Lawyer says Toronto Mayor Rob Ford
will leave to seek
drug treatment
TORONTO — The lawyer for Toronto Mayor Rob Ford says Ford will take a leave of absence to seek help for substance abuse.
Dennis Morris, Ford’s lawyer, said Wednesday night that Ford acknowledges he has a substance abuse problem and he wants to do something about it.
Ford, who is seeking re-election in October, acknowledged last year after months of denials that he smoked crack in a “drunken stupor” after police said they obtained a video that appears to show him smoking crack. The video has never been released to the public. News reports of the crack video’s existence first surfaced last May, igniting a media firestorm around Ford. He careened from one scandal to another, becoming a national embarrassment for many Canadians.
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams arrested over IRA’s 1972 abduction, killing of woman
DUBLIN — Police in Northern Ireland arrested Sinn Fein party leader Gerry Adams on Wednesday over his alleged involvement in the Irish Republican Army’s 1972 abduction, killing and secret burial of a Belfast widow.
Adams, 65, confirmed his own arrest in a prepared statement and described it as a voluntary, prearranged interview.
Police long had been expected to question Adams about the killing of Jean McConville, a 38-year-old mother of 10 whom the IRA killed with a single gunshot to the head as an alleged spy.
According to all authoritative histories of the Sinn Fein-IRA movement, Adams served as an IRA commander for decades, but he has always denied holding any position in the outlawed group.
“I believe that the killing of Jean McConville and the secret burial of her body was wrong and a grievous injustice to her and her family,” Adams said. “Well publicized, malicious allegations have been made against me. I reject these. While I have never disassociated myself from the IRA and I never will, I am innocent of any part in the abduction, killing or burial of Mrs. McConville.”
Kiev leader: Forces unable to restore
order in east, some
have insurgent links
HORLIVKA, Ukraine — Ukraine’s acting president conceded Wednesday that his police and security forces were “helpless” to stifle unrest in the country’s east, where pro-Russia gunmen seized more buildings, walking into the police station and mayor’s office in this mining hub without resistance.
Insurgents also took control of the customs service building in Donetsk, the region’s main city, and city hall in Alchevsk, an industrial center of about 110,000, adding to the scores of buildings taken by the separatists over the past month in the east, where a dozen cities are now in the hands of the separatists.
Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov has twice proclaimed “anti-terrorist” operations to regain control of the east, but to little effect. In a meeting with officials from other Ukrainian regions, he acknowledged the failure and indicated the government would back off even trying to bring the most restive parts of the east to heel, focusing instead on trying to keep the unrest from spreading to other parts of the nation of 46 million.
“I will be frank: Today, security forces are unable to quickly take the situation in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions under control,” Turchynov said. “The security bodies … are unable to carry out their duties of protecting citizens. They are helpless in those matters.”
“Moreover, some of those units are either helping or cooperating with terrorist organizations,” he said.
By wire sources
