World in brief

Halt to drug spraying ordered

BOGOTA, Colombia - A Colombian court ordered the government Thursday to suspend its U.S.-backed drug crop eradication program until more is known about the effects of the sprayed herbicide on human health and the environment.

Government officials said they would appeal the ruling, and press on with spraying in the meantime.

The ruling was announced in a lawsuit filed by lawyer Claudia Sampedro, who said, "These policies were drawn up without first studying effects on health and the environment." She represented environmentalists, human rights activists and small farmers opposed to the spraying.

Colombian and U.S. officials have said the chemical used, a variant of the popular backyard fertilizer Roundup, is ecologically harmless and safe to humans.

PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico - A judge found enough evidence Thursday to order U.S. bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman, his son and brother to stand trial on criminal charges for capturing a fugitive American heir.

Judge Jose de Jesus Pineda freed two other Americans, producer Jeff Sells and actor Boris Krutonog, but found that the Chapmans should be charged with criminal association and deprivation of liberty - similar to kidnapping without requesting a ransom.

Chapman, a 50-year-old Hawaii-based bounty hunter, his son Leland and brother Timothy were arrested along with Sells and Krutonog on June 18, after the group captured convicted rapist Andrew Luster near a taco stand in this popular Pacific resort city.

HAVANA - An American woman who sought Fidel Castro's help in getting her son and daughter back from her ex-husband was reunited with the U.S.-born children after authorities arrested their father.

Cornelia Streeter was reunited with her children Wednesday night after a separation of nearly two years, attorney Barry Pollack said from Boston Thursday.

The report said the children were born during Streeter's marriage to Anwar Wissa.

Streeter made her appeal in a letter, which was delivered to the Cuban president by a "friend of our commander in chief," said the government statement read on the nightly news broadcast.

The children were located at a Havana marina, where they were staying with their father, Anwar Wissa, on a yacht. Wissa, also an American citizen, was arrested.

RUSSIA: A leader of the bitterly divided Liberal Russia party has been detained as a suspect in the April slaying of party co-chairman Sergei Yushenkov, Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov said Thursday. Mikhail Kodanyov was arrested Wednesday night along with Alexander Vinnik, an aide. Two alleged hit men were arrested earlier.

SWEDEN: The government in Sweden, one of the leaders in equal rights for women, ordered the armed forces Thursday to consider introducing mandatory military service for females. The Defense Ministry said it wants to make the military more efficient, as well as more egalitarian.

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