Brazil

Rancher surrenders in U.S. nun’s slaying

The rancher accused of ordering the slaying of American nun Dorothy Stang surrendered to police Sunday, authorities said.

Vitalmiro Moura, known as Bida, was taken into custody after turning himself in to federal police in Altamira, about 80 miles from where 73-year-old Stang was shot dead on Feb. 12, police said. Moura had been a fugitive since an arrest warrant was issued for him on Feb. 15.

Moura initially told police he was not involved with the murder, but two suspected gunmen, who were arrested shortly after the slaying, have said before a judge that the rancher told them to kill Stang.

Zimbabwe

Archbishop urges pre-election uprising

One of Zimbabwe’s most outspoken church leaders on Sunday called for a peaceful uprising against President Robert Mugabe’s autocratic rule, days before a parliamentary election.

Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube of Zimbabwe’s second-largest city, Bulawayo, said he was willing to put on his vestments and lead a march to Mugabe’s residence himself, but feared: “If I do it, I do it alone.”

“The people are so scared,” he said. “You are not going to get that where people are so cowardly.”

Mugabe, a former guerrilla leader, has led Zimbabwe since the end of white rule in 1980. Ncube believes Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front party will easily win Thursday’s poll, which he said was certain to be rigged.

“I hope that people get so disillusioned that they really organize against the government and kick him out by a nonviolent, popular, mass uprising,” he said. “Because as it is, people have been too soft with this government.”

Afghanistan

Opium cultivation falling, U.N. finds

Afghan farmers are growing less opium this year because of a government ban and fear that their crops will be destroyed in an internationally sponsored crackdown, according to a U.N. report released Sunday.

Afghan officials said the eradication drive would begin within days, but warned that more international aid was needed to uproot the world’s largest illegal narcotics industry.

Opium production has boomed since the fall of the Taliban three years ago. Drug money now equals 40 percent of legal national income.

Counternarcotics minister Habibullah Qaderi said hundreds of millions of dollars pledged by the United States, Britain and the European Union to help farmers switch to legal crops were insufficient to offset the blow eradication would deliver to the economy.

“I think we have to do much more than that,” he said.

London

Royal apology for adultery sought

A high-ranking Church of England official has called for Prince Charles to apologize to the ex-husband of his fiancee, Camilla Parker Bowles, The Sunday Times newspaper reported.

Bishop David Stancliffe said church rules dictated Prince Charles must atone for committing adultery and he should apologize to Andrew Parker Bowles for breaking up his marriage.

Stancliffe said the apology should come before the April 8 wedding and should include “making good of any hurts, the restoration of relationships and serious attention being paid to the relationships fractured or damaged by misconduct.”

Camilla Parker Bowles divorced army officer Andrew Parker Bowles in 1995.