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71 Gitmo detainees end hunger strike suddenly

The strike had jumped from three participants in late May to 89 on Thursday.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Dozens of detainees at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have abandoned a hunger strike, lowering the number of inmates refusing food to 18, the U.S. military said Sunday.

The strike had jumped from three participants in late May to 89 on Thursday. It was the biggest hunger strike of the year at the prison, where about 460 men are being held on suspicion of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban.

"It appears that right after that peak (of 89), then people started resuming eating again," Navy Cmdr. Robert Durand said.

He offered no further details about the 71 detainees' decision to begin eating again.

He said four of the 18 hunger strikers were being force-fed.

The military has said the detainees were trying to pressure the United States to release them, but human rights groups have called the hunger strike an appeal for justice.

Ten Guantanamo detainees have been charged with crimes. The Supreme Court is expected to rule in June whether President Bush overstepped his authority in ordering the detainees to be tried by U.S. military tribunals.

Disgraced former president returns to power in Peru

LIMA, Peru - Alan Garcia, whose 1985-90 presidency left Peru in economic ruin, won the office back Sunday in a runoff against a fiery nationalist ex-soldier endorsed by Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.

Garcia held an insurmountable lead of 55.5 percent against 44.5 percent for Ollanta Humala with 77.3 percent of the vote counted, said the head of the electoral agency, Magdalena Chu.

The margin could shrink, as Humala's support is strongest in rural areas where vote reporting is slower.

Garcia, speaking even before the official results, said his victory showed Peruvians want no part of the "militaristic, retrograde model" that Chavez was trying to impose in South America.

A Humala victory could have tilted Peru into the axis of Chavez, who has already extended his regional influence in gaining a loyal ally with the December election of Evo Morales as Bolivia's president. Like Morales, Humala had pledged to punish a corrupt political establishment and redistribute wealth to his country's poor Indian and mestizo majority.

Garcia, 57, adroitly turned the race into a referendum on the Chavez factor, depicting Humala as an aspiring despot who would fall into lockstep with the Venezuelan's populist economics and Cuba-friendly anti-Americanism.

8 hostages, including one American, freed in Nigeria

YENAGOA, Nigeria - Nigerian militants on Sunday released eight foreign oil rig workers, who looked tired but unharmed after two days in captivity.

Police involved in negotiating the release of the six Britons, one American and one Canadian would not say whether a ransom was paid. The hostages' names were not released.

"All eight are healthy and will be allowed to go home to receive whatever care they need," said Jan Peter Valheim, chief financial officer of Fred. Olsen Energy ASA, whose subsidiary operated the drilling rig for Peak Petroleum.

They were kidnapped Friday from the offshore platform 40 miles from Nigeria's southeastern coast by militants demanding jobs and money.

[Last modified June 5, 2006, 05:17:47]