LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It is sometimes said that those who are the most committed to stopping the Iranian regime from securing nuclear weapons are reckless and provocative and inviting war. The opposite is true. We are the true peacemakers.”
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, during a visit to Israel Article, 1A
Japanese protest nuclear-power use
TOKYO - Thousands of people formed “a human chain” around Japan’s parliament complex Sunday to demand the government abandon nuclear power - the latest in a series of peaceful demonstrations on a scale not seen in the nation for decades.
Also Sunday, voters went to the polls in a closely watched election for governor of southwestern Yamaguchi prefecture, where an outspoken anti-nuclear candidate was running. Japanese media reported his loss late Sunday, citing exit polls, although official results had not been tallied.
Protesters said they were angry the government restarted two reactors earlier this month despite safety worries after the multiple meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March last year.
The reactors were the first to return to operation since May, when the last of Japan’s 50 working reactors went offline for routine checks.
Banging on drums and waving balloons and banners, protesters marched from a Tokyo park and lined up along the streets around the parliament building chanting, “Saikado hantai,” or “No to restarts,” and later lit candles.
Train catches fire in India; 47 killed
HYDERABAD, India - A government official said the death toll from a fire on a train in southern India climbed to 47.
District Collector B. Sridhar said 28 other passengers have been hospitalized with burns.
The fire was noticed by an official as the train passed through a railroad station early today.
The train was stopped and the coach that caught fire was detached from the rest of the train to prevent the blaze from spreading.
The fire was reported at Nellore, a town nearly 310 miles south of Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh state.
Sridhar said that the fire was believed to have been caused by a short circuit in the coach.
2 blasts, shooting kill 7 Iraqi police
BAGHDAD - Two bombings and a drive-by shooting Sunday killed seven Iraqi police in a former al-Qaida stronghold in the western part of the country, authorities said, another sign of the militants’ resurgence.
The attacks before dawn around the city of Fallujah also wounded nine police.
They came a week after the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq announced a deadly campaign to reclaim parts of the country the Sunni insurgency was forced to leave before the U.S. military pulled out last December.
After the attacks Sunday, security forces sealed off all roads leading into Fallujah and imposed a curfew.
Officials said two explosives-packed cars blew up within a few minutes of each other in Fallujah and the nearby village of Karma as security patrols drove by, killing three policemen. Fifteen minutes later, a gang of gunmen fired on a Karma police station, killing four. The gunmen escaped.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 07/30/2012