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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2012
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS OF THE WORLD
Associated Press
EUROPE
Gay Pride event banned by police again
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Serbian riot police cordon blocks access to an art exhibition gallery in Belgrade, Serbia, on Wednesday. Meanwhile, some 2.000 of riot policemen were deployed in front of an art exhibition in Belgrade organized by gay activists which the extremists had threatened to disrupt.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BELGRADE, Serbia — Serbia's police on Wednesday banned a Gay Pride march in Belgrade, citing security concerns but also complying with a request from Serbia's Christian Orthodox church.
Police said they were banning the march planned for Saturday because they feared a repeat of the violence in 2010, when right-wing groups attacked a Gay Pride event in Belgrade. That triggered day-long clashes with the police which left more than 100 people injured.
Last year's Gay Pride march also was banned by authorities.
The current ban was announced after Patriarch Irmej, the head of Serbia's Christian Orthodox church, urged the government to prevent Saturday's march. In a statement, he said such a "parade of shame" would cast a "moral shadow" on Serbia — a conservative Balkan country whose gay population has faced threats and harassment.
Allowing a Gay Pride march this year had been regarded by some as a test of Serbia's pledge to respect human rights as it seeks European Union membership. That was clear
in the reaction of European Parliament official Jelko Kacin, who called the ban a "political decision that questions the rule of law in Serbia."
Secretary-General Thorbjoern Jagland of the Council of Europe, the continent's main human rights body, said he was "surprised and
disappointed" that the pride event has been banned again.
modern democracies."
"Citizens should be able to exercise their rights of freedom of assembly and freedom of expression," he said. "Serbia should be in a position to safeguard such an event, which is commonplace in
Amnesty International said the ban puts Serbia in breach of its own laws.
and freedom of assembly to all lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in Serbia," said John Dalhuisen, the group's director for Europe and Central Asia.
"Serbia's government is effectively going against its own legal and constitutional protections for basic rights such as freedom of expression
Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said in addition to banning the Gay Pride march, the government was barring a gathering of right-wing groups that planned to attack the event. It also canceled several national league soccer matches in Belgrade on Saturday because they often are attended by hooligans aligned with the extremists.
"We believe that at this moment Serbia does not need clashes and victims, and that's why we banned the gatherings," said Dacic, who is also the national police chief.
Opposition politicians said the ban showed that authorities are unable to protect freedom and human rights in Serbia.
"No democratic society has the right to retreat from the threats of violence against basic rights," said Liberal Party leader Cedomir Jovanovic.
Meanwhile, some 2,000 riot policemen were deployed Wednesday in front of an art exhibit in Belgrade organized by gay activists that the extremists had threatened to disrupt.
The reason? They claimed the photographs by a Swedish artist descrended the image of Jesus Christ.
SOUTH AMERICA
Successful surgery for Colombian President
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOGOTA, Colombia — Doctors said Wednesday's cancer operation on Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has gone off successfully.
Dr. Adolfo Llinas is the medical director of the Fundaco Santa Fe Hospital in the Colombian capital, and he said there were no complications during the 2 $ \frac{1}{2} $ hour operation, which was carried out under local anesthetic.
The lead surgeon on the prostate operation was Felipe Gomez, and he said the president should be back home in two or three days.
Santos earlier said doctors told him he has a 97 percent chance of being cured.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Syrian security officers gather at the scene in front of destroyed buildings where triple爆仓了 the Saadallah al-jalail square, in square Citya, Syria, on Wednesday, Oct. 3.
MIDDLE EAST
Violence increases in Syria
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Three suicide bombers detonated cars packed with explosives in a government-controlled area of the battleground Syrian city of Aleppo on Wednesday, killing at least 34 people, leveling buildings and trapping survivors under the rubble, state TV said. More than 120 people were injured, the government said.
The transformation of Syria's conflict into an open war has given an opening to foreign fighters and extremists, analysts say. The Syrian government has always blamed the uprising on foreign terrorists, even though the revolt began as peaceful protests by ordinary citizens that turned violent after repeated attacks by security forces.
The Syrian opposition denies any links to terrorists or any use of suicide attacks. A Sunni extremist group called Jabhat al-Nusra, or Victory Front, has claimed responsibility for previous bombings.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the government blamed its opponents and said the blasts were caused by suicide bombers. The technique is a signature style of al-Qaida-style jihadist groups, some of which are known to have entered Syrian's civil war to fight against the regime.
A fourth explosion a few hundred meters (yards) away struck near the edge of the Old City, a UNESCO World Heritage site that has been heavily damaged during more than two months of fierce fighting between rebels and government forces for control of the Aleppo.
Rebels last week announced a new concerted push to capture Aleppo, where they have been battling with regime troops since July. Syria's largest city and a major commercial hub, Aleppo was for a long time free of the violence that engulfed much of the rest of the country, but now has been devastated as rebels try to wrest a major strategic prize from the regime of President Bashar Assad.
The bloodshed is increasingly spreading outside Syria's borders.
In Aleppo, footage broadcast on state-run Ikhbariya TV showed massive damage around Saadallah al-Jabri Square, which also houses a famous hotel and a coffee shop that had been popular with regime forces. One building appeared to
On Wednesday, a shell fired from inside Syria landed on a home in neighboring Turkey, killing at least three people, including a 6-year-old boy, said Abdulhakim Ayhan, mayor of the Turkish town of Akcakale. Turkey's state-owned Anadol Agency reported angry townpeople marched to the mayor's office to protest the deaths.
The resident said the officers' club and the hotel were almost completely destroyed. His account could not be immediately verified. The resident declined to be identified for fear of reprisals.
A syrian government official said the number of deaths would likely increase because many of the wounded were in critical condition. Regime troops killed two more would-be suicide bombers before they could detonate their explosives, he said on condition of anonymity in line with government regulations.
have been leveled to the ground. The facade of another was heavily damaged.
Syria's state-run SANA news agency said the bombings early Wednesday killed at least 34 people and wounded 122, blaming the attack on "terrorists."
"It was like a series of earthquakes," a shaken resident told The Associated Press by telephone. "It was terrifying, terrifying."
Syrian state TV showed the bodies of three men wearing army uniforms at the site of the explosions. One of them appeared to be wearing an explosive belt with a timer tied to his wrist.
Aleppo-based activist Mohammad Saeed said the explosions went off minutes apart at one of the city's main squares. He said the blasts appeared to have been caused by car bombs and were followed by clashes and heavy gunfire.
"The area is heavily fortified by security and the presence of shabha," he said, referring to pro-regime gunmen. "It makes you wonder how car bombs could reach there."
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said at least 40 people were killed and around 90 wounded in the four blasts, most of them members of the regime forces.