LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The truth is a desire of the human person, the search for which always supposes the exercise of authentic freedom. Many, however, prefer
shortcuts, trying to avoid this task.”
Pope Benedict XVI,
at a Mass in Cuba’s Revolution Square Article, this pageHu visit spurs India to rein in Tibetans
NEW DELHI - With President Hu Jintao of China arriving for a diplomatic summit meeting, Indian authorities sought Wednesday to prevent Tibetans from staging anti-China protests as paramilitary officers closed down the city’s Tibetan neighborhoods.
The crackdown comes as the Indian authorities have increased security for the annual summit meeting of the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, a grouping known as BRICS.
It also came as a Tibetan man died Wednesday morning after setting himself afire earlier this week in New Delhi.
The man, Jamphel Yeshi, was protesting Hu’s visit and joined a list of more than two dozen Tibetans who have set themselves on fire in the past year in acts of protest.
For decades, India, the world’s most populous democracy, has provided a home for Tibetan refugees, including the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader. But as host of the BRICS meeting, Indian officials want to avoid any episodes that might embarrass the visiting leaders.
Tibetan activists said more than 250 Tibetans had been jailed under preventive custody.
Gunmen in Yemen
grab Saudi envoy
SANA, Yemen - Gunmen kidnapped a Saudi diplomat while he was on his way to work Wednesday in the southern Yemeni port city of Aden, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said.
Abductions are frequent in Yemen, an impoverished nation where armed tribesmen and al-Qaida-linked militants take hostages to swap them for prisoners or cash. It was the second recent instance of a Saudi diplomat being kidnapped in Yemen.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry confirmed the kidnapping and said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency that a group of armed men abducted the diplomat in front of his residence.
It warned that those behind the abduction “would be held responsible for his safety and should free him soon.”
The Saudi Foreign Ministry identified the diplomat as Abdullah al-Khaldi, the deputy consul at the Saudi consulate in Aden. No more details were immediately available.
Tribe threatens to secede in Libya
TRIPOLI, Libya - A Libyan tribe threatened Wednesday to declare a separate state in Libya’s south after days of bloody battles with a rival tribe, the second such move toward secession this month.
The breakaway threats are the latest evidence of turmoil after the fall of longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi’s autocratic regime last year.
Tribal leaders in eastern Libya announced earlier that they were considering forming an autonomous state, called Barqa, over almost half of the country. The state would have its own parliament, police force, courts and capital in Benghazi, the country’s second-largest city.
That was seen as an expression of frustration with decades of neglect by Gadhafi and the inability of the new government, the National Transitional Council, to improve the situation.
On Wednesday, tribesmen in the south, echoing some of the same complaints, also threatened to split from Libya’s central government in Tripoli.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 03/29/2012