Syria’s former vice president said in an interview Friday that President Bashar Assad threatened former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri in the months before Hariri’s assassination and that the sophisticated operation to kill him could not have been carried out on the authority of only one agency. “Hariri was subjected to many threats from Syria,” Abdul Halim Khaddam, who resigned from the vice presidency in June after two decades as a confidant of the Assad family, told al-Arabiya television. “Dangerous things were said.”
Paris boosts New Year’s security
France will deploy some 25,000 police officers to keep order on New Year’s Eve, a time when reveling youths often set fire to hundreds of cars. Police are being especially vigilant this year because of the rioting, arson attacks and other violence that rocked France for three weeks in November. Then, thousands of cars were set alight. The non-governmental group Suburbs of the World is planning a festive “New Year’s Eve caravan” with music and dancers to roll through tough Paris suburbs today and early Sunday to help defuse lingering anger.
Germany: U.S. turns over air base
The U.S. Air Force on Friday handed over the keys to Rhein-Main Air Base to the operator of Frankfurt International Airport, the last step in closing the base that hosted American forces for 60 years. The 120 buildings on the base are to be bulldozed to make way for a third terminal for Frankfurt’s sprawling civilian airport – continental Europe’s busiest. The base officially becomes German property today.
Afghanistan: Mine kills police
Suspected Taliban rebels detonated a mine near a police checkpoint in southern Afghanistan, killing four Afghan police officers and wounding seven, authorities said Friday. The attack occurred late Thursday in Helmand province as the officers were eating dinner, the Nazarjusth district police chief said. He said the mine was buried in the road near the checkpoint and detonated remotely. Authorities were searching for the attackers but had made no arrests so far, he said.
From Herald news services
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