Friday, October 10, 2008

RUSSIA

Hundreds of houses in ethnic Georgian villages in South Ossetia were torched in August, after Russian troops took control of the area, according to an analysis of satellite images released Thursday.

The analysis, conducted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington on behalf of Amnesty International, did not show who was responsible for the destruction, but Amnesty said it may be evidence of war crimes.

Human rights activists have accused Russia of ignoring the looting of ethnic Georgian villages by South Ossetian militias.

Georgia says the looting amounted to "ethnic cleansing." Russia says Georgia's shelling of the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali -- which sparked the war -- was genocide against the Ossetians. Each denies the other's claims.

Two American journalists whose disappearance prompted a U.S. Embassy alert and a wide search turned up in Syrian custody in Damascus after being detained while trying to sneak into the country with smugglers, Syrian officials said. Holli Chmela, 27, and Taylor Luck, 23, were released in good condition, the U.S. State Department said.

Arabs and Jews traded blows and threw rocks in Acre, Israel, in a second day of sectarian violence that marred the somber Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. Officers fired tear gas, stun grenades and water cannons to quell the violence. Several people were arrested; no serious injuries were reported.

A spokesman for the Dalai Lama says the Tibetan spiritual leader will undergo surgery to remove a gallstone. The Dalai Lama, 73, was hospitalized in New Delhi, days after a checkup cleared him for foreign travel. In August, he had been found to be suffering from exhaustion.

Pope Benedict XVI gave World War II pontiff Pius XII a push toward possible sainthood and defended his memory from accusations that he did little to spare Jews from the Holocaust. Benedict contended that Pius acted silently to save as many Jews as possible and expressed hope that beatification efforts would proceed smoothly.

From News Services