Mother of kidnapped Israeli pleads to U.N.
GENEVA -- Nearly two weeks after the apparent abduction of three Israeli teenagers as they tried to hitchhike home from the West Bank, the mother of one of them appealed Tuesday at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva for more international action to secure their release.
With the mothers of the two other missing teenagers, Eyal Yifrach, 19, and Gilad Shaar, 16, sitting behind her, Rachel Fraenkel, the mother of Naftali Fraenkel, 16, thanked Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the International Red Cross for condemning the kidnapping and calling for the teenagers' immediate release.
But Fraenkel, who like her son holds joint Israeli and U.S. citizenship, said, "I believe much more could be done and should be done by so many."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has blamed the militant Islamic movement Hamas for the kidnapping, and has opened one of the biggest Israeli military operations in the West Bank in recent years, arresting about 400 Palestinians during the crackdown.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu reiterated his call for President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority to break his recent reconciliation with Hamas, noting that the movement's political leader, Khaled Meshal, has praised the abduction.
Another S. Korea premier pick bows out
SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea's second consecutive nominee for prime minister stepped aside Tuesday, amid anger over his suggestion that Korea's colonization by Japan had been "God's will."
"Since I was appointed as prime minister, this country has plunged even deeper into severe confrontation and divide," Moon Chang-keuk said at a news conference Tuesday. "I have decided that I should help President Park by stepping down of my own will."
Moon, once a well-known conservative newspaper columnist, was President Park Geun-hye's second nominee for prime minister to withdraw before his confirmation hearings in the National Assembly could begin. A national television network, KBS, broadcast footage from a 2011 lecture he had given at his Presbyterian church in Seoul.
"We may protest, 'Why did God make this nation a colony of Japan?' But as I said earlier, there is God's will in it," Moon said from the pulpit, according to the video, adding that the Korean elite had been corrupt and inefficient before colonization began in 1910.
Critics argued that Japanese politicians would use his remarks to strengthen the case that colonial rule was not as bad as Koreans have made it out to be. Moon expressed regret over what he called a "misunderstanding" arising from "a little gap between what can be said inside a church and sentiments of ordinary people."
Freed wife, family held at Sudan airport
KHARTOUM, Sudan -- A Christian woman sentenced to death in Sudan and later freed was detained at an airport while trying to leave the country Tuesday, her lawyer said.
Lawyer Eman Abdul-Rahim said Meriam Ibrahim was held, along with two children and her husband, at the international airport in Khartoum, the country's capital. Abdul-Rahim did not elaborate, and security officials did not respond to requests for comment.
U.S. State Department spokesman Marie Harf said the Sudanese government had informed American officials that Ibrahim and her family were "temporarily detained" over matters relating their travel documents and that the family is not under arrest. She said U.S. officials are continuing to work on getting them out of the country.
Ibrahim, whose father was Muslim but who was raised by her Christian mother, was convicted of apostasy for marrying a Christian. Sudan's penal code forbids Muslims from converting to other religions, a crime punishable by death.
Fatal Beirut bombing linked to Syria war
BEIRUT -- A suicide bombing in a southern Beirut neighborhood killed a security officer and wounded 20 people, officials said Tuesday, as an al-Qaida-linked group, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, warned that such attacks will continue as long as the militant Hezbollah group is taking part in Syria's civil war.
The overnight attack was the second such bombing this week.
The explosion occurred near a checkpoint and a cafe in the Shatila area of the Lebanese capital just after midnight Monday. The area is a stronghold of the Shiite militant Hezbollah group, which has been heavily involved in fighting alongside President Bashar Assad's army in neighboring Syria.
The state-run news agency said Tuesday that security officer Abdul-Karim Hodroj died in the explosion.
A Section on 06/25/2014