The world in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I am speaking for all the women of the world.We will continue to struggle for our rights.”

Egyptian minister Mervat Tallawy, speaking at the U.N. about promoting gender equality and empowerment Article, this page

Iraqi president’s guard kills journalist

BAGHDAD - An officer in the Iraqi president’s guard shot dead a well-known radio journalist during a quarrel Saturday near the leader’s east Baghdad residence, police said.

The shooting of Radio Free Iraq’s Baghdad bureau chief Mohammed Bdaiwi drew condemnation from Iraqi politicians.

Bdaiwi was purportedly shot by a junior officer working for Iraqi President Jalal Talabani at a checkpoint near his residence, police said.

Meanwhile, a series of blasts killed more than a dozen people across the country. Police officials said five policemen and two civilians were killed and 18 people were wounded in two bombings in Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad.

Hours later, police said a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a security checkpoint near the town of Adeim, about 60 miles north of Baghdad. Three civilians and three police officers were killed.

Also, a roadside bomb hit a military checkpoint near the northern city of Mosul, killing two soldiers and wounding three others, according to the police.

In the southern city of Basra, gunmen shot dead police Col. Madhi Ashour, the head of the city’s crime investigation department, as he was walking near his house, police said.

Fiery wreck in Pakistan leaves 33 dead

ISLAMABAD - At least 33 people were killed Saturday in a collision involving two tanker trucks and two passenger buses on a coastal highway in southern Pakistan, officials said. At least 20 others were injured, many with severe burns.

The accident occurred at 6:30 a.m. in Hub, an industrial town in southwestern Baluchistan province, when a truck got stuck in a pothole and a bus traveling behind the truck crashed into it. The second bus tried to bypass the pileup but collided with the second tanker truck, which was traveling in the opposite direction.

The buses were both carrying gasoline and diesel canisters smuggled from Iran on their roofs, Pakistani officials said, adding that the vehicles exploded into a huge fireball.

The injured were taken to hospitals in Hub and Karachi.

The bodies of several of the dead were charred beyond recognition, and officials said blood samples would be sent to Islamabad for DNA tests as a way to identify them.

Leader of Philippine rebel group arrested

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine security forces arrested the chairman of the underground Communist Party of the Philippines and his wife Saturday, the military said, dealing the biggest blow in years to the decades-old rebel group.

Benito Tiamzon and his wife, Wilma, also a senior party officer, were arrested in central Cebu province’s Aloguinsan township, said military Chief of Staff Gen. Emmanuel Bautista.

The arrests came a week before the party’s armed wing, the New People’s Army, was to mark its 45th anniversary.

The couple face charges of crimes against humanity, including multiple murders, Bautista said in a statement late Saturday.

They were taken to a military camp in Cebu.

The statement provided no other details about the arrests.

Local media reports said five other people were arrested along with the Tiamzons.

Tiamzon’s wife, the party’s secretary-general, was arrested in the early 1990s but escaped from custody.

The military estimates that the guerrilla fighters number about 4,000, down from a peak of about 25,000 in the mid-1980s because of battle losses, surrenders and factionalism.

Syrians battle for site on Turkish border

BEIRUT - Syrian troops launched a counteroffensive Saturday in an attempt to regain a border-crossing point with Turkey a day after it fell to rebels led by members of an al-Qaida-linked group, activists and state media said.

Rami Abdurrahman, who leads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Saturday that opposition fighters led by members of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front are in control of the crossing point “but have been targeted by regime forces since yesterday.” The Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen TV, which has reporters throughout Syria, said Syrian warplanes carried out several air raids in the Kassab area.

An activist in northwestern Syria who goes by the name Abu Mohammed Haffawi said the rebel offensive Saturday is concentrating on a strategic hill known as Observatory 45 that overlooks wide areas.

He added that rebels are still in control of the Kassab border point while the government holds the main nearby town that carries the same name and has a large Armenian community.

Front Section, Pages 8 on 03/23/2014

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