World: Pair extradited in American's death

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Two Colombian men accused of taking part in the kidnapping of five American oil workers and the killing one of them were extradited to the United States to stand trial, authorities said Saturday.

Police handed over Juan Luis Bravo and Henry Jamioy Quistial on Friday to FBI agents at El Dorado International Airport in the capital Bogota, Col. Daniel Castiblanco, acting director of Colombia's judicial police, said.

The men were flown through Miami to Washington, D.C., where they face charges for kidnapping and homicide, Castiblanco said.

Bravo and Quistial were allegedly part of a Colombian gang that kidnapped for ransom the five Americans and five other oil workers on Oct. 12, 2000, from an oil field in Ecuador.

Two French captives escaped days later while the body of Ronald Sander, 54, an employee of Tulsa, Okla.-based Helmerich & Payne Inc., was found on a jungle road in January 2001.

Sander of Sunrise Beach, Mo., had been shot five times in the back and was covered in a white sheet scrawled with the message: "I am a gringo. For nonpayment of ransom. HP company."

The others were freed in March 2001 after a $13-million ransom was paid.

Leftist poised for landslide

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- In the second and decisive round of Brazil's presidential election today, all signs indicate that Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of the left-wing Workers' Party will win.

Three polls, taken before a campaign-ending televised debate late Friday night, show da Silva poised for the biggest landslide in Brazilian history. If the forecasts prove correct, da Silva, 56, can expect to win by a ratio of about 2 to 1, with 30-million votes more than his opponent, Jose Serra of the centrist Brazilian Social Democratic Party.

A runoff is required when no candidate wins a majority. In the first round on Oct. 6, da Silva won 46 percent of the vote compared with 23 percent for Serra.

Israeli army fire kills Palestinian teen

JERUSALEM -- Israeli troops searched the West Bank town of Jenin on Saturday for Palestinian militants involved in a suicide bombing, and a U.S. envoy left the region with neither side optimistic about the latest peace proposal.

A 13-year-old Palestinian boy was killed in the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip when soldiers shot at Palestinians throwing stones and firebombs, local residents said.

Near Jenin on Saturday, troops arrested an activist of the militant group Hamas, Mahmud Abadi, who was on his way to carry out a suicide bombing in Israel, the army said. The Israeli operation in Jenin will continue for a week or longer, Israeli television reported.

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