QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The time has come to tell the truth, to do difficult and unpopular things.”
Interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk of Ukraine, who warned of painful economic changes ahead as part of a deal to secure loans for the country from the International Monetary Fund Article, 1A
Americans given 3 years in girl’s death
DOHA, Qatar - An American couple charged with starving their 8-year-old adopted daughter to death in the Persian Gulf Arab nation of Qatar were sentenced Thursday to three years in prison, the couple’s defense lawyer said.
Matthew and Grace Huang were jailed in Qatar on murder charges in January 2013 after the death of their daughter, Gloria. They were released from prison in November, but banned from leaving Qatar during the trial.
The prosecution demanded the death penalty, alleging that the couple had denied food to Gloria and said she was locked in her room at night. The girl was pronounced dead when the Huangs took her to the hospital in January 2013.
The Huangs say their adopted daughter, who was born in Ghana, died of medical problems complicated by unusual eating habits that included periods of binging and self-starvation.
On Wednesday, the State Department expressed concern that not all of the evidence had been weighed by the court.
U.N. panel faults U.S. on civil rights
GENEVA - A United Nations panel has found serious shortcomings in the United States’ civil-rights record, with experts citing Thursday a lack of adequate oversight and transparency in national security programs dealing with issues that included electronic surveillance, targeted drone killings and secret detentions.
The report by the U.N. Human Rights Committee, a panel of 18 independent experts from different countries, found general improvement in some areas - such as handling of rights of indigenous peoples and the Guantanamo Bay prisoners - since the last such review in 2006.
And while the panel’s experts made clear they generally view the United States as a promoter of human rights, they also found major concerns while examining compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Committee member Walter Kaelin, a prominent Swiss legal expert, expressed concern about “the lack of transparency, secrecy,” related to electronic surveillance, use of drone strikes against al-Qaida and the Taliban and CIA secret rendition programs closed in 2012.
Some of the other areas dealt with by the panel include the prolonged solitary confinement of prisoners, sentencing of life without parole for youthful offenders, racial disparities in the use of the death penalty, laws hindering felons from voting and excessive use of force by law enforcement officials.
Syrians hit rebels in bid to retake turf
MISHERFEH, Syria - Syrian forces on Thursday bombarded rebel positions with artillery and warplanes in the Mediterranean coastal province of Latakia, trying to push back opposition fighters who over the past week made rare territorial gains in President Bashar Assad’s ancestral heartland.
Government troops have been battling for days with the rebels from several Islamic groups, including the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front, that began the offensive in the province a week ago.
They seized a number of towns, a border crossing with Turkey and - for the first time in the 3-year-old conflict - a tiny stretch of coast giving the rebels an outlet to the Mediterranean Sea.
Fierce clashes were ongoing Thursday as the army tried to wrestle back the predominantly Christian Armenian town of Kassab and nearby village of Nabaain, both seized by the rebels.
Bombings leave 26 dead in Baghdad
BAGHDAD - A series of bombings targeting commercial areas of Baghdad killed 26 people as residents were heading out on the town Thursday evening, Iraqi officials said.
A car bomb exploded after sunset in a commercial street in the Sunni-dominated northern neighborhood of Azamiyah, killing 12 people and wounding 28. Thursday night is a popular time for Iraqis to go out, as the weekend begins the next day.
Minutes later, another bomb exploded near a market in the same neighborhood, killing seven and wounding 27.
Those blasts were followed by an explosion in a shopping street in the capital’s Aamiriyah district, killing three people and wounding 15 others. Yet another blast struck a commercial street in southwestern Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 14.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 03/28/2014