World Digest
Guards killed near barrier in West Bank

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In other violence, Israeli soldiers shot dead two Palestinians, one an 11-year-old boy, in separate confrontations in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Palestinians and the Israeli military said.

The two security guards were gunned down near Abu Dis, a suburb on the eastern edge of Jerusalem, where part of the barrier is under construction. The guards, who were traveling in a car when they were shot, were employed by a private security firm.

The gunmen escaped. There was no claim of responsibility.

Mexican soldier rejects lifting of his death penalty

MEXICO CITY — A Mexican soldier facing the death penalty for killing a superior officer has rejected President Vicente Fox's decision to spare his life.

The mother of 2nd Lt. Heron Varela Flores said her son killed a colonel in self-defense, and if he accepted the president's overruling of a military court it would be admitting he was guilty of insubordination.

"He's said he's against it and told me 'I did not ask for anything. ... The colonel was going to kill me, I defended myself and that is not insubordination,' " Eva Flores said.

Fox, a firm opponent of capital punishment, overturned the death penalty in two cases involving the killing of superior officers, instead sentencing the two men to 20 years in prison.

Varela Flores, 24, claimed he shot Col. Salvador Juarez Villa in self-defense after years of sexual harassment and abuse.

Ousted official files complaint against former president

LA PAZ, Bolivia — Bolivia's attorney general has filed a criminal complaint accusing former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada of responsibility for the deadly police repression during the revolt that ousted him.

The Supreme Court must now decide whether the former president will face trial on charges of "excessive use of force."

At least 80 people were killed last month in the protests against Sanchez de Lozada's pro-U.S., free-market policies. The protests forced him to resign and he fled to the United States.

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