Bangladesh death sentence lifted
DHAKA, Bangladesh -- Bangladesh's Supreme Court on Wednesday commuted the death sentence of an Islamist political leader whose conviction last year for war crimes during the nation's 1971 war for independence sparked deadly protests.
Delwar Hossain Sayedee, one of the top leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, must remain in prison "for the rest of his natural life," Chief Justice Muzammel Hossain said.
The judge did not explain his reason for reducing the sentence.
A war crimes tribunal convicted Sayedee in February 2013 on eight counts involving mass killings, rape and atrocities committed during the nine-month war against Pakistan in 1971. His death sentence touched off days of clashes that killed at least 70 people across the country.
Jamaat-e-Islami called for a day-long general strike today to denounce Wednesday's verdict, saying Sayedee is innocent and should be released.
Deal to rebuild Gaza quadruples supplies
JERUSALEM -- A deal reached on war-battered Gaza's reconstruction is set to be implemented in the coming months, with the amount of building materials entering the territory expected to quadruple, a United Nations official said Wednesday.
James Rawley, a U.N. Mideast envoy, said that under a mechanism agreed to by Palestinians, Israel and the U.N., up to 800 truckloads of construction materials will enter Gaza per day -- a jump from the 200 or so trucks that enter now, he said.
The materials will be used for rebuilding after the 50-day war this summer that flattened entire neighborhoods and reduced thousands of houses to rubble.
Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on Gaza after Hamas overran the territory in 2007. Trade and travel has been severely restricted, and the entry of goods -- including construction materials -- has also been limited.
Israel says Hamas has in the past diverted cement and steel imported for schools and homes for military purposes, including to build underground tunnels used in attacks against Israel.
The agreement comes ahead of a donor conference in Egypt next month, where international benefactors will be looking for guarantees that their pledges materialize into actual construction. Palestinian officials estimate rebuilding Gaza could cost $6 billion.
Officials: 'No military solution' for Libya
MADRID -- Libya's struggling elected government and representatives of 15 neighboring nations on Wednesday unanimously rejected the idea of military intervention as a way to restore stability in the oil-rich nation.
Libya currently has two rival parliaments and governments. One is recently elected but based in Tobruk, where it moved after Islamist militias took control of both Tripoli and Libya's second-largest city, Benghazi. The previous Islamist-led parliament remains in Tripoli and is backed by the militias.
Meeting in Madrid, officials from countries surrounding Libya and to its north across the Mediterranean concluded "there is no military solution to the current crisis."
Libya Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdulaziz offered no specifics on how his government could regain control of Tripoli but said he did not believe a recent series of airstrikes by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates in Libya or future airstrikes would shift the balance of power.
2 suicide bombers strike Nigeria college
KANO, Nigeria -- Two suicide bombers killed at least 15 students Wednesday at a government college in Nigeria's northern city of Kano, police and emergency officials said.
One of the attackers got into a lecture hall filled with students and detonated his bomb; the second blew himself up before he could enter a second lecture hall, Kano state police commissioner Aderenle Shinaba said.
Shinaba said 15 students died and 34 were hospitalized with various degrees of injuries.
Sani Datti, spokesman for the Nigerian Emergency Management Agency, said the bombers also died.
Officials said Islamic extremists from Boko Haram were responsible. The extremists have been blamed for a string of bombings that have killed scores of people across their stronghold in northeast Nigeria as well as in Abuja, Nigeria's capital in the center of the country.
A Section on 09/18/2014