Olympic torch relit without protests

The elaborate ceremony to rekindle the Olympic torch went off without a hitch Monday in closely guarded Tiananmen Square.

There were no protests in Beijing, although some are expected during the 85,000-mile world tour.

President Hu Jintao presided in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, where the flame — carried from Greece in a lantern aboard an Air China flight — reignited the Olympic torch.

Roads around the square were closed, nearby subway stations were shuttered, and police barricades kept back thousands of people about a half-mile from the tiny flame.

The torch left on a chartered plane to Almaty, Kazakhstan, this morning, the start of a monthlong, 21-city global journey before returning to China.

India's soccer captain has refused to carry the Olympic torch through New Delhi later this month to protest China's crackdown on recent demonstrations in Tibet.

Bhaichung Bhutia, among the first athletes to refuse to run with the torch, informed the Indian Olympic Association on Monday.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Spain extradites "dirty war" figure

Ricardo Cavallo, accused of torturing and illegally kidnapping dissidents under Argentina's last military dictatorship, was extradited from Spain on Monday.

Cavallo is one of the most notorious alleged human-rights violators from the crackdown on dissent that officially claimed nearly 13,000 lives from 1976 to 1983.

His apprehension is one of a series of prosecutions, including that of former naval Capt. Alfredo Astiz, known as the "Angel of Death," that represent steps in Argentina's treatment of its "dirty war" past.

Mexico City

Elderly women's killer sentenced

A former female wrestler who terrorized Mexico City as the "Little Old Lady Killer" was sentenced to 759 years in jail on Monday for killing 16 elderly women.

Juana Barraza, 50, admitted to killing four women over the age of 70 out of anger toward her elderly mother.

She said she did not kill the others and did not agree with Monday's sentence, but prosecutors say her fingerprints matched those in the 12 other cases.

Barraza was captured in 2006 leaving the house of Ana Maria Reyes, 82, who had been strangled with a stethoscope.

As a professional wrestler in earlier years, she was known by her stage name as "The Silent Lady."

Also

Coca appeal: Ecuador is asking the International Court of Justice to force Colombia to halt spraying herbicides on coca fields along its border, Foreign Minister Maria Isabel Salvador announced Monday, because after seven years, "the diplomatic process was exhausted."

Aquino's health: Former Philippine president and democracy icon Corazon Aquino has responded well to her first week of chemotherapy after she was diagnosed with colon cancer, her family said today.

Seattle Times news services