Sri Lanka

‘Baby 81’ reunited with parents

The 4-month-old boy nicknamed “Baby 81,” who was swept from his mother’s arms in the Indian Ocean’s tsunami, was handed over to his parents today following an eight-week long custody battle.

Jenita and Murugupillai Jeyarajah took the little Abilass from a nurse in the courtroom in the eastern town of Kalmunai, two days after a judge determined his parentage based on DNA test results. Initially, eight other couples had tried to claim the baby.

Afghanistan

Senior Taliban leaders accept amnesty

Four senior leaders of the Taliban have accepted a reconciliation offer from the Afghan government, a Western official with direct knowledge of the deal said Tuesday.

Under the agreement, which the official said would likely be announced within days, the men recognized the legitimacy of President Hamid Karzai’s government in exchange for assurances that they would not face arrest by Afghan or foreign security forces.

The official identified the four as Abdul Hakim Mujahid, formerly the Taliban’s envoy to the United Nations; Arsullah Rahmani, the former deputy minister of higher education and a former commander in the southeastern Paktika province; Rahmatullah Wahidyar, the former deputy minister of refugees and returnees; and Fawzi, the former charge d’affaires at the Afghan Embassy in Saudi Arabia and then first secretary at the Afghan Embassy in Pakistan. Like many Afghans, Fawzi uses only one name.

All four had fled to neighboring Pakistan after U.S. forces and Afghan militias drove the Taliban from power in late 2001, the official said.

Brazil

Thousands attend slain nun’s funeral

Thousands of people, from peasants to politicians, converged on a remote Amazon town Tuesday to bury the bullet-ridden body of an elderly American nun killed in the struggle to protect the Amazon rain forest and its poor residents from loggers and ranchers.

After an all-night vigil, mourners filed past the coffin holding the remains of Dorothy Stang in the church of Anapu, the jungle town of 7,000 residents that Stang adopted as her own.

Violence claimed another victim Tuesday. Two assailants gunned down Daniel Soares da Costa, the former president of the Rural Workers Union in the city of Paraupebas.

The Federal Human Rights Office said Costa was shot six times as he was heading to his home. Police said they did not know if the deaths of Stang and Costa were connected.

United Nations

Team predicts attacks will become more brutal

A U.N. team monitoring sanctions on al-Qaida predicted Tuesday there will be an escalation in the brutality of terrorist attacks, saying the network remains determined to strike.

Terrorism involving al-Qaida and weapons of mass destruction remains among the paramount global threats, the team said in a report.

Al-Qaida still had a strong interest in acquiring chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons, and it was only “a matter of time” before a successful attack occurs, the report said.

Richard Barrett, the team’s coordinator, said he did not think al-Qaida was likely to obtain an entire bomb, but rather components of weapons of mass destruction, such as toxic or radioactive material.