Europeans mark 100 years since WWI
BRUSSELS -- At a site where their countrymen once slaughtered one another with machine guns, artillery and poison gas, the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and other European nations observed the 100th anniversary of World War I and vowed Thursday to preserve peace on the continent.
About half a million people died in battles in and around the Belgian city of Ypres between 1914-18. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said holding a meeting of the 28-nation European Union in the city that had to be rebuilt from scratch after World War I sends a powerful signal.
World War I claimed some 14 million lives -- 5 million civilians and 9 million soldiers -- including sailors and airmen from 28 countries, and left at least 7 million servicemen permanently disabled.
"We should remember those who served and why they fought ... and we should recognize that the peace we have today is something we should cherish every day," said British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Syrian rules holding up aid, U.N. says
UNITED NATIONS -- The United Nations humanitarian chief accused the Syrian government Thursday of imposing "arbitrary restrictions and obstructions" on the delivery of aid and banning lifesaving medical supplies from shipments to opposition-held areas.
Valerie Amos told the U.N. Security Council that "some opposition groups also have attacked, threatened and refused to cooperate with humanitarian workers."
Amos said the number of Syrians in need of humanitarian assistance has increased from 1 million in 2011 to 10.8 million, jumping 1.5 million in the past six months. That includes 4.7 million in hard-to-reach areas.
One million people didn't get food in May because of the restrictions, she said.
Gunmen raid home, kill Libyan activist
CAIRO -- A prominent Libyan activist was assassinated by gunmen who stormed her home in Benghazi shortly after she cast her ballot in the country's parliamentary elections, police said Thursday.
The slaying of Salwa Bugaighis stunned residents of her home city, politicians, activists and diplomats, among whom she was well known. International rights groups called on authorities to investigate.
Bugaighis, a lawyer and rights activist, was at the forefront in the 2011 uprising against dictator Moammar Gadhafi. She later became one of the most outspoken voices against militiamen and Islamic extremists who have run rampant in the country since his ouster.
Bugaighis' husband, who is a member of the Benghazi municipal council and was at home at the time of the attack, has disappeared and is believed to have been abducted, police spokesman Ibrahim al-Sharaa said.
The identities of the gunmen were not immediately known. Islamist militias have been blamed for frequent assassinations of secular activists, judges, moderate clerics, policemen and soldiers in Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city.
Late BBC host seen as serial sex abuser
LONDON -- The late BBC entertainer Jimmy Savile sexually abused children as young as 5 in hospitals across Britain for decades and claimed to have abused corpses, a series of independent investigations concluded Thursday.
The findings, which cover 28 hospitals and date from the 1960s, said Savile used his access to multiple hospitals as a celebrity, volunteer and fundraiser to exploit and abuse patients and hospital workers of both sexes. Sixty people at Leeds General Infirmary, ranging in age from 5 to 75 at the time, reported being abused, and investigators reported three cases of rape.
Dr. Sue Proctor, who led the investigations at Leeds, said Savile also told a staff member and a journalist that the large rings he wore were made from the "glass eyes of dead bodies."
Proctor said that although the allegations could not be verified, access to hospital mortuaries in the 1980s was "lax." In its report, Leeds hospital concluded, "it is evident his interest in the mortuary was not within accepted boundaries."
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt apologized on behalf of the government, saying the country shared a "deep sense of revulsion." He said he is writing to health officials to ask them to verify patient safety in light of the findings.
-- COMPILED BY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF FROM WIRE REPORTS
A Section on 06/27/2014