World in brief

U.S. mom reclaims son taken to China

ZHENGZHOU, China -- The American woman traveled across the world to a dreary Chinese provincial capital, determined to reclaim her 5-year-old son she says was stolen away. Her Chinese ex-husband insists he was forced to act on behalf of the son he loves deeply.

After nine days of negotiation in a hotel suite, the two appeared to reach an agreement Thursday in an odd custody standoff that involved both governments and threatened to erupt into a diplomatic dilemma days before the Chinese president visits the United States.

Camille Colvin, 35, of New York left the Zhengzhou Sofitel hotel with her son, Griffin, her brother and three private security guards. It wasn't clear what agreement was reached. Colvin said she would elaborate in Beijing today.

"From our perspective, we have a resolution. We have done everything we have been asked to do," Colvin said.

Colvin's ex-husband, Guo Rui, brought the boy back to China during a visitation in the United States in July, maintaining that his son, a Chinese-born U.S. citizen, should be governed by Chinese law. He said he took the boy but it wasn't an abduction.

"I was entirely without any other options," he said. "I took the child to assert my normal right to see my son. . . . I really love this child."

Colombia pursues rebels

MEDELLIN, Colombia -- Heavily armed federal troops and police encircled a neighborhood in the country's second-biggest city Thursday in an attempt to oust leftist rebels, who fought back with gunfire and booby traps as residents fled the fighting.

Soldiers, police and hooded informants searched homes, shops and bars for suspected rebels in an attempt to end the most violent outbreak of urban warfare in Colombia in almost two decades. The fighting poses a major challenge to President Alvaro Uribe's campaign to bring order to his strife-torn country.

At least 20 suspects were arrested after being identified by the anonymous informants.

A car bomb packed with 90 pounds of explosives blew up in Medellin before dawn Thursday. One of the men who allegedly planted the bomb was shot to death by police minutes later.

Paris mayor recovering

PARIS -- Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe left the hospital Thursday, nearly two weeks after being stabbed in the abdomen during an all-night public party at City Hall. The mayor was headed to the countryside to convalesce and was not expected back at work for a week, his office said.

Blair challenges IRA

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- The Irish Republican Army must make a "real, total and permanent" commitment to peace if it wants Northern Ireland power-sharing to resume between Protestants and the outlawed group's Sinn Fein party, Prime Minister Tony Blair said Thursday.

Blair's bluntly worded speech in Belfast came three days after Britain stripped the local Catholic-Protestant administration of power and assumed sole authority.

"We cannot carry on with the IRA half in, half out of this process. Not just because it isn't right anymore: It won't work anymore," Blair said.

Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness said the IRA would consider retirement only after Britain delivered key Sinn Fein-IRA goals. These include, they said, an end to police surveillance of their activists and British army withdrawals from the Northern Ireland border.

Jamaica re-elects leader

Preliminary reports Thursday showed that Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson would return to office for a third consecutive term after his People's National Party appeared to have won 35 of the 60 seats in the parliament. Former Prime Minister Edward Seaga's Jamaica Labor Party finished second with 25 seats.

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