WORLD DIGEST || Swiss tourist gang-raped in India

Swiss tourist gang-raped in India

NEW DELHI

A Swiss woman who was on a cycling trip in central India with her husband has been gang-raped by eight men, police said Saturday. The attack comes three months after the fatal gang-rape of a woman aboard a New Delhi bus outraged Indians.

Authorities detained and questioned 13 men in the latest attack, which occurred Friday night as the couple camped out in a forest in Madhya Pradesh state after bicycling from the temple town of Orchha, local police officer R.K. Gurjar said.

The men beat the couple and gang-raped the woman, he said. They also stole the couple’s mobile phone, a laptop computer and 10,000 rupees ($185).

The woman, 39, was treated at a hospital in the nearby city of Gwalior, Gurjar said.

Irish official skips Savannah events

SAVANNAH, Ga.

A top Irish government official visiting the U.S. during St. Patrick’s Day celebrations said Saturday he skipped a trip to Savannah, home of the largest and oldest St. Pat’s parade in the American South, to avoid a dinner where only men are allowed.

Eamon Gilmore, who as deputy prime minister and foreign minister is essentially Ireland’s No. 2 politician, instead made stops in Atlanta and New Orleans — where St. Patrick’s Day crowds and parades pale compared with the nearly 200-year-old celebration in Savannah, which boasts that its parade is the nation’s second-largest.

Gilmore told the Irish Times a visit to Georgia’s oldest city would have come with the expectation he attend the annual dinner of the Hibernian Society of Savannah, a private event open only to men.

Greek city honors deported Jews

THESSALONIKI, Greece

Jewish residents of this northern Greek city Saturday marked the 70th anniversary of the roundup and deportation of its Jews to Nazi extermination camps during World War II.

Several hundred people gathered at Thessaloniki’s Freedom Square, where the first group of Jews was rounded up by the occupying German forces March 15, 1943.

The crowd had a moment of silence, then marched to the city’s old railway station, where the first trains departed for the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp complex. A short ceremony took place at the station, and flowers were laid on the tracks.

Speakers included the city’s mayor, Yannis Boutaris, and Holocaust survivors.

Ill., Hawaii compete for Obama library

WASHINGTON

Where will President Barack Obama put his presidential library?

Four years from the end of his presidency, Chicago and Honolulu are ramping up major campaigns to build the center that will house the records of America’s 44th president.

In Illinois and Hawaii, the two states Obama calls home, universities and community groups are drafting plans and deploying a mix of public and private efforts to persuade Obama to choose their site for what will be a monument to his historic presidency and an instrument to continue his legacy.

Pakistan government ends historic term

ISLAMABAD

Pakistan’s government passed a major milestone Saturday, with the parliament becoming the first democratically chosen body to finish its five-year term in a country that has faced three military coups and persistent political turmoil.

But after years of militant attacks, worsening electricity blackouts and faltering economic growth, the political party that took office five years ago on a wave of sympathy after the assassination of iconic leader Benazir Bhutto likely will find it more difficult this time to win voters to its side.

Associated Press