Ukraine protesters attack conference hall with police inside
KIEV, Ukraine — New violence erupted in Ukraine’s capital during the night as a large crowd attacked a government exposition and conference hall where police were stationed inside.
Early Sunday, demonstrators were throwing firebombs into the Ukrainian House building and setting off fireworks, and police responded with tear gas. Although the crowd created a corridor at the building’s entrance apparently for police to leave, none were seen coming out.
The outburst underlined a growing inclination for radical actions in the protest movement that has gripped Kiev for two months. The building under attack is about 250 yards down the street from Independence Square, where mostly peaceful demonstrations have been held around the clock since early December and where protesters have set up an extensive tent camp.
Clashes with police broke out a week ago in the wake of new, harsh anti-protest laws.
Syrian antagonists at table for 1st time in ‘half-steps’ of peace talks
GENEVA — In painstakingly choreographed encounters, Syria’s government and opposition faced each other for the first time Saturday, buffered by a U.N. mediator hoping to guide them to a resolution of the country’s devastating civil war.
The antagonists sat at the same table for nearly three hours, but didn’t address each other directly — and by design avoided the contentious issue of who will lead the country. They entered through separate doors and, outside the walls of the United Nations, had little but criticism for each other.
No tangible progress was reported, but the mere fact the meeting was held represented what the mediator called a “half-step” toward peace. Unresolved was the fate of Homs, a city at the core of the uprising against President Bashar Assad that has been under siege for 20 months.
The mediator, Lakhdar Brahimi, said the peace conference would continue Sunday, focusing on humanitarian aid — the one topic the Syrian government and the opposition could agree to discuss.
Arizona GOP approves resolution censuring McCain for ‘liberal’ voting
PHOENIX — The Arizona Republican Party formally censured Sen. John McCain on Saturday, citing a voting record they say is insufficiently conservative.
The resolution to censure McCain was approved by a voice-vote during a meeting of state committee members in Tempe, state party spokesman Tim Sifert said. It needed signatures from at least 20 percent of state committee members to reach the floor for debate.
Sifert said no further action was expected.
McCain isn’t up for re-election until 2016, when he will turn 80. He announced in October that he was considering running for a sixth term.
No announcement made on order to end life support for brain-dead woman
FORT WORTH, Texas — Executives from a Texas hospital conferred with the county district attorney’s office Saturday to determine their next step, after a judge ordered the hospital to remove a pregnant, brain-dead woman from life support.
Officials from John Peter Smith Hospital and the Tarrant County district attorney’s office, which is representing the county-owned hospital, met to discuss Judge R. H. Wallace Jr.’s order regarding Marlise Munoz, hospital spokeswoman J.R. Labbe said. She declined to say whether a possible appeal was being discussed, but said an announcement wouldn’t come Saturday.
Both the hospital and family agree that Marlise Munoz meets the criteria to be considered brain-dead — which means she is dead both medically and under Texas law — and that her fetus could not be born alive this early in pregnancy. But the hospital says it’s obligated to protect the fetus, while Munoz’s husband, Erick Munoz, says his wife wouldn’t have wanted to be kept in this condition. His attorneys have said medical records show the fetus is “distinctly abnormal.”
By wire sources