MANAGUA, Nicaragua - A government board was
studying whether a 9-year-old girl could carry a baby to term safely while
considering her family's request to have an abortion.
The girl's parents said she was raped in Costa Rica and have asked for the
government's approval to give her an abortion.
Abortion is allowed in Nicaragua in cases of sexual abuse, when the mother's
life is in danger, and when the fetus has severe deformities. All must be
confirmed by three separate specialists and a government medical board must give
its approval.
It was unclear how far along the girl was in her pregnancy. In interviews
with local television stations, she said she did not want to have a baby because
she didn't want to share her toys with other children.
Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo on Sunday asked that every effort be made to
save the girl and her baby. He said he had spoken with doctors who told him she
could safely carry the baby to
Guatemala Admits Slaying Responsibility
GUATEMALA CITY - The Guatemalan government
admitted to an international tribunal that it was responsible for the 1990
slaying of human rights leader Myrna Mack, the nation's foreign minister said
Sunday.
Edgar Gutierrez said Guatemala sent a letter to the Costa Rica-based
Inter-American Court of Human Rights acknowledging its "institutional
responsibility" in the killing.
Mack was stabbed 27 times outside her downtown Guatemala City office on Sept.
11, 1990. The 39-year-old anthropologist allegedly angered the military when she
wrote a groundbreaking report blaming state anti-insurgency campaigns for
killing Mayan Indians during the country's 1960-1996 civil war.
Gutierrez said the government decided to admit wrongdoing after Mack's
sister, Helen, filed a criminal complaint with the human rights court charging
that the Guatemalan government conspired to kill Myrna Mack and then cover that
up.
Court judges are considering that complaint and are expected to rule Tuesday.
State officials have asked to appear before the court to testify about the
letter's contents before a ruling is made, Gutierrez said.
In October, Col. Juan Valencia, an assistant director of Guatemala's
presidential guard, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for ordering a fellow
member of the guard to kill Myrna Mack.
Retired Gen. Edgar Godoy — who once headed the presidential guard — and
army Col. Juan Oliva were found innocent.
Noel Beteta, another former guard, is serving a 25-year sentence for
murdering Myrna Mack. In taped confessions to another prisoner, he said Valencia
gave that order. The tapes did not directly link the other two military
officials to the killing.
The presidential guard grew from a protection unit into a squad of spies and
assassins responsible for some of Guatemala's most high-profile human rights
abuses. Governments have promised to abolish the guard, but so far none has been
able, or willing, to.
Prosecutors say corrupt army generals and presidents long used the guard to
protect their secrets. Mack's case is one of many in which the army is accused
of trying to hide its role in the atrocities of the civil war by silencing those
investigating
Bush says government will protect citizens
from terrorism
US President George W. Bush urged anxious
Americans not to panic Saturday, saying his government is making every effort to
protect them.
"I assure you that our government, at every
level, is responding to this threat, working to track down every lead and
standing watch 24 hours a day against terrorism," Bush said in his weekly
radio address.
"Many of these dangers are unfamiliar and
unsettling," Bush said as American families are buying food, water, duct
tape and other supplies to prepare for a possible terrorist attack. Bush said
Americans should relax, go about their lives, and let professionals do the
worrying about keeping their communities safe from attack. At the same time, he
called on American people to be more alert to their surroundings and report
suspicious activities to the authorities.
The president assured that plans are in place to
protect infrastructure such as dams, power plants, computer networks and
communication systems, to tighten security at borders and ports, to collect
better intelligence on emerging threats, and to detect a biological attack
through an early warning network of sensors.
On Feb. 7, the Bush administration raised the
terror alert status from code yellow to orange, meaning high risk of terrorist
attacks. Bush explained that the government's decision to raise the alert level
"is primarily a signal to federal, state and local law enforcement to take
additional precautions and increase security measures against potential
terrorist attacks."
US to end efforts to seek diplomatic solution
to Iraq crisis
The United States will soon end its
efforts to seek a diplomatic solution to the crisis over Iraq's weapons of mass
destruction, US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said Sunday.
Speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press"
program, the top aide of President George W. Bush said, "Continuing to talk
about more time and more time is basically going to relieve pressure on the
Iraqis to do what they must do."
"We are in a diplomatic window, but it
cannot last very much longer," she said. "It is time for this to end.
Enough is enough."
A latest poll published by The New York Times on
Friday shows even as the Bush administration ratchets up efforts to build up a
case for war with Iraq, a majority of Americans favor giving United Nations
weapons inspectors more time to complete their work so that any military
operation wins the support of the Security Council.
According to The New York Times/CBS News poll, 59
percent of Americans said they believed the president should give the United
Nations more time in carrying on weapons inspections in Iraq.
Sixty-three percent said Washington should not
act without the support of its allies, and 56 percent said the Bush
administration should wait for UN approval.
Labor party urged to support Blair on Iraq
British senior cabinet members Sunday
rallied the ruling Labor party behind Prime Minister Tony Blair's policy on Iraq
following the country's biggest ever anti-war protests in London and some other
big cities one day earlier.
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott told Labor's
spring conference in Scottish city of Glasgow that the prime minister was a
leader who could be trusted with considerable "courage and integrity."
"Even if you didn't agree with him you
couldn't doubt his commitment to take the UN process or his conviction that
leaving Saddam in power could be inhumane."
Party chairman John Reid said Sunday the
government had to listen to anti-war marchers, but insisted that taking no
action against Saddam Hussein would signify a failure. "It is between doing
something to protect the world and people in Iraq, or doing nothing," he
told BBC1's Breakfast With Frost program.
Blair refused Saturday to back down from his
commitment to use force against Iraq if necessary despite the scale of anti-war
marches, warning the consequences of leaving Saddam Hussein in power would be
paid in blood. "If we show weakness now, if we allow the plea for more time
become just an excuse for prevarication until the moment for action passes, then
it will not only be Saddam who is repeating history," said Blair.
However, it seems many Labor party members remain
unconvinced by Blair.
Tony Woodley, deputy general secretary of the
Transport and General Workers Union, said Saturday's demonstration made it clear
the prime minister was in "real trouble."
"If Mr. Blair does not look up now and
listen to the views of the British people it could certainly bring if not the
party down, it could bring him down -- and that's the last thing we would wish
to see happen," he said.
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