LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“We will never recognize the unilateral declaration of Kosovo’s independence.”
Vuk Jeremic,
the Serbian foreign minister Article, this page
2 gunmen accost Mandela kin, flee
JOHANNESBURG - Nelson Mandela’s grandchildren underwent a harrowing ordeal with gunmen after departing the former South African president’s 92nd birthday party, but no one was hurt and the attackers fled after an exchange of gunfire, police said Thursday.
Police spokesman Govindsamy Mariemuthoo said the grandchildren were returning to their Johannesburg home after the family birthday party Sunday when two gunmen approached their car. They ordered the occupants to lie down near the entrance to the home of Mandela’s daughter, Zindzi.
One fired a shot, and the family driver returned fire.
Last month, Mandela’s great-grandaughter Zenani, 13, died in a car crash on the way home from the World Cup opening concert. The driver of the car is to appear in court Monday to face homicide and drunken-driving charges.
IMF cancels Haiti debt, lends it more
PARIS - The International Monetary Fund says it has canceled Haiti’s $268 million debt and will lend the earthquake-devastated country another $60 million to help it with reconstruction plans.
The IMF said Wednesday that the decision is part of a plan for long-term reconstruction after the Jan. 12 magnitude-7 quake, which killed as many as 300,000 people.
The three-year loan carries a zero interest rate until 2011, which then rises to no more than 0.5 percent.
The Washington-based fund said its moves should encourage aid contributions to the impoverished country.
“Donors must start delivering on their promises to Haiti quickly, so reconstruction can be accelerated, living standards quickly improved and social tensions soothed,” IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said in a statement.
Chavez cuts Colombia diplomatic ties
CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez severed Venezuela’s diplomatic relations with Colombia on Thursday over claims that he harbors guerrillas, and he suggested that his neighbor is attempting to provoke a war.
Chavez said he was forced to break off all relations because Colombian officials claim that he has failed to act against leftist rebels who purportedly have taken shelter in Venezuelan territory.
He acted moments after Colombian Ambassador Luis Alfonso Hoyos - at a meeting of the Organization of American States in Washington - presented photos, videos, witness testimony and maps of what he said were rebel camps inside Venezuela and challenged Venezuelan officials to let independent observers visit them.
Neither Chavez nor his Organization of American States ambassador directly responded to the Colombian challenge to let people visit the purported site of the camps.
N. Korea: U.S. actions imperil region
HANOI, Vietnam - North Korea on Thursday warned the United States that imposing fresh sanctions and holding military drills with South Korea this weekend will endanger the entire region and destroy hopes for a nuke-free Korean peninsula.
The remarks precede an Asian security meeting in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, today, attended by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the top diplomats from both Koreas four months after the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan that killed 46 sailors.
North Korea has been blamed in the sinking but denies responsibility.
“If the U.S. is really interested in the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, it should halt the military exercises and sanctions that destroy the mood for dialogue,” North Korean spokesman Ri Tong Il told reporters on the sidelines of meetings Thursday.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates struck back Thursday at North Korea’s criticism of the military drills. “My response to that is that I condemn their sinking of the Cheonan,” Gates told reporters in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 07/23/2010