16,000 protest school for non-U.S. soldiers

COLUMBUS, Ga. - At least 20 people were arrested Sunday while protesting a U.S.-run military school for Latin Americans, some of whose graduates they claim later committed civil rights abuses including murder.

Those arrested were among an estimated record 16,000 people who demonstrated outside the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation at Fort Benning, calling for the school to be shut down.

Charges ranged from trespassing to wearing a mask, a rarely invoked 1951 law originally aimed the Ku Klux Klan.

"We gather to revive the memory of those who have died at the hands of this combat school," said the Rev. Roy Bourgeois, a Catholic priest. "How do you teach democracy behind the barrel of a gun?"

Bourgeois is head of SOA Watch, which monitors the institution formerly known as the School of the Americas. The group has staged annual protests there since 1990.

SOA Watch and other critics allege the school's graduates have committed murder, rape and torture, including the murders of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter in El Salvador in 1989.

Seventeen of the arrests Sunday came after some protesters scaled chain-link fences onto military property, said Bill Quigley, legal adviser for the protest group.

The school trains soldiers, police and government officials. SOA Watch claims some of its graduates were involved in a string of human rights abuses in the 1980s and even now exploit the people and resources of Latin America.

As recently as October, a former Colombian army officer who graduated from the school had been accused of murdering a state official while still a member of the military. Maj. David Hernandez, who became the head of a paramilitary group, was killed in a clash with army troops.

Defense officials have steadfastly disputed the group's claims about the school. In the past, Army officials have held news conferences to deny allegations, but days before Sunday's event the Army said it would have no comment.

Organizers of the protest said concern about the war in Iraq and President Bush's re-election boosted attendance at this year's event.

Actor Susan Sarandon addressed the group Saturday, and Martin Sheen, who plays the president in NBC's West Wing TV series, delivered a fiery speech Sunday.

Nations agree to protect sharks in Atlantic

NEW ORLEANS - More than 60 countries agreed Sunday to ban the killing of sharks for their fins in the Atlantic Ocean, a move that conservationists hope will increase protection of threatened species around the world.

The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas drew up the agreement at its annual meeting being held in New Orleans. The group, which oversees management of many Atlantic fish species, acted on a proposal by the United States.

The agreement bans the practice known as shark finning in which fishermen slice off a shark's fin and throw the carcass overboard, leaving room in the boat for more fins. Shark fins are a delicacy in Asian countries and command high prices: shark fin soup sells for more than $100 in Singapore, according to WildAid, an environmental group.

"This is the first international finning ban in the world, so it is quite a significant conservation step forward and the environmental community is most grateful for the United States' leadership," said Sonja Fordham, a shark conservation specialist with The Ocean Conservancy.

ICCAT, which includes 63 nations, also agreed to collect more data on shark catches and identify nursery areas.

The United States had called for a reduction of the number of fishing vessels that hunt sharks, but ICCAT left that unchanged.

According to the United Nations, more than 100-million sharks are killed each year. A study last year by Dalhousie University marine scientists estimated that 90 percent of the world's large fish - including sharks - have disappeared since 1950.

Fordham said South Korea was the only country to resist the ban on shark finning and that it has six months to consider whether it will sign the agreement.

Deer hunters' dispute ends with 5 shot dead

HAYWARD, Wis. - A dispute among deer hunters over a tree stand in northwestern Wisconsin erupted Sunday in a series of shootings that left five people dead and three injured, officials said.

The alleged gunman, a man from the Twin Cities area, was arrested Sunday afternoon at the line between Rusk and Sawyer counties, according to Sawyer County sheriff's officials.

The violence began shortly after a hunting party saw a hunter occupying their tree stand, Sawyer County Chief Deputy Tim Zeigle told KSTP-TV of St. Paul, Minn. A confrontation and shooting followed.

One of the shooting victims radioed back to the deer shack for help, he said. When more hunters came to the scene, they also were shot, Zeigle said.

Senate confirms Adelstein for FCC term till 2008

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - Jonathan Adelstein, a former staffer for outgoing Senate minority leader Tom Daschle, was approved for a full term on the Federal Communications Commission in a Senate vote early Sunday. Adelstein, who has served on the five-member FCC since December 2002, was re-nominated by President Bush last week and confirmed by the Senate just before it adjourned. His term runs to June 30, 2008.

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