QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The shutdown is called for pressing our demand for return of the mortal remains of our martyrs.” Separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani, about a three-day strike in Indian-controlled Kashmir marking the execution anniversaries of two separatists Article, this page Guard slays Russian nun, churchgoer
MOSCOW - A man employed as a private security guard opened fire Sunday in a cathedral on Russia’s Sakhalin Island in the Pacific Ocean, killing a nun and a parishioner and wounding six others, investigators said.
Law-enforcement officers detained the 24-year-old man at the scene and were trying to determine why he had attacked the Russian Orthodox cathedral in the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the federal Investigative Committee said in a statement. The man worked for a private security firm in the city and was armed with a rifle. His name was not released.
The six parishioners who were wounded were hit in the legs and their lives were not in danger, state news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing the regional archbishop.
The gunman entered the cathedral shortly after a service had ended and began shooting at parishioners and religious icons on the wall, the Rev. Viktor Gorbach told LifeNews cable television channel.
He said not too many people were left in the cathedral and some managed to flee, but the nun and a male parishioner tried to stop the attacker and were killed. The priest said the man expressed his hatred of the church.
Swiss voters OK immigration curbs
GENEVA - Voters in Switzerland on Sunday narrowly backed a plan to limit immigration.
Swiss public television SRF reported that some 50.3 percent of voters backed a proposal by the nationalist People’s Party to introduce quotas for all types of immigrants. The difference between the two sides was fewer than 30,000 votes, with a turnout of about 56 percent.
The decision means that the Swiss government will need to renegotiate treaties on the free movement of workers that it had painstakingly hammered out with the European Union. Until now, citizens from most EU member states could live and work in Switzerland with little formality, while Swiss citizens could do the same in the 28-nation bloc.
Two years ago Switzerland introduced quotas for immigrants from eight central and eastern European nations. Ahead of Sunday’s referendum, business groups warned that many of the 80,000 people who moved to Switzerland last year are vital for the country’s economy.
Egypt: Brotherhood has ‘military wing’
CAIRO - Egyptian authorities on Sunday accused the ousted president’s Muslim Brotherhood party of forming a “military wing” to stage attacks on security forces in a southern province.
Attackers are increasingly using Molotov cocktails and homemade grenades to burn police vehicles and strike troop barracks in Cairo. New groups supporting Mohammed Morsi have claimed responsibility for the attacks on social networking and jihadi websites.
The purported “military wing” evoked on Sunday by the Interior Ministry was described as being based in the city of Beni Suef, south of Cairo. Ministry spokesman Hani Abdel-Latif named 12 people on Sunday that he said belonged to the purported Brotherhood-led unit.
8 Sufi Muslims slaughtered in Pakistan
KARACHI, Pakistan - Gunmen threw grenades at a Sufi Islamic religious gathering Sunday in the port city of Karachi and then opened fire on the people assembled to offer prayers, killing eight, officials said.
Eight more people were wounded in the attack, said Aftab Chanur, an official at a hospital who gave the death toll.
The four gunmen on motorcycles first lobbed grenades at the building where a Sufi cleric was receiving his followers, then raked it with automatic fire, said police official Javed Odho. He said women and children were among the dead and wounded.
Pakistan is 95 percent Muslim, and the majority practice Sufi-influenced Islam. But their shrines and followers have come under attack by Sunni Muslim militants who don’t consider them to be true Muslims.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack. But suspicion is likely to fall on militants such as the Pakistani Taliban or their affiliated sectarian groups who follow a strict interpretation of Islam that considers many other Muslims heretics.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 02/10/2014