Mexico

Spring break arrives as authorities strike

Spring break has arrived in this capital of overindulgence and uninhibited youth, and the signs are everywhere: pulsating music, throbbing bodies and MTV.

Oh, and the local cops are on strike — as are the firefighters.

When spring breakers hit the white-sand beaches this weekend, they will find them patrolled by dozens of federal police officers dispatched last week by the Mexican government.

About 80 federal officers are patrolling the main tourist zone and coastline.

Officials say that Cancun, strategically located on Mexico’s Caribbean coast, has become a center for Colombian cocaine, drug violence and government corruption.

Last week, federal prosecutors jailed 27 police officers here, including local, state and federal policemen charged with drug trafficking and murder.

Tomas Morales, a local policeman who’s moonlighting as a security guard for a money-exchange center until the strike is resolved, said about three-fourths of the 1,200 local police officers have been on strike over pay for 45 days, figures confirmed by strike leader Marco Apolonio Castillo.

Lebanon

Hezbollah official says group won’t give up guns

Hezbollah officials say it will participate in politics without giving up weapons

Hezbollah intends to take a more active role in Lebanese politics but won’t disarm as long as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict persists, a leader in the guerrilla group said Friday, as its ally Syria nearly completed its troop pullback in Lebanon far sooner than expected.

By Friday evening, almost all of Syria’s troops had moved into the eastern Bekaa Valley — almost three weeks ahead of a March 31 target date to complete the redeployment. Only a few bases and outposts remained in the mountains northeast of Beirut. The troops in northern Lebanon left the country completely.

The quickened redeployment came a day before U.N. envoy Terje Roed-Larsen is to meet Syrian President Bashar Assad and press him to announce a timetable for removing all his 14,000 troops from Lebanon.

Nepal

King frees former prime minister, other detainees

Nepal’s king lifted the house arrest of former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and freed 18 other political detainees Friday in a bid to reduce international criticism of his power grab in this Himalayan country last month.

More than 500 politicians and activists remained in detention nearly six weeks after King Gyanendra dismissed Deuba’s government, imposed emergency rule and suspended civil rights.

Gyanendra said he seized power because the political parties and their successive governments had failed to end a Maoist insurgency that has killed more than 10,500 people. The rebels, who claim to be inspired by Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong, have been fighting to abolish the monarchy and establish a communist state.

Friday’s decision to free Deuba and others came two days before Nepal’s foreign minister was to attend a U.N. human rights conference in Geneva.

Besides lifting Deuba’s house arrest, authorities lifted the house arrest of former Home Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka and released 17 other political detainees, a home ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

VATICAN CITY

Video released with pope speaking a few words

Giving reassurances that ailing Pope John Paul II is improving, the Vatican released a video Friday with the pontiff speaking a few words in a husky voice — the first time he has been heard publicly since a throat operation last month to help him breathe.

The two-minute video was taken of a meeting with Tanzanian prelates in the pope’s 10th floor suite at Gemelli Polyclinic. His photographer also was present and several doctors were nearby.

John Paul said a few words, including “va bene” — Italian for “OK.” As the prelates left, he said, “God bless you” in English.

The 84-year-old pontiff’s voice is barely audible reciting a prayer and he appears drawn.

Until Friday, the pope has appeared three times at his hospital window but did not speak, raising concerns about his ability to communicate to the faithful. He has Parkinson’s disease, which makes speaking difficult because of muscle problems.

WASHINGTON

Ukrainian president coming to White House

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday hailed the “special relations” between the United States and Ukraine, brushing aside concerns about Ukraine’s plan to withdraw its 1,650 troops from Iraq.

Rice met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk shortly after the White House announced that Viktor Yushchenko, president of the former Soviet republic, would meet with President Bush on April 4 at the White House.

Ukraine has been cited frequently by Bush administration officials as an example of the movement toward greater democracy worldwide. In Ukraine’s so-called “Orange Revolution,” popular protests after a fraudulent election led to a new vote, which Yushchenko won.

UNITED NATIONS

Countries adopt equality resolutions

The final day of a U.N. meeting to press for women’s equality took an odd turn Friday when countries adopted a resolution pushing for the economic advancement of women — over the objections of its chief sponsor, the United States.

The resolution capped a contentious two-week meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women that ended much as it began, with the United States at odds with much of the rest of the world on issues of reproductive health and abortion.

The United States had originally intended that the document on economic advancement focus on entrepreneurship, but South Africa proposed an amendment saying that “the neglect of women’s reproductive rights severely limits their opportunities in public and private life.”

A Cuban amendment on the downside of globalization also was added.

Unhappy with those changes, the United States withdrew its backing. The vote went ahead anyway and the document was adopted by consensus.

While only 45 nations voted on the resolutions, 165 countries sent 1,800 delegates, including many government ministers. Some 2,600 representatives of human rights, women’s and other advocacy groups also attended.