THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, 2012
PAGE 3
NEWS OF THE WORLD
Associated Press
ASIA
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A volunteer from the Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) pets a pit bull, one of more than 200 rescued from South Korean nationals at a coffee farm lot in San Pablo city, Laguna province, south of Manila, Philippines, on Tuesday. Dozens of pit bulls rescued from a dogfighting ring will be put down starting Tuesday by the animal welfare activists, who said there are no facilities to rehabilitate them and prevent them from again being used in underground arenas.
Pit bulls rescued from dogfighting ring in the Philippines
MANILA, Philippines At least nine pit bulls rescued from a dogfighting ring in the Philippines were euthanized Tuesday and dozens more are likely to be because there are no facilities to rehabilitate them and prevent them from reappearing in underground arenas.
Roughly 300 dogs were rescued in separate raids late Friday in Laguna province south of Manilia, said Anna Cabrera of the Philippine Animal Welfare Society.
Seventeen with the worst injuries were put down over the weekend, and the health of the living dogs and the progress of rehabilitating them will determine how many of them ultimately
survive.
Police arrested eight South Koreans suspected of running an illegal online gambling operation in which players outside the Philippines bet on dogs fighting at a clandestine compound.
Some of the dogs rescued Friday were saved from another facility in Cavite province in December, Cabrera said. She said the dogs were "recycled" adopted by people who resold them to the suspects to continue fighting.
"That is a fate worse than death," she said.
Two of the suspects arrested last week had been caught in the December raid but had posted bail, police Chief Inspector Renate Galang said.
He said his group had enough drugs to euthane 70 dogs, and had put down at least nine Tuesday afternoon with 13 more planned before they finish later in the evening.
Welfare society veterinarian Wilford Almora said many of the pit bulls — purebred and mixed breeds — suffered ripped ears and tongues and other wounds in previous fights.
He said they selected the most sick, emaciated and aggressive animals to put down first. Some of the dogs were too weak to stand, he said.
MIDDLE EAST
Israel delays evacuation of Jewish settlers from West Bank
JERUSALEM — Israel's prime minister said Tuesday he has ordered a delay in the planned evacuation of Jewish settlers from a building they occupied in the West Bank, putting off a potentially violent standoff with Israeli security forces.
The settlers had been ordered to evacuate the building in the volatile West Bank city of Hebron by Tuesday afternoon.
But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he told his defense minister, who oversees policy in the occupied West Bank, to put the evictions on hold while a legal review is
conducted.
The settlers took over the house in Hebron in an overnight operation last week. The military ordered them to leave by Tuesday afternoon because they did not have the required permission to move in.
"I am coordinated with the minister of defense. I asked him last night to wait with the eviction so we could check the facts, both legally and on the ground, and that is what we will do." Netanyahu told a news conference. He gave no indication how long that would take.
The deadline passed without any
action, and the settlers remained inside the building.
"Netanyahu's apparent support for these settlers' move is another proof that (his) priority is consolidating the occupation rather than negotiating its end," said Palestinian spokesman Ghassan Khatib. "Such attitude and behavior poses a serious challenge that the international community needs to deal with."
The Palestinians, backed by the international community, say the settlements are illegal and make it ever more difficult to establish their independent state.
AFRICA
Nigerian president criticized for use of soldiers in peaceful protest
LAGOS, Nigeria — Lawyers argued Tuesday whether Nigeria's president had the power to use heavily armed soldiers and armored tanks to stop a massive protest this January in the nation's largest city over spiraling gasoline prices.
The lawsuit brought by the Save Nigeria Group could be the strongest judicial test to presidential power in a nation long run by iron-fisted military rulers. The group said the government quashed the freedom of speech constitutionally guaranteed in this young democracy.
In its lawsuit, the Save Nigeria Group asks for $625,000 in damages and an injunction stopping President Goodluck Jonathan from using the military to halt future peaceful protests. At a court hearing Tuesday in Lagos, Adebayo told Justice Steven Adah that ruling in favor of the suit would "strengthen our democracy."
Protests began in Nigeria after Jonathan's administration announced Jan. 1 the removal of popular subsidies on gasoline that keep prices low in the oil-rich nation. Overnight, the price at the pump jumped from 45 cents per liter ($1.70 per gallon) to at least 94 cents per liter ($3.50 per gallon).
Labor and trade unions announced a nationwide strike that paralyzed business and daily life throughout the country. The government's decision sparked rage as Nigerians as a whole view low gasoline prices as the only benefit the average citizen sees from the nation producing about 2.4 million barrels of oil a day. After a six-day strike, Jonathan announced a new, partially subsidized price of 60 cents a liter ($2.27 a gallon) to ensure the protests stopped. The president deployed soldiers into Lagos and other areas in the country who blocked
demonstrators and at times fired fire ammunition and tear gas at them.
At Jonathan's order, soldiers swarmed the park with armored tanks, turning away and threatening those who attempted to protest. The troops only left the park, a neatly pruned grass strip along a major highway and at the foot of the city's massive garbage dump, weeks later.
The move by Jonathan to put soldiers on the street represented the first time that a leader massively deployed soldiers on the streets across major cities since the nation became a democracy in 1999. For Adebayo, that's why the lawsuit remains so important to Nigeria's nascent democracy.
Justice Adaah said he expects to rule on the lawsuit May 24.
"We believe the court is still the last bastion of hope for the common man," he said.
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