LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY “We will work day and night until these beloved people are with us.”
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah,
leader of Lebanon’s Shiite militant group Hezbollah, after the kidnappings of 11 Lebanese Shiites in neighboring Syria Article, this pageOnly 1 found guilty of killing S. African
VENTERSDORP, South Africa - A court found a black farmworker guilty Tuesday of murdering a white supremacist in rural South Africa. A younger farmworker was acquitted of murder, but found guilty on other charges.
The two black farmworkers were accused of beating 69-year-old Eugene Terreblanche to death with an iron rod in April 2010. The verdict ends a case that has lasted two years and fanned racial tensions in Ventersdorp, west of Johannesburg.
In his verdict, Judge John Horn said that according to witnesses, the “dispute with the deceased was about money, not about his political beliefs or aversion for black people.”
Horn said evidence shows Chris Mahlangu, whom he found guilty of murder, went to Terreblanche’s farm to rob and kill him. He said it was likely that the other accused, who was younger than Mahlangu, merely followed Mahlangu and took no active part in the assault.
The younger suspect, Patrick Ndlovu, was acquitted of murder but found guilty of breaking and entering with intent to steal. Ndlovu initially was not named because of his age. He turned 18 during the trial.
Crocker exiting as U.S.’ Afghan envoy
KABUL - Ryan Crocker, a respected diplomat who came out of retirement to become the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, is leaving his post this summer, a year ahead of schedule.
U.S. Embassy spokesman Mark Thornburg on Tuesday confirmed Crocker’s plans to depart. Rumors had swirled during the weekend summit of NATO in Chicago, which Crocker attended.
The 62-year-old Crocker had previously served as the U.S. ambassador in Iraq, taking the diplomatic helm there during a crucial period - from 2007 to 2009 - that coincided with a sharp increase in U.S. troop levels to tamp down escalating violence. He arrived in Afghanistan last July.
State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland said Tuesday that the veteran envoy would leave his post in Kabul this summer because of health reasons she declined to detail.
Argentines find bomb before speech
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Police on Tuesday defused a pair of powerful firecrackers hidden in a Buenos Aires theater and apparently timed to explode just when a crowd of high-paying guests would have gathered to greet former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
A theater employee found the explosives lodged in a light fixture in the Gran Rex theater, authorities said.
They were attached to a cell phone with an alarm set for 4:30 p.m. today, just when Uribe would have joined a postspeech cocktail with business executives and other important guests, investigative Judge Norberto Oyarbide said.
“It is a simple device, but it could have caused deaths,” Oyarbide said, adding that windows could have shattered, creating panic in the crowd. “The damage to Argentina would have been huge.”
The judge spoke after surveying the scene where federal police bomb experts were searching for clues inside the historic theater on Corrientes Avenue in the heart of the Argentine capital.
Train crash leaves 25 dead in India
HYDERABAD, India - A passenger train rammed into a parked freight train and caught fire before dawn Tuesday in southern India, killing at least 25 people and injuring dozens more.
Rescuers worked for about six hours to pull some 70 survivors from the twisted and smoldering wreckage near the southwestern border of Andhra Pradesh state.
At least 40 people were hospitalized with injuries, with about 10 in critical condition, local Police Chief Charu Sinha said.
The driver of the Hampi Express, upon seeing the cargo train stopped on the tracks ahead, slammed on the emergency brakes, which caused four cars of the Express to derail, officials said.
The first passenger car caught fire, burning to death 16 people inside, Sinha said.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 05/23/2012