QUOTE OF THE DAY “None of the groups fighting in Syria represent me now.” Abdullah Hasan, a self-described secular activist, referring to
infighting between rebel groups in the country Article, this page
Israeli plaque honors Nazis’ gay victims
TEL AVIV, Israel - Israel’s cultural and financial capital unveiled a memorial Friday honoring homosexuals persecuted by the Nazis, the first specific recognition in Israel for non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
In a Tel Aviv park, a concrete, triangle-shaped plaque details the plight of gay, bisexual and transgender people under Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich. It resembles the pink triangles Nazis forced gays to wear in concentration camps during World War II and states in English, Hebrew and German: “In memory of those persecuted by the Nazi regime for their sexual orientation and gender identity.”
The landmark joins similar memorials in Amsterdam, Berlin, San Francisco and Sydney dedicated to gay victims of the Holocaust.
As part of their persecution of gays, the Nazis kept files on 100,000 people, mostly men. About 15,000 were sent to camps and at least half were killed. Other Nazi targets included communists, Slavs, Gypsies and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
S. Sudan army claims it retook oil hub
JUBA, South Sudan - South Sudanese troops on Friday retook the capital of an oil-producing state from rebels loyal to the country’s former vice president, a military spokesman said.
Government troops retook Bentiu - the capital of Unity state - after a 2 1/2-hour battle, Col. Philip Aguer said.
Aguer said the forces loyal to the former vice president, Riek Machar, had “destroyed” the town. Rebels looted the bank, stole food and set the market on fire, Aguer said.
Doctors Without Borders said its facilities in Bentiu also were looted.
The loss of Bentiu weakens Machar at the negotiating table in Ethiopia, where mediators are trying to defuse a political conflict that broke out Dec. 15 and descended into ethnic attacks and military battles.
Hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese have been displaced in the nearly month-long conflict. The U.N. has said only that more than 1,000 people are thought to have been killed. But Casie Copeland, South Sudan analyst for the International Crisis Group, said Friday that she thinks nearly 10,000 have died.
Talks in Ethiopia have not made much progress. Machar’s side insists that 11 political prisoners held by the government of President Salva Kiir must be released.
Israel plans 1,400 new settlement homes
JERUSALEM - The Israeli government on Friday published plans to build 1,400 more housing units in Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, a move the chief Palestinian negotiator condemned as “a slap” to U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry’s intense push for a Middle East peace deal.
Israeli officials originally said they would promote these units in conjunction with the Dec. 31 release of 26 long-serving Palestinian prisoners, but then promised to delay the plan until after Kerry’s latest shuttle-diplomacy visit.
It continues a pattern that began with the peace talks this summer in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has struggled to please his politically complex coalition government by both engaging in the talks and continuing to expand settlements, something the Palestinians and many in the international community contend undermines the prospects for a two-state solution.
“Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu sent a message to Mr.
Kerry today, and the message reads: Do not continue your peace efforts,” the Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said in an interview.
Egyptian forces, Islamists clash; 3 die
CAIRO - Hundreds of Islamists rallied in Egypt’s capital and across the country Friday, calling for a boycott of a coming constitutional referendum as clashes with security forces killed three people, officials said.
Friday has traditionally been a day of protests for the supporters of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi since he was toppled in a popularly backed military coup July 3. This Friday, Islamist supporters of Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood organization added a call to boycott the Tuesday-Wednesday referendum on changes to the constitution drafted under the ousted president.
In clashes Friday in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, a street vendor was shot and killed as hundreds of Morsi supporters marched, Maj. Gen. Nasser el-Abd said.
It wasn’t clear who shot the vendor.
In Suez, gunfire killed two people and injured seven as clashes raged between Islamists and security forces, a health official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he wasn’t authorized to speak to journalists.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 01/11/2014