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Russia says rebel leader ready to surrender

GROZNY, Russia - Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov is ready to give up his separatist fight and is seeking a way to negotiate with the Kremlin on his surrender, a top Chechen security official said Friday.

Maskhadov, a former Chechen president, is trying to make contact with the federal government, said Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's first deputy prime minister.

He said Maskhadov wants "to hold negotiations on how to disarm and surrender to the authorities."

Kadyrov, who also leads a regional security force, said he would do all he can to capture Maskhadov and Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, who has claimed responsibility for terrorist attacks in Russia.

Kadyrov - son of the Kremlin-backed Chechen president who was assassinated in May - has said in the past that government forces in Chechnya were close to capturing Maskhadov or securing his surrender.

A top Kremlin aide on Chechnya, Aslambek Aslakhanov, said that Moscow would accept Maskhadov's surrender but will not negotiate with him.

Russian authorities accuse him of at least indirect involvement in most of the terror attacks outside Chechnya in recent years.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - Dozens of angry teachers traded pushes and punches with members of President Vicente Fox's security detail Friday after the president refused to meet with them to discuss controversial pension reforms.

No one was reported injured in the fracas, which took place in an upscale neighborhood after the president swore in members of a public safety advisory board.

"We demand that you listen to us! You are a liar and a traitor!" screamed one unidentified protester as the angry mob surrounded the president's sport utility vehicle.

The crowd was pushed away by the president's bodyguards.

A video released later by the president's office showed protesters surrounding Fox as he was leaving his meeting and asking him to cancel reforms that require the powerful social security and government employees unions to pay more of their pension costs.

KINGSTON, Jamaica - A booming illegal gun trade in Haiti has increased the number of high-powered weapons on Jamaica's streets, contributing to the island's spiraling homicide rate, the national security minister said.

Haiti's political instability has given rise to a major smuggling ring of cheaply acquired high-powered weapons in the impoverished country, National Security Minister Peter Phillips said.

Haiti, which is about 100 miles east of Jamaica, has been beset by instability since a three-week revolt helped oust President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February.

Many police officers loyal to Aristide fled their posts fearing retribution after the rebellion, leaving the country ill-equipped to counter illegal drug and gun trafficking, U.S. officials say.

A record 1,165 homicides have been reported in Jamaica in 2004, according to the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper.

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - A court on Friday ordered that former President Rafael Calderon be jailed for nine months as investigators probe corruption allegations.

Calderon was to be taken to a cell at the Reforma prison, 12 miles northwest of the capital, Justice Department spokeswoman Emilia Segura said.

Calderon, who served from 1990 to 1994, was detained Thursday after testifying about allegations that money from a $40-million Finnish government loan wound up in his accounts.