Meeting with Abbas spurs calls for Israeli to quit

Retired police official found dead after search

The Dallas County medical examiner identified a body yesterday that had been found a day earlier in a Dallas creek as that of the Dallas Police Department’s former assistant chief, Gregory Holliday, police said.

Holliday, who would have turned 64 last Thursday, hadn’t been seen since last Monday afternoon, the anniversary of his adult daughter’s death, according to the Dallas Morning News. Police had warned that Holliday could be armed and might harm himself.

On Saturday morning, game wardens with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, using a boat and sonar equipment, located the body of a man matching Holliday’s description submerged in the creek near the Preston Trails Golf Club.

Holliday had been with the department from 1970 until 2002. A cause of death was not available.

Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni is taking heat for meeting last week with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, with politicians on both sides calling for her resignation.

Livni, Israel’s chief negotiator with the Palestinians, met with Abbas during a visit to London on Thursday. It was the first top-level meeting between Israeli and Palestinian officials since talks imploded nearly six weeks ago.

Livni and Abbas held separate meetings in London last week with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who had brokered the talks after they were renewed last summer. Reportedly following an American request, the Israeli and Palestinian officials held a meeting that was kept secret until it was revealed by Israeli media on Friday night.

Hard-liners want Livni to resign, saying she shouldn’t have met with Abbas. Liberals called for her resignation to damage the current coalition.

Separatists kill soldiers, seize hostages in north

Separatist Tuareg rebels launched an assault on the northern Mali city of Kidal over the weekend, killing eight soldiers, storming government buildings and taking 30 hostages in a “declaration of war” on the government, officials said yesterday.

The attack was apparently prompted by a visit to Kidal by newly appointed Prime Minister Moussa Mara on Saturday. The attack highlights regional hostility toward the central government in Bamako and casts further doubt on the viability of reconciliation efforts.

The country’s U.N. mission said yesterday that six local government officials and two civilians also had been killed, although the circumstances of their deaths were unclear.

Military says it killed al-Qaida commander

Yemeni troops killed a local al-Qaida commander and four

Bus fire claims lives of up to 26 children

As many as 26 children were killed in northern Colombia when fire broke out on a bus taking them to a church event, local media reported.

The mayor of Fundacion near the Caribbean coast told Caracol Radio that the burned bodies of 26 children had been found. Luz Stella Duran said 40 to 50 children had been on the bus with the driver. About 10 children received medical attention, she said.