LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I tell Sheik al-Qarani that I support you and I will pay $900,000 to make it $1 million to capture an Israeli soldier to release other prisoners.”
Prince Khaled bin Talal of Saudi Arabia,
raising a prominent Saudi cleric’s promise of $100,000 for capturing an Israeli soldier in hopes of another swap for imprisoned Palestinians Article, 1AFocus in Turkey turns to cleanup
ERCIS, Turkey - Turkish workers on Sunday started razing damaged buildings and clearing the debris of collapsed ones a week after an earthquake killed at least 596 people.
A 5.3-magnitude aftershock early Sunday caused panic in the quake zone in eastern Van province, where thousands of survivors spent the night in tents. An Associated Press photographer witnessed people screaming in panic as the aftershock jolted apartment buildings in the city of Van.
Authorities on Sunday urged survivors not to enter damaged buildings. About 1,400 aftershocks have been recorded since last Sunday’s 7.2-magnitude killer quake, they said. At least 2,000 buildings have been destroyed and authorities declared another 3,700 buildings unfit for habitation.
The temblor has killed at least 596 people and injured 4,152 others, the country’s disaster management agency said in an update Sunday morning. Thousands of homeless people were struggling in tents in the bitter cold as rain and snow brought more hardship.
China arrests 12,000 in drug sweep
BEIJING - Chinese authorities have arrested more than 12,000 suspects and seized 660 pounds of illicit drugs in a nationwide crackdown on narcotics sold through online chat rooms.
The official Xinhua News Agency said Sunday that police busted 144 drug rings involved in narcotics production and trafficking in a recent campaign. It did not say what drugs were being sold or had been seized.
Xinhua said police in the western cities of Lanzhou and Xi’an found that some people were selling and buying drugs through chat rooms that were not accessible to outsiders. It said newcomers could only join if they were introduced by existing users.
Xinhua said about two-thirds of those arrested were under 35 years old.
Assad warns against outside forces
BEIRUT - Syrian President Bashar Assad warned the Middle East will burn if the West intervenes in his country’s 7-month-old uprising, threatening to turn the region into “tens of Afghanistans.”
Assad’s comments, published in an interview with Britain’s Sunday Telegraph, were his harshest so far regarding the potential for foreign intervention. But they belie a growing concern over the possibility of some sort of Western military action after months of NATO airstrikes helped rebellious Libyans oust Moammar Gadhafi.
“Syria is the hub now in this region. It is the fault line, and if you play with the ground, you will cause an earthquake,” Assad said. “Do you want to see another Afghanistan, or tens of Afghanistans?”
And unlike Gadhafi, Assad enjoys a number of powerful allies who give him the means to push back against outside pressure. A conflict in Syria risks touching off a wider Middle East conflict with arch foes Israel and Iran in the mix.
Shepherds, flocks hoof it in Madrid
MADRID - Spanish shepherds led flocks of sheep through the streets of downtown Madrid on Sunday in defense of ancient grazing, migration and droving rights threatened by urban sprawl and man-made frontiers.
Jesus Garzon, president of a shepherds council established in 1273, said about 5,000 sheep and 60 cattle crossed the city to exercise the right to droving routes that existed before Madrid grew from a rural hamlet to the great capital it is today.
Following an age-old tradition, a chief herdsman paid 25 maravedis - coins first minted in the 11th century - to use the crossing, Garzon said.
Shepherds have a right to use 78,000 miles of paths for seasonal livestock migrations from cool highland pastures in summer to warmer grazing in winter. The movement is called transhumance and in Spain it involves about a million animals, mostly sheep and cattle.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 10/31/2011