London: Bin Laden said alive, healthy

Osama bin Laden was wounded in a U.S. bombing raid on Afghanistan in December but is in good health, the editor of a London-based Arabic newspaper said Monday.

Abd al-Bari Atwan, the editor of the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi, said sources close to the al-Qaida leader “confirmed to me that the man is in good health.”

There was no way to verify Atwan’s information.

While the Bush administration has said it does not know whether bin Laden is alive or dead, U.S. counterterrorism officials privately acknowledge they believe he is alive.

Nigeria: Standoff at oil terminal ends

Women holding 700 ChevronTexaco workers in a southeast Nigeria oil terminal agreed Monday to end their siege after the company offered to hire at least 25 villagers and to build schools and electrical and water systems in Escravos.

Representatives said the women would wait until the verbal agreement was put in writing and signed before leaving the Escravos facility. ChevronTexaco executive Dick Filgate said he hoped the deal would be finalized as early as today.

The takeover began last week and trapped hundreds of American, Canadian, British and Nigerian oil workers in the facility. It also shut down the terminal, which exports half a million barrels of oil daily, the bulk of the company’s Nigeria production.

Mexico City: Farmers release all hostages

Ending an explosive four-day standoff, farmers opposed to a new Mexico City airport released 19 hostages Monday after the government freed a dozen protesters and indicated it might be willing to reconsider the project altogether.

The long-simmering dispute turned violent Thursday as farmers occupied municipal buildings, took hostages and destroyed or hijacked at least 30 vehicles they then used to block highways. Barricades were erected around the town, and more than two dozen people were hurt in skirmishes in which machete-armed farmers clashed with riot police.

Washington, D.C.: Navy sonar use approved

The Bush administration Monday cleared the way for Navy use of a powerful low-frequency sonar to identify enemy submarines, a move environmentalists say will increase strandings and deaths of whales.

The Commerce Department’s National Marine Fisheries Service granted the Navy, which has spent $300 million developing the system, a five-year exemption from the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The exemption allows “harassment” of marine mammals by the Navy with its intense low-frequency sonar, called the Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System.

The exemption is due to be reviewed on an annual basis.

Nevada: Wildfire flares along border

Hundreds of firefighters joined the battle Monday against a 10,000-acre wildfire whose swirling flames forced evacuations near the Nevada-California line.

About 30 guests were forced to flee the Topaz Lodge hotel-casino in Topaz Lake, joining about 200 residents evacuated Sunday. As many as 250 homes and 25 other buildings were threatened.

Sparked by lightning Friday, the fire grew 20-fold Sunday as high wind mixed with low humidity and temperatures in the mid-90s.