nearby city of Fallujah. Al-Qaida-linked militants promptly took over parts of Ramadi and the center of Fallujah. Since then, the government and allied tribes have been struggling to regain control of the cities.

Koreas to meet today in high-level talks

SEOUL, South Korea - The two Koreas will hold their highest-level talks in years today, South Korean officials said Tuesday.

Officials said the meeting was requested by North Korea, which has launched a recent charm offensive after raising tensions last spring with repeated threats of nuclear strikes against Seoul and Washington. Later this month, the two Koreas are to hold reunions of families separated since the 1950-53 Korean War for the first time in more than three years.

Today’s meeting has no fixed agenda, but the two sides are expected to discuss how to make the reunions run smoothly and whether to pursue them regularly, South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Eui-do said.

North Korea canceled planned reunions at the last minute in September and has threatened to scrap this month’s reunions because of coming U.S.-South Korean military drills, which it claims are preparations for an invasion. But outside analysts said it’s unlikely that North Korea will halt the reunions, because it needs improved ties with South Korea to help attract foreign investment and aid.

1st Kabul polio case since ’01 diagnosed

KABUL, Afghanistan - A young girl from Kabul has been diagnosed with polio, the first case linked to Afghanistan’s capital since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, officials said Tuesday.

Afghanistan’s Public Health Ministry said a vaccination campaign had been launched - with particular focus on the area of eastern Kabul where 3-year-old Sakina lived.

Dr. Kaneshka Baktash, spokesman for the ministry, said Tuesday that Sakina is partially paralyzed. Baktash said she was diagnosed in Pakistan, where Sakina was taken after falling ill.

Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria are the only countries in the world where polio remains endemic, though cases have declined significantly in Afghanistan in recent years.

The vast majority of cases in Afghanistan can be traced to Pakistan, health officials have said.

Abdul Sabor Nariman, deputy spokesman for the Public Health Ministry, said Sakina’s family had traveled often to the neighboring country, where vaccination campaigns have been targeted by militants.

Court: Revisit Russian spy’s ’06 death

LONDON - The U.K. government’s decision not to hold a public inquiry into the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko was wrong and should be reconsidered, a court ruled.

Litvinenko died from a fatal dose of radioactive polonium in 2006. His widow, Marina, appealed the government’s refusal to order a judge-led review of his death.

Litvinenko was an outspoken critic of the Kremlin who died after meeting a former Russian intelligence officer at a London hotel. The Russian government refused a request by British prosecutors to extradite the main suspect, Andrei Lugovoi. In July, the U.K. rejected a request by a British coroner holding an inquest into Litvinenko’s death for a public inquiry.

While the government should give “fresh consideration” to the matter, the court didn’t order a particular outcome.

The U.K. Home Office said it’s reviewing the ruling.

Front Section, Pages 6 on 02/12/2014