THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2012
PAGE 3A
NEWS OF THE WORLD
ASIA
MANOKWARI, Indonesia — A powerful earthquake hit waters off eastern Indonesia on Saturday, sending residents and school children running into the streets in panic.
Earthquake hits eastern Indonesia, no injuries reported
There were no reports of injuries or serious damage and no tsunami warning was issued.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the 6.6-magnitude quake hit 50 miles off Papua province. It was centered just 18 miles beneath the ocean floor.
closest to the epicenter, ran from their schools screaming. Streets also filled with those escaping shaking houses and stores.
Children in the city of Manokwari.
"I ran out of my house with my kids as soon as I felt the tremors," said Pinta Uli, a mother of two, adding that they saw one street lamp topple to the ground.
Associated Press
The wall in front of a government office also collapsed.
Suharjano, an official with the country's meteorology and geophysics
agency, said no tsunami warning was issued and there were no reports of injuries or serious damage.
Indonesia, straddling a series of fault lines and volcanoes, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A giant quake off the country on Dec. 26, 2004, triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed 230,000 people, half of them in Indonesia's westmost province of Aceh.
A man pays at the cash register at a Wal-Mart Superstore in Mexico City Nov. 18, 2011. Wal-Mart Stores inc. hushed up a vast bribery campaign that top executives of its Mexican subsidiary carried out to build stores across Mexico, according to a published report by the New York Times.
NORTH AMERICA
Wal-Mart accused of bribery to open new stores in Mexico
NEW YORK — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. hushed up a vast bribery campaign that top executives of its Mexican subsidiary carried out to build stores across that country, according to a published report.
The New York Times reported Saturday that Wal-Mart failed to notify law enforcement officials even after its own investigators found evidence of millions of dollars in bribes. The newspaper said the company shut down its internal probe despite a report by its lead investigator that Mexican and U.S. laws likely were violated.
Wal-Mart, which is based in Bentonville, Ark., said Saturday that it takes compliance with that law very seriously. It also noted that many of the "alleged activities" in the Times article occurred more than six years ago.
"If these allegations are true, it is not a reflection of who we are or what we stand for," spokesman David Tovar said.
The bribery campaign was reported to have first come to the attention of senior executives at Wal-Mart in 2005, when a former executive of its largest foreign subsidiary, Wal-Mart de Mexico, provided extensive details of a bribery campaign it had orchestrated to win market dominance.
The Mexican executive, previously the lawyer in charge of obtaining construction permits, said in emails and follow-up conversations that Wal-Mart de Mexico paid bribes to obtain permits throughout the country in its rush to build stores nationwide, the Times reported.
corporations and their subsidiaries to bribe foreign officials.
so rapid that one of every five Wal-Mart stores now is in that country. It is Mexico's largest private employer, with 209,000 employees there.
Wal-Mart's growth in Mexico has been
The newspaper said that only after learning of its investigation did Wal-Mart inform the U.S. Justice Department in December 2011 that it had begun an internal investigation into possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Under that law, it is illegal for U.S.
ASIA
American, Afghan officials sign strategic ally agreement
KABUL, Afghanistan — The U.S. and Afghanistan reached a deal Sunday on a long-delayed strategic partnership agreement that assures the Afghan people their key American ally will not abandon the country militarily or financially for years after 2014, the deadline for most foreign forces to withdraw.
The agreement is key to the U.S. exit strategy in Afghanistan because it provides guidelines for any American forces who remain after the withdrawal deadline and for financial help to the impoverished country and its security forces. For the Afghan government, it is a way to show its citizens that its key
allies are not just walking away.
"Our goal is an enduring partnership with Afghanistan that strengthens Afghan sovereignty, stability and prosperity and that contributes to our shared goal of defeating al-Qaida and its extremist affiliates," said U.S. Embassy spokesman Gavin Sundwall. "We believe this agreement supports that goal."
After 10 years of U.S.-led war, Taliban and al-Qaida linked insurgents remain a threat and as recently as a week ago, they launched a large-scale attack on the capital Kabul and three other cities.
The draft agreement was worked
out and initialized by Afghan National Security Adviser Rangin Dadfar Spanta and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and must still be reviewed in both countries and signed afterward by the Afghan and American presidents.
"The document finalized today provides a strong foundation for the security of Afghanistan, the region and the world and is a document for the development of the region." Spanta said in a statement issued by President Hamid Karzai's office.
Neither Afghan nor U.S. officials would comment on the details of the agreement.
AFRICA
Soldiers searching for Kony face deadly jungle conditions
RIVER VOVODO, Central African Republic — For Ugandan soldiers tasked with catching Joseph Kony, the real threat is not the elusive Central Africa warlord and his brutal gang. Encounters with the Lord's Resistance Army rebels are so rare that Kony hunters worry more about the threats of the jungle: Armed poachers, wild beasts, honey bees, and even a fly that torments their ears.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ugandan soldiers searching for Joseph Kony face treacherous conditions and dangerous animals, like crocodiles and snakes. Many are more likely to be killed by wild beasts than catch Kony.
A soldier crossing the Chinko river in the Central African Republic on Wednesday was drowned and mauled by a crocodile, spreading terror among hundreds of soldiers who must camp near streams because they need water to cook food.
It is dry season these days, and the rivers are teeming with hungry crocodiles.
This week's crocodile attack was the second in two months, highlighting the perils of trying to catch a rebel leader about whom so little is known and who could be anywhere in this vast Central
Soldiers talked about a tiny black
Africa jungle. There have been no signs of Kony in a long time, and the soldiers whose goal it is to catch him are in fact more likely to be killed by elephants and snakes whose paths they cross. Even honey bees can be a serious menace when they are migrating.
fly that persistently hovers around and even enters their ears, reducing their capacity for concentration. The soldiers can be seen shaking their heads violently, or desperately slapping their ears, but the flies keep coming in huge numbers. The soldiers look forward to night, when the flies go away.