Mexico City

House clears way for mayor’s arrest

Congress stripped Mexico City’s leftist mayor of his immunity from prosecution Thursday, clearing the way for his arrest in a vote that also could block him from running in the 2006 presidential race, which he leads in the polls.

The House vote against Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador — which came on the same day he declared his presidential candidacy — could force him to stand trial on charges of ignoring a court order to stop construction of a road on contested private land.

If a judge approves federal prosecutors’ request for Lopez Obrador’s arrest, the mayor will be removed from office to stand trial. People facing criminal charges are barred from running for office under most interpretations of Mexican law. But if the court dismisses the case, Lopez Obrador would remain mayor and run for president.

Kashmir

Bus passengers cross Line of Control

Greeted by cheers, tears and dancing, bus riders made a historic crossing Thursday at the military boundary that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan, walking across a metal bridge in a move both sides hope will lead to lasting peace.

Most of the passengers had been cut off from relatives by more than a half century of bloodshed in the subcontinent, and some wept as they crossed the Line of Control, kneeling to kiss the ground.

Thousands of people lined the route of the buses in Indian Kashmir to welcome the passengers, whistling and cheering. It was a significant public statement in a region that long ago became profoundly cynical about nearly any government initiative.

United Nations

Probe launched in death of prime minister

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Thursday to authorize an international investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The resolution — co-sponsored by the United States, France and Britain — urged the independent commission to complete its work in three months but gave Secretary-General Kofi Annan authority to extend its mandate for an additional three months if necessary.

Hariri’s Feb. 14 killing in a bombing caused an uproar in Lebanon, sparking massive anti-Syrian street protests. The Lebanese opposition claimed Syria orchestrated the killing. Syria denies any involvement.

The resolution follows last month’s U.N. report by a fact-finding team that concluded a Lebanese probe did not meet international standards. The team, led by deputy Irish police commissioner Peter Fitzgerald, called for an entirely new investigation by an outside team.

Brazil

Fifth suspect arrested in U.S. nun’s killing

Police on Thursday arrested an associate of the rancher charged in the killing of an American nun who died defending poor settlers in the Amazon rain forest.

With Thursday’s arrest, five men are accused in the death of the nun, Dorothy Stang, who spent the last 23 years of her life trying to protect the rain forest and peasants from loggers and ranchers in the eastern Amazon state of Para.

Stang, a naturalized Brazilian originally from Dayton, Ohio, was shot to death Feb. 12 near Anapu, about 1,250 miles north of Rio de Janeiro.

The man arrested Thursday, Regivaldo Pereira Galvao, has denied any role in her death.

Police said Galvao sold land to Vitalmiro Moura, the rancher accused of ordering Stang’s killing. Moura allegedly wanted to log and develop a piece of rain forest that Stang tried to preserve.

Police also have arrested two alleged gunmen and a middleman accused of hiring them for Moura.

South Korea

U.S. envoy: N. Korean nukes went to Libya

Stung by the lapses of intelligence on Iraq’s weapons programs, a top U.S. diplomat insisted Thursday that Washington has concrete evidence North Korean nuclear material went to Libya’s since shuttered atomic arms operation.

He warned that North Korea’s cash-strapped communist regime could still be a risk for a further spread of atomic arms technology and materials.

Christopher Hill, the main U.S. envoy on the North Korea nuclear standoff, said even though Libya received the nuclear material from a Pakistani black market nuclear network, the North Koreans must have known where their material would end up.

Hill, U.S. ambassador to South Korea who leaves next week to become assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said there was “physical evidence that the material that arrived in Libya had started its journey” in North Korea.