Turkey, Armenia quietly sign agreement
ZURICH, Switzerland, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- The foreign ministers of Turkey and Armenia signed an agreement late Saturday normalizing relations in a ceremony delayed by several hours over final details.
Neither Ahmet Davutoglu representing Turkey, nor his Armenian counterpart, Edward Nalbandian, gave the public statements that had been planned, The Washington Post reported. They signed protocols opening their common border and establishing diplomatic relations.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Javier Solana, the European Union high representative for the common foreign and security policy, attended the ceremony at the University of Zurich, the BBC reported.
The signing ceremony, scheduled for the afternoon, was delayed by Armenian concerns about wording of a section on the killing of Armenians in 1915 under the Ottoman Empire. Turkey refuses to call the killings a genocide.
On Friday, thousands of people turned out for a demonstration in the capital of Armenia, Yerevan, to protest the protocols. Their main objection was a section setting up a historical commission to study the killings.
One man told the BBC he did not object to an open border but is "against the setting up of a commission that will allow Turkey to further postpone declaring the killings as genocide.".
Turkey is trying to join the European Union, and normalizing its relationship with Armenia is one condition.
Rival Palestinian groups clash in Gaza
GAZA, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- Two rival Palestinians groups clashed in a Gaza neighborhood Saturday, leaving seven wounded, Ynetnews,com reported.
Without naming sources, the Israeli news Web site said both sides in the shootout belong to the Doghmush clan, some of whom are allied to al-Qaida and some belonging to the Army of Islam.
Ynetnews.com said Hamas members rushed to the scene and surrounded the area after mortar shells were exchanged.
The Web site said the incident was reminiscent of an Aug. 14 clash in which Hamas members killed a Salafi sheikh in a firefight after he declared the Gaza Strip as an Islamic emirate loyal to Osama Bin-Laden.
3 Iran protesters given death sentences
TEHRAN, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- Three Iranians detained since riots following the country's disputed presidential election have been handed death sentences, a local news agency says.
The Iranian Students News Agency reported Saturday the judgments against the unnamed detainees must be confirmed by a higher court, the BBC said.
Justice Ministry official Zahed Bashiri Rad was quoted as saying three people accused for their roles "in the post-election incidents have been sentenced to death." Rad added they were convicted for maintaining ties to the banned monarchist group Kingdom Assembly of Iran and to the People's Mujahideen, which advocates the overthrow of the Islamic republic.
The British network said a reformist Web site this week claimed Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani, an opposition activist, had been sentenced to die for his activities during the protests, but it was unclear if he was among those sentenced this week.
Amnesty International, in a statement, urged Iran to rescind Zamani's death sentence, which it said was imposed Thursday for crimes that include "enmity against God," conspiring against national security and traveling to Iraq illegally for an alleged meeting with the U.S. military.
"Zamani's trial was a mockery of justice," said Amnesty International USA Executive Director Larry Cox. "To impose the death sentence is beyond deplorable. Iran should immediately rescind this sentence."
GOP: Health reforms burden states
WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- U.S. states would be unfairly burdened by Democratic Party healthcare reform measures being considered by Congress, a Republican senator says.
While acknowledging healthcare reforms are needed, Sen. George LeMieux of Florida, delivering the GOP response to President Barack Obama's weekly radio and Internet address, said the pace of the debate must slow and the plight of states be taken into account.
"We in the Congress have a duty to tackle this problem, but the solution we settle upon should not be rushed, and the solution should not be worse than the problem we are trying to solve," he said, asserting "nearly $500 billion" would be "taken out of Medicare funding for seniors," which would require "our states to shoulder billions more in healthcare costs, which they can ill-afford to do.
"The Democrat-sponsored proposal in the Senate cuts nearly $135 billion from Medicare Advantage, over $150 billion from hospitals that care for seniors, more than $51 billion from home health agencies and hospices, and nearly $70 billion in additional cuts or fee increases." LeMieux said.
