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Convention on disabled rights is adopted

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published December 14, 2006

The U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday adopted the first U.N. convention to protect the rights of the disabled, culminating a long campaign on behalf of the world's 600-million people with disabilities. The convention requires countries to guarantee freedom from exploitation and abuse for the disabled, while protecting rights they already have - such as ensuring voting rights for the blind and wheelchair-accessible buildings. The convention advocates keeping the disabled in their communities rather than removing them and educating them separately, as many countries do. In order to take effect, the convention must be ratified by 20 countries.

Pinochet grandson booted from army

Capt. Augusto Pinochet Molina, the grandson of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, was discharged from the army Wednesday after causing an uproar with his eulogy denouncing judges who had tried the late Chilean dictator. Molina, 34, defended his grandfather's bloody 1973 coup at the funeral Tuesday and said judges who later sought to prosecute him were seeking "notoriety, not justice" - a comment that brought applause from mourners and censure from the president. Army Gen. Oscar Izurieta said the announcement that Molina had been discharged was delayed 24 hours out of "respect to his family."

Teen challenges evolution theory

A Russian court on Wednesday held hearings in an unprecedented lawsuit brought by Maria Shreiber, a 15-year-old student who says being taught the theory of evolution in school violates her rights and insults her religious beliefs. Shreiber sued the St. Petersburg city education committee, saying that the 10th-grade biology textbook used at the Cervantes Gymnasium was offensive to believers and that teachers should offer an alternative to Darwin's famous theory. "The biology textbook generally refers to religion and the existence of God in a negative way. It infringes on believers' rights," she said in comments carried by Russian television stations.

Report faults U.S. pilots for disaster

Two U.S. pilots of an executive jet could have prevented a midair collision that killed 154 people aboard another plane if they had noticed their aircraft's transponder was turned off, according to a preliminary report by Brazilian police released Wednesday. The report reaffirms the allegation that the pilots played a role in the Sept. 29 crash. They have already been formally accused by police but were recently allowed to return to the United States. Under Brazilian law, a judge will now decide whether to indict them and send them to trial.

Bus crash kills 21 in northern jungle

A passenger bus slammed into an oncoming truck on mountain curve and plunged into a river in Peru's Amazonas state Wednesday, killing at least 21 people and injuring 30, authorities said. The accident happened in a mountainous jungle region of Amazonas, 422 miles northwest of the capital of Lima, police said. Roger Vilcapoma, a doctor in the town of Bagua near the crash site, told Radioprogramas radio that 21 were killed and 30 injured.

[Last modified December 14, 2006, 05:10:00]