World/Nation Briefs
Singapore founder Lee Kuan Yew dies at 91
SINGAPORE - Lee Kuan Yew, who founded modern Singapore and was both feared for his authoritarian tactics and admired for turning the city-state into one of the world's richest nations, died Monday, the government said. He was 91.
Lee was admitted to Singapore General Hospital on Feb. 5 for severe pneumonia and was later put on life support.
The Prime Minister's Office said in a statement posted on its website that Lee "passed away peacefully" at the hospital at 3:18 a.m. Monday.
The country's first and longest-serving prime minister, Lee guided Singapore through a traumatic split with Malaysia in 1965 and helped transform what was then a sleepy port city into a global trade and finance center. Although he could have remained in office for much longer, he stepped aside and handed over leadership of the ruling party, and the country, to a younger generation in 1990. Still, he remained an influential behind-the-scenes figure for many more years until his health deteriorated.
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'They were so pure,' father says in eulogy for kids
NEW YORK - An ultra-Orthodox Jewish community shattered by the deaths of seven siblings in a house fire carried out their funerals Sunday, a day after a hot plate left on for the Sabbath is believed to have sparked the fire that killed them.
The tragedy had some neighborhood Jews reconsidering the practice of keeping hot plates on for the Sabbath, a common modern method of obeying tradition prohibiting use of fire on the holy day.
The bodies of the children from the Sassoon family, ages 5 to 16, were being sent to Israel after the funeral for a prompt burial. Flames engulfed their two-story, brick-and-wood home in Brooklyn's Midwood neighborhood early Saturday, likely after a hot plate left on a kitchen counter set off the fire that trapped the children and badly injured their mother and another sibling, investigators said.
The service at the Shomrei Hadas funeral home began with prayers in Hebrew, accompanied by the wailing voices of mourners. They could be heard through speakers that broadcast the rite to hundreds of people gathered outside on the streets in traditional black robes and flat-brimmed hats.
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Debts of history: Greece counters bailout demands
BERLIN - It was 1943 and the Nazis were deporting Greece's Jews to death camps in Poland. Hitler's genocidal accountants reserved a chilling twist: The Jews had to pay their train fare.
The bill for 58,585 Jews sent to Auschwitz and other camps exceeded 2 million Reichsmark - more than 25 million euros ($27 million) in today's money.
For decades, this was a forgotten footnote among all of the greater horrors of the Holocaust. Today it is returning to the fore amid the increasingly bitter row between Athens and Berlin over the Greek financial bailout.
Jewish leaders in Thessaloniki, home to Greece's largest Jewish community, say they are considering how to reclaim the rail fares from Germany - with seven decades of interest.
"We will study the law and do our best to claim," the community's president, David Saltiel, told The Associated Press.
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Shiite rebel leader vows to fight rivals
ADEN, Yemen - Yemen's Shiite rebel leader escalated his attack Sunday against the country's embattled president, vowing to send fighters to the south where Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi has taken refuge. The fiery speech came hours after his militia seized the third- largest city of Taiz, an important station in its advance.
Abdel-Malik al-Houthi, who is backed by supporters of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, said the mobilization is aimed at fighting al-Qaida and other militant groups, as well as forces loyal to Hadi who are in the south intending to further destabilize Yemen.
In his one-hour speech on al-Masirah TV, al-Houthi called Hadi a "puppet" to international and regional powers who want to "import the Libyan model" to Yemen. He named the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Qatar as conspirators against Yemen and other countries in the region.
Libya is torn by warring militias with rival parliaments on either end of the country claiming legitimacy and radicals from the Islamic State group taking root.
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Syrian helicopter crashes, militaty crew captured
BEIRUT - Syrian insurgents captured several government airmen after their helicopter crashed in a rebel-held area of northwestern Syria on Sunday, activists said.
The Idlib Media Center and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the helicopter went down near Jabal al-Zawiya, some 6 miles north of the town of Maarat al-Numan in Idlib province.
The aircraft experienced a technical malfunction and made an emergency crash-landing, according to the Observatory.
Syria's state news agency confirmed that a helicopter had crashed in Idlib after a mechanical problem and said the authorities were looking for the crew.
Observatory director Rami Abdurrahman said opposition fighters, including from the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front, had taken four crew members prisoner.
Another airman survived the crash but was reportedly killed by his captors, and the fate of a suspected sixth airman is unknown, Abdurrahman said.
An amateur video posted online showed armed fighters inspecting the wreckage of the helicopter, which had rolled onto its side on a rocky hill. The aircraft's blue undercarriage was partially torn and the nose badly damaged.
Photographs posted by activists online showed the same crash site and at least two airmen in rebel custody.
One photo posted on a Twitter account associated with the Nusra Front in Idlib showed what it said was a captured helicopter crew member with a bandage wrapped around his head. The man is flanked by two armed militants in masks.
The video and photographs appeared genuine and corresponded to other Associated Press reporting.
The Syrian military frequently uses helicopters to drop crude barrel bombs - giant canisters packed with hundreds of pounds of explosives and scrap metal-- on rebel-held towns and neighborhoods.
- Associated Press