Break-Ins in Guatemala Stir Criticism of Government
GUATEMALA CITY -- A rash of break-ins at the offices and homes of activists opposing a free trade pact with the United States prompted Guatemala's top human rights official to criticize the government Friday for failing to protect the activists.
Five groups opposed to the Central American Free Trade Agreement were burglarized within 48 hours this week. The attacks were similar to thefts from government critics routinely carried out by paramilitary groups during a bloody 36-year civil war that ended in 1996, and they raised concerns about renewed paramilitary activity.
Many of the break-ins took place as President Oscar Berger toured Washington to drum up support for the pact, which seeks to lower trade barriers between the United States, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and the Dominican Republic.
The accord is opposed by some U.S. and Central American labor groups who say it fails to protect workers' rights.
THE MIDDLE EAST
· CAIRO -- Egyptian judges, long stripped of their independence by President Hosni Mubarak's government, voted to refuse to supervise an upcoming referendum and presidential election, the latest sign of discontent over the government's limited democratic reforms.
· BEIRUT -- Hezbollah militiamen and Israeli forces exchanged rocket and artillery fire across the Lebanese border, and Israeli warplanes destroyed guerrilla positions in the heaviest clash in months between the two sides. No Israeli casualties or damage were reported, an Israeli military spokesman said. There was no word on Lebanese casualties.
THE AMERICAS
· BOGOTA, Colombia -- More than 13 tons of cocaine stored in underground chambers and apparently belonging to right-wing paramilitary groups was seized near Colombia's southwest coast, authorities said. Five people were arrested. The seizure represents more than 3 percent of what the U.S. government says is Colombia's annual potential cocaine output of 430 tons.
EUROPE
· LONDON -- Prisoners detained by the United States in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and elsewhere are still at risk of torture and ill treatment, Amnesty International said in a report. The human rights group said that a year after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, the Bush administration continued to show a chilling disregard for international law.
"The USA's policies and practices have led to serious human rights violations and have set a dangerous precedent internationally," the report said.
· MOSCOW -- The prosecutor general's office said it was planning to file new charges against jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The statement that Khodorkovsky would face money-laundering charges came three days before a verdict is expected in the fraud and tax evasion trial of the former head of Yukos Oil Co. and his business partner, Platon Lebedev.
-- From News Services
