World Digest: Feb. 11, 2014
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Version 0 of 1. ITALY Police hit drug ring said to have U.S. ties Police in Italy and New York broke up a major transatlantic mafia ring Tuesday, arresting 24 people who were plotting to move hundreds of millions of dollars in drugs between South America, Italy and the United States, officials said. The sting operation offered more evidence that the Calabria, Italy-based ’Ndrangheta crime group was trying to make inroads in the United States by forging ties with the Gambino mob family of New York. Theaccused were in the advanced stages of plans to smuggle about 1,000 pounds of pure cocaine from Guyana in South America to the port of Gioia Tauro in Calabria, officials said. Some of the cocaine was destined for the United States, they said. Italian investigators estimated the street value of the cocaine at about $1 billion. — Reuters SOUTH SUDAN New obstacles for resumption of talks A resumption of peace talks to end South Sudan’s violence and political impasse appears to be in peril, as members of the two sides exchanged bitter accusations late Tuesday ahead of what was supposed to be the start of new negotiations. A cease-fire was agreed to last month in the conflict between government and rebel forces, and more-advanced talks were scheduled to begin Monday in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. That did not happen. A ceremony was held Tuesday in hopes of starting talks, but South Sudan’s negotiator accused the rebels of violating the cease-fire. On the rebels’ part, Gen.Taban Deng Gai said he is disappointed in South Sudan President Salva Kiir and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. Uganda is an ally of Kiir’s government and has sent in hundreds of troops. — Associated Press ALGERIA Military plane strikes mountain; 77 killed An Algerian military transport plane slammed into a mountain Tuesday in the country’s rugged eastern region, killing 77 people and leaving just one survivor, the Defense Ministry said. Air traffic controllers lost radio and radar contact with the U.S.-built C-130 Hercules turboprop just before noon and dispatched helicopters to try to find it. The plane was discovered in pieces on Mount Fortas near the town of Ain Kercha, 30 miles southeast of Constantine, the main city in eastern Algeria. The plane was heading to Constantine from the southern Saharan city of Tamanrasset. The plane carried 74 passengers and four crew members, the military said in its statement, blaming poor weather for the crash. — Associated Press Polio diagnosis in Afghan capital: A young girl from Kabul has been found to have polio, the first case linked to Afghanistan’s capital since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, authorities said. Afghanistan’s Public Health Ministry said a vaccination campaign had been launched in response to the diagnosis, with particular focus on the area of eastern Kabul where the girl lives. Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria are the only countries in the world where polio remains endemic, although cases have declined significantly in Afghanistan in recent years. Grenades thrown into movie theater in Pakistan: Assailants threw grenades into a crowded movie theater in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing 13 people, officials said. One of the grenades blew up the main door, and two more exploded inside the theater as about 80 people were watching a movie called “Yarana,” which means friendship in Pashto. Serbia convicts nine in massacres: Serbia’s war crimes court on Tuesday convicted nine former paramilitary members of the brutal killings of more than 100 ethnic Albanian civilians during the Kosovo war andsentenced them to between two and 20 years in prison. The crime by the “Jackals” paramilitary group includes the 1999 massacre of 41 people in the Kosovo village of Cuska, where Serbs rounded up villagers, locking the men in a house and setting it on fire. — From news services |