QUOTE OF THE DAY

“We’re not there yet, but we are making progress.We are beginning to flesh out the

toughest hurdles yet to be overcome.”

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, citing progress on the Mideast peace process, as he proposes a peace pact with officials to establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel Article, this page

South Sudan, rebels open peace talks

NAIROBI, Kenya - The South Sudanese government and representatives of rebel forces met for the formal opening of peace talks Saturday evening in Ethiopia, part of the diplomatic effort to halt weeks of fighting in the young nation.

The two delegations met with mediators at a hotel in Addis Ababa to pin down the points they would negotiate. Both sides then gathered with Ethiopia’s foreign minister for a ceremony to mark the official start of the talks, with more substantive bargaining expected today.

The urgency of the talks was evident as gunfire rattled the nerves of residents in Juba, South Sudan’s capital, on Saturday evening after weeks of relative calm there.

The fighting began Dec. 15 between soldiers in a barracks in Juba. President Salva Kiir accused his former vice president, Riek Machar, of leading an attempted coup. Machar denied the charge, but his followers took up arms after the government detained a group of allied politicians.

According to a statement Saturday by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the East African regional bloc that is mediating the talks, the negotiations will focus on the cessation of hostilities and the release of the prisoners arrested in the wake of the purported coup.

Humanitarian Aid workers warned that the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the violence could not wait for a cease-fire for help. They said aid was needed immediately for civilians at United Nations bases in Juba, Malakal and Bor.

Construction collapses in India; 14 die

PANAJI, India - A five-story building under construction in the southern Indian state of Goa collapsed Saturday, killing at least 14 workers and leaving dozens more feared trapped under the rubble, police said.

Soldiers were deployed this morning to help rescuers and firefighters sift the wreckage, as the chance of finding survivors dwindled a day after the structure crumpled.

Authorities were trying to determine how many people were at the construction site when the building collapsed in Canacona, Police Superintendent Shekhar Prabhudessai said.

Witnesses said Saturday that about 40 workers were at the site.

Prabhudessai said the cause of the collapse had not been determined.

Building collapses are common in India, as demand for housing and lax regulations often encourage builders to cut corners.

Chinese man to die for killing 3 children

BEIJING - A Chinese man who hacked three children to death and injured 13 others at a day-care center in southern China was sentenced to death Saturday, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Wu Yechang was convicted of intentional homicide in the Guigang Intermediate People’s Court in China’s Guangxi region for the September 2012 attack.

It was one of several violent attacks on children in China in recent years that have resulted in tighter security at schools and kindergartens.

The attacks also have led to calls for more attention to mental illnesses and prompted concern over rising stress in Chinese society.

Wu suffered from illness when he targeted the children at the Red Apple day-care center in Guangxi’s Pingnan county, Xinhua said.

He told police in 2012 that he initially wanted to kill himself but decided to do something bigger. Reports said the jobless man bought an ax and was wandering when he saw the daycare center.

Putin scraps protest ban during Olympics

Russian President Vladimir Putin scrapped a total ban on protests during the Winter Olympics in Sochi, which are a focus for gay-rights activists.

Putin amended a decree from August to allow demonstrations with police permission, the Kremlin said on its website Saturday. The security rules apply from Tuesday to March 21, a month before the Feb. 7-23 games start until after the Paralympics. Putin ordered the authorities to set aside a special venue for protests, said his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, according to the Interfax news service.

The Russian leader has made the Sochi Olympics a showcase for his country. Last month, he pardoned jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky after 10 years in prison. Two members of the all-female Russian punk group jailed for an anti-Putin protest were freed under an amnesty.

Gay-rights activists plan to challenge Putin and pressure Olympic sponsors, including Coca-Cola Co., by protesting a Russian ban on homosexual “propaganda” during the Sochi Games.

Front Section, Pages 6 on 01/05/2014