THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14. 2012
PAGE 3
NEWS OF THE WORLD
- Associated Press
NORTH AMERICA
Pentagon will investigate civilian deaths
WASHINGTON — The alleged massacre of Afghan civilians by a U.S. soldier is "outrageous and unacceptable," President Barack Obama said Tuesday, and he promised a thorough and unstinting Pentagon investigation.
"The United States takes this as seriously as if it was our own citizens, and our children, who were murdered. We're heartbroken over the loss of innocent life," Obama said. He sounded stern and emotional in brief remarks on the weekend killings made before an unrelated White House event.
"Ive directed the Pentagon to make sure that we spare no effort in conducting a full investigation," Obama said. "We will follow the facts wherever they lead us and we will make sure that anybody who is involved is held fully accountable with the full force of the law."
ASIA
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said the death penalty could be possible in the case.
Obama's message was aimed at Afghans and at Americans for whom the killings were a reminder that tens of thousands of U.S. forces are fighting in Afghanistan more than 10 years after the war began. Obama insisted that the killings will not change U.S. commitment to finishing the job in Afghanistan, but he was clearly trying to reassure Americans that he will close out the war.
The U.S. and NATO allies agreed more than a year ago to leave forces in Afghanistan through 2014. There is political pressure in Europe, and increasingly in the United States, to speed up that deadline.
DHAKA, Bangladesh — A ferry packed with about 200 people collided with a cargo boat and capsized in a Bangladeshi river Tuesday, killing 31 people and leaving dozens more missing.
"The death toll is likely to rise as more bodies are feared trapped inside," local police chief Mohammad Shahabuddin Kahn said. "We will get a better picture of the casualties once the sunken ferry is pulled out of the water."
About 35 people were rescued after the ferry sank early in the morning on the Meghna River, just south of the capital. Dhaka. Divers have recovered 31 bodies from inside the sunken ferry. Khan said.
He could not specify how many more were missing but said many of the missing were feared dead.
Dozens missing after ferry boat crashes with a cargo boat in Bangladeshi river
The MV Shariatapu was traveling to Dhaka from neighboring Shariatapu
district to the southwest. The accident site is in Munshiganj district, about 20 miles south of Dhaka.
Survivor Dulal Dowan said he was rescued by a nearby boat, but eight other family members traveling with him were still unaccounted for.
Khan said the number of people still missing was close to 200, while Dewan told reporters about 300 people were on board when the double-deck ferry sank. It is difficult to get a reliable estimate as ferry operators rarely keep a list of passengers and most buy tickets once on board.
An investigation has been ordered into the cause of the accident, said Azizul Alam, the area's government administrator.
The ferry sank in water about 70 feet deep and a rescue vessel was trying to pull it close to the shore, he said.
--targets for 2013, the discussions in Brussels have underlined how hard it will be for Europe to stick to the austerity measures it says are the best way out of the crisis.
Rescuers recover the body of a victim of a ferry accident on the banks of the Meghna River in Munshiganj district, about 20 miles south of Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Tuesday. Three are confirmed dead, and the death toll is likely to rise.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
EUROPE
Hungary may be sanctioned if it fails to meet overspending limit set by the EU
BRUSSELS — European countries are realizing how difficult it will be to adhere to the strict rules against overspending that they have chosen as their key policy response to the two-year old debt crisis.
At a meeting of in Brussels on Tuesday, European Union finance ministers agreed to sanction Hungary over its high deficits, but gave in to pressure from some countries to reconsider the ruling in June.
That push followed a decision by the finance chiefs of the 17-country eurozone Monday night to give Spain some leeway on cutting this year's deficit.
While both Hungary and Spain will be expected to meet their budget
That gives Budapest three months to announce more structural budget cuts and prevent its deficit from breaking the EU's limit of 3 percent of economic output. If it fails to do so, Hungary won't get 495 million euro (the equivalent to $649 million) in EU development funds it is entitled to in 2013.
A compromise solution was found by promising to reassess the sanctions in June, at which point they will be lifted if Hungary takes new measures.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, left, speaks with Finland's Finance Minister Jutta Urpailainen, center, and Sweden's Finance Minister Anders Borg, right, during a meeting of EU finance ministers at the EU Council building in Brussels. The ministers spoke about overspending rules.
ASIA
China's repatriation causes controversy
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean lawmakers have scuffled with North Korean delegates in Switzerland at a U.N. meeting on the North's alleged human rights abuses.
Several South Korean lawmakers tried to grab a North Korean diplomat leaving the U.N. meeting as they chanted slogans against China's policy of repatriating North Korean defectors, footage from Yonhap news agency shot Monday showed.
The lawmakers were pushed away by security and North Korean delegates.
The incident came amid reports that China is returning dozens of North Koreans to their communist homeland instead of letting them defect to the
capitalist South. China considers North Koreans who illegally enter its soil economic migrants, but activists fear the North Koreans are refugees who will face torture and imprisonment if repatriated.
Yonhap said the North's diplomat left the conference after denying a U.N. human rights envoy's criticism of his country.
Seoul has urged Beijing to provide information on North Koreans reportedly held in China, but Beijing has refused.
South Korea's Foreign Ministry has also sought help from the United Nations and the United States to stop China's repatriation.