Brazil

President speaks out on nun’s slaying

The killing of an American nun during an Amazon land dispute will be a wake-up call for authorities to better protect the jungle from developers, Brazil’s president said in his first comments since the Feb. 12 slaying.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Monday that once those who ordered Dorothy Stang’s shooting were behind bars, Brazil will show the world that, “in our government, there is no impunity, that the Amazon is ours and we will take control of our territory.”

By Tuesday, three of four suspects had been arrested and were being detained in Altamira, about 870 miles north of the capital, Brasilia. One of the slaying suspects reportedly told police he was promised $20,000 to kill Stang but was not paid.

Rome

Publishing house launches pope’s book

An Italian publishing house gathered Rome’s glitterati Tuesday for the official launch of Pope John Paul II’s new book, hoping the work that includes his first public description of the moments after he was shot in 1981 can become an international best seller.

Top prelates sat side-by-side with politicians, industrialists and titled nobility for the event in the Palazzo Colonna, which was built by a 15th-century pope.

The Rizzoli publishing house, which has the worldwide rights, announced that the book “Memory and Identity” would come out in 14 editions in 11 languages in the next few months.

The book, which examines the damage done by Nazism and communism to Europe last century, also mentions the 9-11 attacks and other recent terrorist acts, saying militant networks represent “a constant threat for the life of millions of innocents.”

Moscow

Americans appeal adoption hurdles

A group of 7,000 American families who have adopted Russian children appealed to President Vladimir Putin in an open letter Tuesday to reverse recently introduced legislative and bureaucratic hurdles that have dramatically slowed the foreign adoption of Russian children.

“We ask you to tell Russian politicians who obstruct international adoption that the well-being of children is an important priority for your administration, that you believe each child has a right to find a family and that international adoption is the best option for children who are not adopted by Russian families,” read the letter, which was published in the newspaper Izvestia.

The letter was drafted and paid for by an informal coalition of American adoption agencies in consultation with the Alexandria, Va.-based National Council for Adoption, according to Lee Allen, a spokesman for the council.

Iceland

Bobby Fischer granted foreigner’s passport

Icelandic immigration authorities agreed Tuesday to grant the former American chess champion Bobby Fischer a special passport for foreigners that would allow him to travel to Western Europe, officials said.

Lawmakers in the Nordic country last week rejected Fischer’s citizenship application, prompting his supporters to apply on his behalf for a so-called foreigner’s passport.

The document would allow him to travel freely between the 15 Western European countries of the Schengen zone, a region covering much of western Europe where passports are not required, but not to the United States, said Gudrun Ogmundsdottir, a member of Iceland’s Parliament General Committee.

The United States has been seeking Fischer, 61, for more than a decade on charges of violating international sanctions against the former Yugoslavia by playing chess there in 1992.