Monday,  Aug. 5, 2013 • Vol. 15--No. 21 • 30 of 35

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against them. For many, being Buddhist is an important part of being Burmese, and monks, the most venerable members of society, are beyond reproach. Others are simply in denial, or buy into claims the Muslim "outsiders" pose a threat to their culture and traditions.
• The silence is as dangerous as the mobs razing mosques and cheering as Muslims are hunted down and beaten to death with chains and metal pipes, says Michael Salberg, director of international affairs at the U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League.
• "It's not perpetrators that are the problem here," he says, pointing to conditions that paved the way for the Holocaust in Germany and the genocide in Rwanda. "It's the bystanders."
• ___

Vendors recount weekend hit-and-run at Los Angeles boardwalk that left 1 dead, 11 injured

• LOS ANGELES (AP) -- One minute, Mustafa Balci was sitting in a lawn chair next to his wife at their booth on the Venice Beach boardwalk, enjoying the leisurely

summer scene.
• The next minute, the couple was lying on the ground along with the other injured after a man accelerated his large black car through a crowd, hitting one person after another as people tried desperately to get out of the way.
• Saturday's hit-and-run killed an Italian woman on her honeymoon and hurt 11 others who only a moment earlier had been enjoying a late afternoon near the beach at the height of vacation season.
• Balci's booth was struck within seconds of the start of the rampage. The car swerved left, sideswiping a picnic table holding the couple's wares -- the traditional Turkish blue glassware of the eye to ward off the evil eye, and wall hangings of Jesus and Virgin Mary tapestries.
• The car hit three customers looking at the items, and slammed into Balci's knees pushing him backward, breaking a table, smashing a mirror and scattering everything. His wife, Yesim Balci, was flung 8 feet, tumbling backward and landing facedown.
• ___


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