Statement leads to officer's arrest in Spain

Spain's Defense Ministry ordered the house arrest Saturday of a senior officer who warned that the armed forces might have to intervene if the northeastern region of Catalonia went too far in its efforts toward greater self-government.

The comments by army Lt. Gen. Jose Mena Aguado to fellow officers in a speech Friday in Seville triggered memories of military uprisings and coups in Spain's past.

Defense Minister Jose Bono, who met Saturday with Mena, ordered the officer held under house arrest for eight days while his dismissal is processed.

Shark attack kills

scuba diver, 21

A 21-year-old woman died Saturday after a shark attack off eastern Australia, officials said.

The shark mauled the woman, whose identity was not released, while she was swimming near North Stradbroke Island, east of the Queensland state capital of Brisbane.

The woman was airlifted to a hospital where she had both arms amputated just below the elbow, Queensland Rescue Helicopter spokeswoman Helen Anderson said. She also had flesh wounds to her leg and torso, Anderson said.

The woman died of her injuries at the hospital, according to Queensland state police. It was not known what type of shark attacked the woman.

A camper on a nearby beach said the woman had been scuba diving in waist-deep water at the time of the attack.

Also

U.N. force leader dies: The commander of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Haiti was found dead at a hotel in the country's capital early Saturday with an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, officials in Port-au-Prince said. The death of Lt. Gen. Urano Teixeira Da Matta Bacellar, a Brazilian, seemed likely to further complicate the world body's efforts to bring stability to violence-racked Haiti and organize elections.

Assad rebuffs inquiry: Syrian President Bashar Assad denied threatening Lebanon's former prime minister but suggested in an interview published Saturday that he would not allow U.N. investigators to interview him about Rafik Hariri's killing.

U.N. raps Eritrea: Ethiopia has complied with a U.N. demand to withdraw troops from its tense border with Eritrea, but Eritrea has not lifted restrictions on peacekeepers as ordered, a United Nations report says.

Compiled from The Associated Press, Los Angeles Times and Reuters