LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The concept of build back better is a good one, but we were way over-optimistic about the pace we could do it.”
Brian Curran, former U.S. ambassador, on American efforts to help Haiti recover from a 2010 earthquake Article, this page
Egypt buries ex-spy chief Suleiman
CAIRO - Egypt’s top generals led hundreds of mourners Saturday at a funeral honoring former spy chief Omar Suleiman, who for decades served as a key pillar of ousted President Hosni Mubarak’s authoritarian regime.
Long a shadowy figure in Egypt, Suleiman continued to play a divisive role in the country even after his death Thursday at a hospital in the U.S. at the age of 76. The country’s armed forces opted to honor him with a military funeral despite fierce condemnation from activists and Islamists for whom Suleiman, a former general, was a figure stained by his role in the suppression of opposition groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood.
On Saturday, an honor guard carried aloft the former spy chief’s coffin, draped in Egypt’s red, white and black flag, before placing him to rest at a military cemetery in Cairo.
Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who heads Egypt’s powerful military council, led the armed forces’ delegation at the ceremony. President Mohammed Morsi sent a representative from his office.
Blast in Turkey shuts down oil pipeline
ANKARA, Turkey - An explosion and fire shut down a pipeline that carries oil from Iraq to world markets, an official said Saturday. No one was hurt in the blast.
The explosion late Friday hit a section of a pipeline that takes oil from the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk to Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, near the southeastern town of Midyat, said an Energy Ministry official. A second line that runs parallel was not damaged but was also briefly shut down as a precaution, the official said.
The two pipelines carry about 25 million tons of crude oil a year.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of government rules, said the cause of the blast was under investigation but was likely the result of sabotage.
Kurdish rebels, fighting for autonomy in Turkey’s Kurdish dominated southeast, have bombed the pipeline before, cutting oil flows from Iraq for days.
Firefighters put out the blaze by Saturday afternoon, the official said, adding that repairs to the pipeline were about to begin. It was not clear when oil flows to Ceyhan would resume.
Tanzania ends hunt for ferry survivors
ZANZIBAR, Tanzania - Tanzania’s government Saturday halted rescue operations for a ferry accident that appears to have killed 146 people.
Government official Ali Juma Shamhuna said 69 passengers were confirmed dead and 77 were still missing, but the rescue efforts were called off because it was unlikely to still find any passengers alive in the Indian Ocean three days after the accident.
The ferry MV Skagit, which capsized Wednesday while traveling from the East African nation’s economic capital Dar es Salaam to the island of Zanzibar, was carrying 291 passengers, although it had been certified to carry only 250, he added.
A total of 145 passengers, among them foreign tourists, were rescued after the accident.
Italy delays hearing into shipwreck
GROSSETO, Italy - An Italian court Saturday postponed until Oct. 15 a preliminary hearing seeking to determine charges against those responsible for the Costa Concordia shipwreck that killed 32 crew members and passengers.
The court delayed the hearing, which will decide whether to indict Concordia’s captain and others, so it could examine an expert assessment of audio evidence from the black box data recorder.
Capt. Francesco Schettino’s lawyer told reporters outside the courthouse that the audio evidence from the black box confirms his client’s version of events.
“Schettino has felt relieved since he had the chance to tell his version of the facts to the judge, but he is also relieved because the audio evidence from the black box confirm his version,” Bruno Leporatti said.
Schettino said recently in a TV interview that he was distracted by a telephone call just before the Jan. 13 accident and that he believed his decision to move the ship closer to shore instead of immediately ordering an evacuation potentially saved lives. Prosecutors say he sailed too close to an island in a publicity stunt, ramming the vessel into a reef.
Passengers described a confused and delayed evacuation, with many of the lifeboats unable to be lowered after the ship listed to one side.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 07/22/2012