World Digest
Castro looked 'very sick' during visit

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive

"He seemed very sick to me," Mayor Luis Eduardo Garzon told Radio Caracol of his December visit to Havana. "You could see he had physical limitations, especially in his speech."

Castro did not go to the 13th Ibero-American summit in Bolivia in November, a venue at which he usually basks in the limelight among admirers of his defiance of the United States. Castro also waited three days this year to celebrate the 45th anniversary of his New Year's Day triumph over the regime of Fulgencio Batista in 1959.

Former mayor takes over as president of Guatemala

GUATEMALA CITY — Oscar Berger, the conservative former mayor of Guatemala City, was sworn in as Guatemala's new president yesterday, promising to use an infusion of private investment to create jobs, eradicate poverty and stamp out corruption.

But Berger may have to grapple with Guatemala's bloody past before he can turn his attention to the future. One of the men he beat at the polls, former dictator Efrain Rios Montt, faces charges of genocide for atrocities committed during his 18-month rule, which ended in August 1983.

The retired brigadier general and ordained Protestant minister has served as president of the legislature since January 2000, but his unsuccessful attempt to win the presidency means his term expired yesterday — and so does his immunity from criminal prosecution.

Woman wanted in slaying of prime minister captured

ROME — Italian and Egyptian police at Cairo airport have arrested a Red Brigades guerrilla who took part in the 1978 kidnap and murder of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro, police in Rome said yesterday.

Rita Algranati, 46, was condemned in absentia in 1993 to life imprisonment for aiding and abetting Moro's murder. She is suspected of involvement in three other killings and had been on the run since 1981.

Police also caught another Red Brigades fugitive, Maurizio Falessi, in the same Cairo swoop Tuesday night. Falessi, 50, was condemned in absentia in 1989 to 11 years imprisonment for the attempted murder of a politician and other crimes.

Alleged drug lord turned over to United States

PANAMA CITY, Panama — Arcangel de Jesus Henao Montoya, an alleged Colombian drug lord, was handed over to the United States yesterday.

Officials say Henao is believed to be a top leader of the Norte de Valle drug cartel, which operates out of the city of Cali in southwestern Colombia.

Henao is on the U.S. Treasury Department's list of Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers.

Also ...

A commission charged with investigating human-rights abuses in Ghana has summoned former President Jerry Rawlings and his security chief to testify on the 1982 murders of three judges and a retired army officer. The commission was set up to probe abuses in the former British colony by five military administrations from 1966, including that of Rawlings who led coups in 1979 and 1981 and had three former heads of state shot on a beach for corruption. ... Six anglers drowned in central Russia yesterday after their van crashed through the ice of a frozen reservoir they had driven on, Itar-Tass news agency reported. ... A gunman shot dead a Christian priest while he was praying in a chapel in northern Tajikistan, officials in the Muslim Central Asian state said yesterday. ... A Serb man was killed sitting in his armchair in his living room yesterday by a stray shot from neighbors firing in the air in celebration of the Orthodox New Year.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company