Syrian army general is assassinated

Syrian army general is assassinated

beirut

Gunmen assassinated an army general in Damascus on Saturday in the first killing of a high-ranking military officer in the Syrian capital since the uprising against President Bashar Assad’s regime began in March, the country’s state-run news agency said.

SANA news agency reported that three gunmen opened fire at Brig. Gen. Issa al-Khouli Saturday morning as he left his home in the Damascus neighborhood of Rukn-Eddine. Al-Khouli was a doctor and the chief of a military hospital in the capital.

Violence in other parts of the country left at least 17 people dead as regime troops pushed into rebel-held neighborhoods in the central city of Homs and seized parts of the mountain town of Zabadani, north of Damascus.

The U.N. estimates that 5,400 people have been killed in Syria since the uprising began in March.

Libya to Niger: Hand over Gadhafi’s son

tripoli, libya

Libya demanded Niger hand over one of Moammar Gadhafi’s sons who is under house arrest in the neighboring African nation after he warned in a television interview that his homeland was facing a new uprising.

Mohammed Hareizi, spokesman for the ruling National Transitional Council, said Saturday that Niger must extradite Al-Saadi Gadhafi and other ex-regime officials to “preserve its relationship and interests” in Libya.

The demand came days before the first anniversary of the Feb. 17 start of the uprising that led to months of civil war and the eventual ouster and death of the longtime Libyan leader.

In Iran, 30 million lose email access

tehran, iran

An Iranian news agency reports that more than 30 million people in the country have lost access to foreign email services such as Gmail, Yahoo mail and Hotmail.

The Saturday report by the semiofficial Mehr agency says that the authorities in the national telecommunications company declined to comment on the outage that began Thursday, saying that it had no connection to them.

Greek official defends bailout deal, cuts

athens, greece

Warning of a “catastrophe” that would leave Greeks subsisting on food stamps and the country wallowing in bankruptcy, Greek leaders urged lawmakers Saturday to pass more painful spending cuts on the eve of a crucial vote to qualify for a massive bailout.

In a televised address Saturday, Prime Minister Lucas Papademos defended the thousands of job cuts, drop in the minimum wage and other austerity measures that would earn the country a $171.6 billion bailout deal and stave off bankruptcy.

Russia: Suspend US adoptions

moscow

Russia’s Foreign Ministry is asking the government to suspend adoptions of Russian children by U.S. nationals after an “incessant string of crimes” reportedly committed by American adoptive parents.

Russian authorities say that at least 17 Russian children have died in domestic-violence incidents in their American families.

The Ministry said Saturday that the adoptions should resume only after Moscow and Washington sign an accord that allows Russian monitors to visit the homes of adopted children.

A Pennsylvania couple was convicted in November of the involuntary manslaughter of their son adopted from Russia.

U.S. citizens have adopted nearly 50,000 Russian children since the early 1990s.

Associated Press