Fort Bliss, Texas

Reservist convicted

of abusing detainee

A military jury convicted an Army Reserve private yesterday of beating one of two detainees in Afghanistan who later died.

The jury found Pfc. Willie Brand guilty of assault, maltreatment, false official swearing and maiming. It acquitted him of similar charges involving the second man.

Brand's sentencing hearing begins today, and he could face anything from no punishment to up to 16 years in military prison.

Brand, an Ohio reservist with the 337th Military Police Company, was accused of repeatedly beating two detainees while working as a guard at a detention center at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan in December 2002 and then lying about it. The detainees died later that month.

Burgundy, France

"Sick woman" kills

monk at service

A Romanian woman slipped into a choir of singing monks during an evening prayer service and fatally slit the throat of the 90-year-old founder of an ecumenical Christian community in the presence of 2,500 pilgrims in Burgundy, authorities said yesterday.

The slaying Tuesday of Brother Roger in the Church of Reconciliation drew shock and grief from the pope, the leader of the Anglican Church and worshippers around the world. Tributes to the silver-haired cleric who symbolized dialogue across the Christian world poured in to the tranquil Taizé Community, snuggled in a Burgundy village north of Lyon.

Brother Roger, whose surname was Schutz, was born of a Swiss Protestant father and a French Catholic mother. He moved to Taizé in 1940 with plans to found a monastery. He harbored Jewish refugees during the Nazi occupation of World War II and built the ecumenical Taizé Community with a mission to reconcile all denominations of Christians and promote dialogue and peace.

The 36-year-old intruder, who was not named, had visited Taizé for a week in June and was considered psychologically fragile. Brother Emile said they had learned from colleagues she was "a very sick woman in Romania" who screamed in churches.

Rome

Bomb suspect's

extradition OK'd

An Italian court yesterday approved the extradition to Britain of a suspect in the failed July 21 bombings of London's transit system who was captured in Rome last month hiding in his brother's apartment.

However, the three-judge panel delayed the extradition by 35 days to give Italian investigators time to continue interrogating Hamdi Issac and to give the Ethiopian-born Briton time to appeal.

Issac, 27, who used the name Hussain Osman when posing as a Somali to gain British citizenship, vowed to fight his extradition. He would prefer to remain in Italy, where he immigrated nearly 15 years ago.

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Security forces battle

gunmen near capital

Saudi security forces clashed with gunmen north of the capital, Riyadh, today, Al Arabiya television reported.

The channel was quoting its correspondent, who said police had cordoned off a district north of Riyadh where they were battling the gunmen.

Earlier this month, Washington closed its diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia for two days because of an imminent threat against U.S. government buildings in the kingdom.

Also

Bali bombing: The Indonesian government yesterday reduced prison sentences for 19 people, including the alleged spiritual head of an al-Qaida-linked group, convicted in the Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people. One other person was freed. The reductions were met with dismay in Australia, home to most of the victims of the 2002 attacks. Cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, originally sentenced to 30 months in prison for his role in the 2002 attacks, had his sentence reduced by 4 ˝ months.

Catholics arrive: Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims streamed into the western German city of Cologne yesterday for the Roman Catholic Church's 20th World Youth Day, visiting the city's historic cathedral and awaiting a visit from Pope Benedict XVI, who was to arrive today on his debut foreign trip and first return home since his April 19 election.

Compiled from The Associated Press, Los Angeles Times and Reuters