Mexico city

Officials find truck with sodium cyanide

Mexican police found a stolen truck Thursday that had been carrying 10 tons of sodium cyanide, but most of the deadly chemicals were missing.

Authorities cordoned off the area where the truck was discovered, abandoned along a highway in Zacatlan, about 120 miles northwest of Mexico City.

Only about half a ton of the cyanide, contained in barrels, was still inside the truck and investigators were searching for the remainder, police said.

One barrel had been opened, sparking concerns of a health hazard. But officials found no evidence of contamination. No one has been arrested in connection with the truck robbery, which took place last Friday. Sodium cyanide is used in gold and silver mining. If inhaled or ingested, it attacks the nervous system and can cause a person to suffocate within minutes.

Congo

U.N: More than 20 dead after anti-rebel uprising

Violence accompanying an uprising against rebels in control of the eastern city of Kisangani has claimed more than 20 lives there, a U.N. spokesman said Thursday.

The spokesman, Hamadoun Toure, described the situation in Congo’s third-largest city as still “tense.”

Mutineers within the Rwandan-backed rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy revolted Tuesday, seizing a radio station and urging the locals to drive out those whom they called “the Rwandans.”

Toure, speaking from the government-held Congo capital, Kinshasa, gave no details on the deaths.

Hungary

First lady pays tribute to prominent women

In her first visit to Hungary, Laura Bush celebrated the selection of a woman to lead the nation’s parliament.

She also thanked President Ferenc Madl, on behalf of her husband, for supporting the war on terrorism.

At a Thursday luncheon Mrs. Bush told some 60 prominent women in the government, arts, sports and media of post-communist Hungary that they “lead the way toward making women full partners in this vibrant new society you are creating.”

Just one day earlier, while the first lady wrapped up three days in Paris, Hungary’s parliament elected a woman, Katalin Szili, as its speaker.

Szili said Mrs. Bush’s visit was the first by “such a high-ranking person” since Hungary joined NATO in April 1999.