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World in brief
Fujimori loses bid to get out of jail
By wire services
Published November 9, 2005
SANTIAGO, Chile - Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori on Tuesday lost a bid to be released from jail while he fights extradition to Peru to face charges of corruption and human rights abuses during his decadelong autocratic regime.
Fujimori, who is being held at an academy for corrections officers, must remain under arrest as Peru pursues his extradition on 21 corruption and human rights charges, said Supreme Court Justice Orlando Alvarez.
Fujimori, 67, was arrested in Chile early Monday, hours after his surprise arrival from Japan, where he had remained in a protected exile for five years after resigning from the Peruvian presidency amid a corruption scandal.
He faces charges ranging from abuse of power and corruption to sanctioning a paramilitary death squad accused of two massacres of suspected rebel collaborators in which 25 people were killed, including an 8-year-old boy.
Peruvian prosecutors are seeking a 30-year sentence and a $28.6-million fine for his alleged role in the death squad killings, the most serious charge he faces.
U.S. cuts off nearly all ties with Syria
The United States has cut off nearly all contact with the Syrian government as the Bush administration steps up a campaign to weaken and isolate President Bashar al-Assad's regime, according to U.S. and Syrian officials.
The United States has halted high-level diplomatic meetings, limited military coordination on Syria's border with Iraq, and ended dialogue with Syria's Finance Ministry on amending its banking laws to block terrorist financing. In recent months, as distrust between the two countries widened, the United States also declined a proposal from Syria to revive intelligence cooperation with Syria, according to Syria's ambassador to the United States, Imad Moustapha.
Liberians go to polls in presidential race
MONROVIA, Liberia - In a hotly contested presidential runoff seen as too close to call, Liberians went to the polls Tuesday to choose between two sharply different candidates: a former soccer player who never finished high school, and a Harvard-educated economist and grandmother.
The runoff, necessary because none of the 22 first-round candidates won more than 50 percent of the vote, will have an unprecedented result no matter who wins - producing either Africa's first elected female president, or its first soccer star head of state.
Athlete George Weah, 39, won the first round Oct. 11 with 29 percent, while former World Bank official Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, 66, finished second with 19 percent.
Haitian officers charged in massacre
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Fourteen police officers, including a former senior commander, will face charges of murder or complicity to murder in the slayings of at least 11 civilians at a soccer game, Haiti's police chief said Tuesday.
Mario Andresol said other officers will be disciplined for their suspected role in the Aug. 20 attack in Martissant, a poor neighborhood of tin-roof shacks in southwestern Port-au-Prince and a stronghold of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
The 14 officers were detained during a two-month investigation.
[Last modified November 9, 2005, 00:40:17]
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