LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY "We don't fight for money, we fight for development."
Ebikabowei Victor Ben,
a top militant leader in Nigeria, who along with 1,000 fighters surrendered to the government Article, 14A5 die in attack at Somali checkpoint
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Islamic insurgents attacked a government checkpoint in Somalia's capital Saturday, sparking a gunbattle that killed at least five people on the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Insurgents seeking to overthrow Somalia's Western-backed government have been threatening to increase attacks during Ramadan, a month-long period of prayer, reflection and sunriseto-sunset fasts.
A minibus driver, Iidle Haasan, said he saw five bodies lying in the road after Saturday's attack. The road where the attack started is the supply route for African Union peacekeepers.
"Early in the morning Islamist militias attacked our base," Somali Defense Minister Yusuf Mohamed Siad said.
Somalia has been ravaged by violence and anarchy since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, then turned on one another. The al-Shabab insurgent group, which has foreign fighters in its ranks, operates openly in the capital and seeks to overthrow the government and impose a strict form of Islam in Somalia.
French activist who shot at Chirac freed
PARIS - A French far-right activist has been released from prison seven years after trying to assassinate then-President Jacques Chirac in a Bastille Day attack, a judicial official said Saturday.
Maxime Brunerie was convicted of attempted murder after he pulled a rifle from a guitar case and shot at Chirac on July 14, 2002. The attack took place during a military parade on Paris' famed Champs-Elysees avenue. Brunerie was subdued by onlookers as he tried to turn the weapon on himself. Chirac was unhurt.
Brunerie, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison, was released earlier this month but remains under judicial supervision, the judicial official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity according to judicial policy.
Such early release is allowed under French rules, if certain conditions are met.
The state attorney during his trial, Philippe Bilger, said on France-Info radio that he thought Brunerie was looking to rebuild his life.
He added, "I simply hope that he will not be in the same intellectual and moral state as he was before the criminal act he committed."
China investigates 2 in child poisonings
WENPING, China - Two environmental officials were being investigated Saturday after more than 1,300 children were sickened with lead poisoning caused by pollution from a manganese processing plant in central China.
The investigation comes as officials seek to punish those responsible for the poisoning from the Wugang Manganese Smelting Plant in Wenping township in Hunan province. Days earlier, reports said emissions from a lead smelter in another province had sickened hundreds.
The plant in Wenping opened in May 2008 without the approval of the local environmental protection bureau, within 500 yards of a primary school, a middle school and a kindergarten.
The government of Wugang city in Hunan province said in a statement late Friday that two officials from the city's environmental protection bureau were being investigated for dereliction of duty. It did not provide details.
Colombian held in American's death
BOGOTA, Colombia - Colombian police have captured a guerrilla suspected of killing a U.S. military contractor and a Colombian soldier after their surveillance plane crashed in the jungle in 2003, authorities said Saturday.
Judicial police director Luis Ramirez alleged that Jose Armando Cadena Cabrera, who went by "Bronco," was personally responsible for the two killings and was part of a band of rebels that kidnapped three other Americans who were on the plane.
"The entire crew survived the plane crash and 'Bronco' killed the U.S. citizen Thomas John Janis and the soldier Luis Alcides Cruz, who refused to be kidnapped," Gen. Ramirez said in a phone interview.
The other three Northrop Grumman Corp. contractors on the plane - Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell - wrote in a book this year that a guerrilla named Sonia told them she killed Cruz and Janis, who was from Montgomery, Ala.
Front Section, Pages 9 on 08/23/2009