Israel lacks evidence against extremists in arson attack
JERUSALEM — Israel is still lacking evidence to charge those responsible for a deadly arson attack on a Palestinian family this summer, Israeli media reported the country’s defense minister as saying Monday, in a case that Palestinians say helped fuel the past weeks of bloodshed.
In July, assailants, believed to be Jewish extremists, lobbed a firebomb into the Dawabsheh family’s home in the West Bank village of Duma, where four family members were asleep. Ali Dawabsheh, a toddler, was burned to death, while his mother and father later died of their wounds. His 4-year-old brother Ahmad is being treated in an Israeli hospital.
Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said a “group of Jewish fanatics” who want to install a “religious kingdom” based on biblical law were behind the attack. Yaalon’s remarks to military correspondents were reported by Israel’s Walla news site.
But Yaalon said, “We don’t currently have evidence that directly ties the one who carried out the terror attack but I believe we will get that, I hope that we will solve the case completely,” Yaalon said.
Israeli leaders across the political spectrum have strongly condemned the firebomb attack and vowed to apprehend the assailants. But the fact that no one has been officially charged months after the attack is a sore point among Palestinians and many cite the case as a big factor in fueling the current violence.
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2 Americans killed in shooting at Jordan police training center
AMMAN, Jordan — A Jordanian police captain opened fire Monday on instructors at an international police training center in Jordan’s capital, killing at least five people, including two Americans, before being shot dead by security forces.
It was not clear if there was a political motive to the shooting spree, which also wounded six people, including two Americans. But concern has swirled in staunchly pro-Western Jordan over possible revenge attacks by Islamic militants since the country assumed a high-level role in the U.S.-led military campaign against the Islamic State extremist group, which controls large areas of neighboring Syria and Iraq.
The unprecedented assault inside a Jordanian security compound also raised questions about the kingdom’s image as an island of relative stability in a turbulent region.
The shooting took place at the Jordan International Police Training Center in Amman, where Jordanian and foreign instructors, including Americans, have trained thousands of police officers from the Palestinian territories and other parts of the Arab world in recent years.
The Jordanian officer opened fire, killing the two Americans and a South African contractor before being shot dead, government spokesman Mohammed Momani said. Two Jordanians were critically wounded and later died, he said.
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Opposition party wins in Myanmar’s historic vote
YANGON, Myanmar — The party of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi claimed victory Monday in virtually every seat in four states where results of Myanmar’s historic parliamentary election were known, signaling a sweep that could give it the presidency and further loosen the military’s stranglehold.
The announcement at the headquarters of the National League for Democracy set off a new round of jubilation among the party’s red-shirted supporters, who already had been celebrating the result of Sunday’s vote.
The NLD said it had won 44 of the 45 lower house seats and all 12 of the upper house seats from the party stronghold of Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city. It also won all 38 seats in Ayeyarwaddy state, all but one of the 40 in Bago, and 11 out of 19 lower house seats and all 10 upper house seats in Mon state. The trend was expected to continue in Myanmar’s remaining 10 states.
Even without official results, it was clear that the Union Solidarity Development Party was facing a rout. The party is made up former junta members who ruled the Southeast Asian country for a half-century and as a quasi-civilian government since 2011. Many of its leaders conceded personal defeats in their races.
Although the government’s Union Election Commission did not announce the outcome of the Yangon races, the NLD has stationed representatives at counting centers and kept its own tallies. The election commission has been slow in releasing the numbers.
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Orca shows at San Diego Seaworld ending
SAN DIEGO — SeaWorld will end its orca shows at its San Diego park by 2017, its top executive said Monday, saying customers at the location have made clear they prefer killer whales acting more naturally rather than doing tricks.
CEO Joel Manby told investors that the park — where the iconic shows of killer whales doing flips and other stunts debuted decades ago — will offer a different kind of orca experience focusing on the animal’s natural setting and its behaviors, starting in 2017.
Animal rights activists called the move a marketing gimmick and want the company to phase out holding whales in captivity at all.
The Orlando, Florida-based company has seen revenue drop since the 2013 release of the documentary “Blackfish” that examined how orcas respond to captivity, particularly in the case of Tilikum, a killer whale that caused trainer Dawn Brancheau’s 2010 death by pulling her into a pool at SeaWorld Orlando.
Attendance has dropped the most at its San Diego location, and the decision to end such shows would be limited for now to that park, the original home of Shamu. Shows at its other parks, including in San Antonio and Orlando, will continue.
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EU warns of looming refugee ‘catastrophe’ in Balkans
BRUSSELS — The European Union warned on Monday of a looming humanitarian “catastrophe” with tens of thousands of people traveling through the Balkans to northern Europe as winter closes in.
More than 770,000 people have arrived in the EU by sea so far this year, overwhelming border authorities and reception facilities. Many have made the arduous land journey on foot through the Balkans in search of sanctuary or work in countries like Germany or Sweden.
The EU’s 28 member nations have pledged to provide experts and funds to help manage the emergency, and to share refugees among them.
But the resources have been painfully slow in coming.
“The European Union must do everything to avoid a catastrophe as winter closes in,” Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said after chairing the latest in a long series of high-level talks on the challenge. “We cannot let people die from the cold in the Balkans.”
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Belt getting tighter? Study finds a pot belly risky even if you’re not considered overweight
WASHINGTON — A pot belly can be a bad thing — even if you’re not considered overweight.
New research suggests normal-weight people who carry their fat at their waistlines may be at higher risk of death over the years than overweight or obese people whose fat is more concentrated on the hips and thighs.
Monday’s study signals the distribution of fat matters whatever the scale says.
“If the waist is larger than your hips, you’re at increased risk for disease,” said Dr. Samuel Klein, an obesity specialist at Washington University School of Medicine at St. Louis, who wasn’t involved in the new research.
It also has implications for advising patients whose body mass index or BMI, the standard measure for weight and height, puts them in the normal range despite a belly bulge.