LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Before winter, each house will be restored.
I promise - the village will be rebuilt.”
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin,
in a village destroyed by fires Article, 2AThreat shuts U.S. Consulate at border
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - The U.S. State Department said Friday that it is evaluating threats surrounding the consulate in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez as hundreds of people with appointments for visa applications and other services stood outside the shuttered office wondering what to do.
U.S. officials gave no details on the threats that prompted an indefinite closure Thursday. The consulate is the only place that processes immigrant visas in Mexico.
“It is a very significant facility for us,” said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley. “There is some threat information that we received that we are evaluating. It is hard to know or judge whether the threat is related to the broad area where the consulate is or to the consulate itself.”
Even as the State Department increases protection for employees and their families from the intensifying violence on the Mexican border, closing the Juarez consulate is the most drastic step to date, coming four months after drug gangs killed three people connected to the office.
Letter sends 2 at embassy to hospital
PARIS - Two men who work for the U.S. Embassy in Paris underwent medical tests after handling a suspicious letter Friday, the embassy said, and Paris police said it appeared they had been exposed to tear-gas fumes.
Both men were cleared and released after being examined at the Paris hospital Hotel Dieu, embassy spokesman Paul Patin said. The mailroom employees identified a suspicious letter and the embassy alerted French authorities, he said.
The central laboratory of the Paris police identified the irritant as tear gas, according to a police official who was not authorized to speak to the media. However, Patin said he could not immediately confirm that report.
“Whatever the smell was, it was not deemed harmful. It’s not toxic,” said State Department spokesman P.J.
Crowley. “As a precaution, the two employees were sent to the hospital and have experienced no ill effects from whatever was detected in these letters.”
Striking Greek truckers defy order
ATHENS, Greece - Greek truck drivers ignored an emergency order to return to work Friday after a five-day strike, escalating the plight of tens of thousands of tourists and Greeks left stranded by gasoline shortages.
Some 35,000 drivers walked off the job Monday to protest a bill that would cut license charges and open up their profession, a move required by the European Union and International Monetary Fund in exchange for a bailout that saved the country from defaulting on its debt.
Hundreds of protesting drivers marched through heavy traffic toward parliament, after the truckers’ general assembly Friday afternoon.
Syrian, Saudi leaders visit Lebanon
BEIRUT - The leaders of Syria and Saudi Arabia on Friday traveled together to Lebanon in hopes of preventing any violence if members of a militant group are indicted in the 2005 assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri.
The unusual joint visit by Syrian President Bashar Assad and Saudi King Abdullah underscored the depth of Arab concern over potential chaos in Lebanon. Many people fear indictments of Hezbollah members could spark clashes between Lebanon’s Sunnis and Shiites, or that Hezbollah’s nemesis Israel could be pulled into a conflict, causing wider turmoil.
“This is significant for two leaders who were fighting it out in Beirut just a few years ago,” said Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. “This indicates that they think this crisis is so big that they have to come themselves.”
Abdullah and Assad met with Hariri’s son, current Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri; President Michel Suleiman; and other officials. The leader of Hezbollah, who rarely appears in public, did not take part, but Hezbollah Cabinet ministers were on hand.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 07/31/2010