Kidnappers seized two North Carolina missionaries on their way to church in Haiti’s capital, and a UN official said Thursday the captors had demanded a $100,000 ransom. Tom Barron, a minister at The Mustard Seed church, and congregation member William Eugene Seastrum were driving to church early Sunday when assailants stopped their car and dragged them out.
Attacks on rise in Iraq
Bombings and shootings soared by 40 percent in the Baghdad area in the past week, the U.S. military said Thursday. An American general said extremists were preparing “an all-out assault” on the capital in a decisive battle for the future of Iraq. Iraqis fear Baghdad is being transformed into a Sunni west and a Shiite and Christian east.
Search on for survivors
Rescue workers dug decomposed corpses from ruined homes and hotels in tsunami-devastated Pangandaran, Indonesia, on Thursday, and a mass burial was held for some of the 531 people killed by the waves. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono vowed to have a nationwide tsunami warning system in place by mid-2008, months ahead of schedule, following criticism that the government failed to tell residents about the impending disaster.
Proposal to help Africa
African and black American leaders meeting this week debated an unusual proposal to spur investment and interest in the continent–securing African citizenship for American descendants of Africans taken away as slaves. The idea came out of a summit in Nigeria bringing African governments and the U.S. private sector together in search of partnerships to end Africa’s poverty.
AND FINALLY
Ooh la la–beach in the city
Parisians seeking relief from baking temperatures flocked to the banks of the Seine Thursday for the opening of Paris Beaches–a city-sponsored initiative that turns the river into a faux-tropical getaway. Tourists and Parisians relaxed on artificial beaches, sunning themselves on deck chairs and receiving free massages. Skeptics called the idea silly and un-Parisian, but visitors embraced it.
