DAMASCUS, Syria

Suicide blast kills at least 44; sides debate who’s to blame

Two car bombers blew themselves up Friday outside the heavily guarded compounds of Syria’s intelligence agencies, killing at least 44 people and wounding dozens more in a brazen attack on the powerful security directorates, authorities said.

State-run TV said the al-Qaida terrorist network was possibly to blame for the first suicide car bombings in the nine-month uprising against authoritarian President Bashar Assad.

But the opposition questioned the government’s account and hinted the regime itself could have been behind the attack, noting it came during a visit by Arab League observers investigating Assad’s bloody crackdown on the popular revolt.

The government has contended that this year’s turmoil in Syria is not an uprising but the work of terrorists and foreign-backed armed gangs.

CAIRO

Tens of thousands demand end to military oversight

Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in Tahrir Square on Friday demanding an end to military rule and protesting what they called the Egyptian army’s excessive use of violence, which has left at least 15 protesters dead over the past week.

Protesters chanted slogans such as “Egypt’s girls shouldn’t be stripped” and “They (the army) killed the sheik and killed the doctor. The whole council should leave,” referring to video footage last week of a female protester’s clothing being removed by soldiers and to the deaths of two other demonstrators.

The march underscored growing anger against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which has led the country since former President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster.

“The army is a ruler that kills and beats its own people, so what else can we expect from them?” asked Ahmed Ali Mohamed, a tourist guide who joined Friday’s march.

Said Amira Abdel Hamid, 34, a protester in Tahrir Square: “They are trying to scare off activists and especially females to prevent any further protests. This won’t work with me or any real female demonstrator.”

PARIS

Removal urged of implants using substandard silicone

The French Health Ministry recommended Friday that women with breast implants reported to contain substandard silicone should get them removed, a ruling that affects 30,000 women in France and raises questions for thousands more in other countries.

The ministry said in a statement that the operations would be “a preventive measure without an urgent nature” but would be paid for by the French national health system.

The decision by Health Minister Xavier Bertrand came in response to growing concern among plastic surgeons and their patients over breast surgery using implants produced by a now-defunct company in southern France called Poly Implant Prothese.

According to French investigators, the company used a relatively cheap industrial silicone for some of its implants to enhance profits.

MOGADISHU, Somalia

U.S. Somalis, bank discuss plan to block fund transfers

Somali officials said Friday they are pleading with U.S. authorities to persuade banks to reconsider a decision to block money transfers from Minnesota’s Somali community to relatives in this Horn of Africa nation, where anarchy has given safe haven to an al-Qaida linked terror group.

The institution that handles the bulk of money transfers from Minnesota to Somalia — Sunrise Community Banks — has said it will discontinue the service Dec. 30 over fears it could be at risk of violating government rules meant to clamp down on the financing of terror groups.

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., are seeking solutions. Meanwhile, Somalis in Minnesota and elsewhere have been talking with the bank, U.S. Treasury officials and other authorities.

— From news service reports

 

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