LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Everything is normal.There was a terrorist act, perhaps near a significant location, yes, this is true, but they failed as usual to achieve their goals.”
Syrian Information Minister Omran Zoubi,
after rebel suicide bombers struck Syria’s army command headquarters in Damascus Article, this page
Trial for 2 set in U.K. hacking case
LONDON - Rebekah Brooks, the former chief of News Corp.’s British newspapers, and Andy Coulson, the ex-communications chief for Prime Minister David Cameron, will face trial next September over allegations linked to phone hacking.
Brooks and Coulson appeared in London’s Old Bailey court Wednesday for a hearing along with five other people charged in connection with the phone-hacking scandal that originated at the News of the World tabloid and rocked Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. empire.
The defendants, charged with conspiracy to hack voice mails, spoke only to confirm their names. A provisional trial date was set for September 2013.
Former news editor Greg Miskiw, former head of news Ian Edmondson, ex-chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck, former reporter James Weatherup and private detective Glenn Mulcaire were in court, too. Ex-managing editor Stuart Kuttner, who was also charged, was excused from attending the hearing.
They are accused of participating in a campaign of espionage that targeted hundreds of celebrities, sports stars, politicians and crime victims.
Afghanistan blast kills NATO-force 2
KABUL - A suicide bomber wearing a vest packed with explosives killed two foreign servicemen in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, NATO and Afghan officials said.
Din Mohammad Darwesh, the governor’s spokesman in Logar province, said the bomber targeted a vehicle in a NATO convoy that was on its way to a nearby district.
Although the NATO-led international military coalition declined to give further details on the casualties, citing policy, Darwesh said both of those killed were Americans, one who died immediately and one who died of his wounds a short while later. A third soldier was injured, he added.
So far this year, 285 NATO servicemen have been killed in Afghanistan.
Also Wednesday, NATO said an orphaned Afghan boy in Helmand province escaped from insurgents who planned to use him as a suicide bomber. The boy, whose name was not given, reportedly told Afghan police that the insurgents gave him money in an effort to persuade him to wear a suicide vest and detonate himself near NATO or Afghan army forces, which he refused to do.
Priest draws Philippine ivory inquiry
MANILA, Philippines - Philippine law enforcement officials said Wednesday that they were investigating whether a senior priest in the Roman Catholic Church was involved in the smuggling of elephant ivory to feed the country’s passion for religious icons.
The investigation was prompted by an article in the October issue of National Geographic magazine that quotes Monsignor Cristobal Garcia, a senior church official on the central Philippine island of Cebu, as telling a U.S. reporter how to smuggle illegal elephant ivory figurines into the United States.
“Wrap it in old, stinky underwear and pour ketchup on it,” he is quoted as saying, to deter inspection.
The Philippine National Bureau of Investigation and the country’s wildlife protection agency are investigating the claims made in the article, government officials said.
The Philippines is a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, a treaty that regulates international trade in plants and animals. The trading of ivory has been banned under the treaty since 1990.
Garcia could not be reached for comment late Wednesday.
Russian tycoon: Charges ‘made up’
MOSCOW - A Russian tycoon who has financed a newspaper critical of the Kremlin and supported the opposition has been charged with hooliganism and assault for punching a businessman during a television talk show.
The defendant, Alexander Lebedev, said in comments carried by the Interfax news agency that he considers the charges against him political and “completely made up.”
He could face up to seven years in prison if he’s convicted on hooliganism charges similar to those that were filed against three members ofa Russian punk group who were sentenced to two years each over a performance against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow’s main cathedral.
Lebedev’s charges refer to a September 2011 incident when Lebedev punched property developer Sergei Polonsky during a TV discussion of the financial crisis, sending him tumbling to the ground.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 09/27/2012