LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“We are like a baby crawling toward
democracy ...The first thing is to get rid of old leadership, the old business class backed
by the army. My parents don’t see that.”
Ibrahim Haroun,
28 of Cairo, who voted in Egypt’s presidential elections this week Article, this page
Arrests in Quebec protests near 700
MONTREAL - Nearly 700 people were arrested Wednesday night after a protest over higher university tuition in Quebec turned into another night of violence.
The student protests have grown since the provincial government last week passed emergency legislation to break up Canada’s most sustained student demonstrations ever.
The protest was declared illegal by police the minute it was scheduled to start as demonstrators didn’t provide an itinerary, disobeying the new law that requires that police be informed eight hours before a protest and told the route of any demonstration that includes 50 or more people. Police began the arrests after protesters started hurling objects.
Police said 518 people were arrested in Montreal and 176 were arrested in Quebec City. Many of those arrested were taken onto city buses, which have recently been converted into police holding pens.
The protesters are demanding that Quebec Premier Jean Charest roll back the tuition increases of $254 per year over seven years. Quebec has the lowest tuition rates in Canada.
Chairman of Vatican bank dismissed
THE UNITED NATIONS - The Vatican bank, which took a blow to its reputation last year over an investigation into money laundering, has fired Chairman Ettore Gotti Tedeschi.
In a vote of no-confidence, the board of directors unanimously agreed to remove Tedeschi, a former Banco Santander SA banker who took the job in 2009, from his post for failing “to carry out various duties of primary importance,” according to a statement by Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi.
The bank, which is formally called the Institute for the Works of Religion, said it’s now hunting for a replacement who can “restore” relations with the financial community. Set up in 1942 by Pope Pius XII to manage the Vatican’s finances, the bank reports directly to the pope.
After barely a year in office, Tedeschi, who also teaches ethics in finance at Milan’s Catholic University, was taken by surprise when Italian prosecutors in 2010 seized $29 million from a Rome bank account registered to the Vatican bank amid suspicions of money-laundering violations.
He and Director General Paolo Cipriani were placed under investigation for purportedly omitting data in wire transfers from an Italian account. A phone call to Tedeschi’s office was not answered.
Activist’s brother seeks aid in Beijing
BEIJING - The brother of Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng fled his closely guarded village to seek legal advice Thursday in Beijing on how to protect his son from what supporters call retaliation by local officials, an attorney said.
Chen sought protection of U.S. diplomats last month after escaping virtual house arrest in his hometown, sparking a standoff between Beijing and Washington and highlighting the extralegal measures taken by local Chinese officials to suppress dissent.
The two countries resolved the standoff by agreeing to let Chen and his immediate family travel to the U.S. so he could attend a university, but his supporters say the legal activist’s extended family in Shandong province faces a continued crackdown.
The brother, Chen Guangfu, is the father of Chen Kegui, who has been arrested and accused of attempted murder during a clash last month with local officials who burst into his home looking for his uncle after his escape.
Thousands in Somalia flee fighting
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Thousands of people fled a region north of Mogadishu on Thursday amid the sounds of gunfire and explosions as government troops and their allies tried to take more ground from Islamist insurgents.
The Afgoye corridor has been a shelter for hundreds of thousands of people seeking relief from violence that has plagued Mogadishu the past several years.
African Union and Somali forces pushed al-Shabab militants out of Mogadishu last August and are now trying to seize areas outside Mogadishu. This week, they moved into the Afgoye corridor to pursue al-Shabab.
An estimated 400,000 refugees had been in the agricultural town.
The top U.N. humanitarian official for Somalia, Mark Bowden, on Wednesday called on African Union and Somali troops to minimize the effect of the fighting on civilians. He said he is concerned prolonged fighting could lead to displacement of settlements where victims of last year’s famine now live.
Front Section, Pages 8 on 05/25/2012