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3 lawmakers found shot, torched

By TIMES WIRES
Published February 21, 2007

EL SALVADOR 

Three Salvadoran legislators were kidnapped and slain during a trip to neighboring Guatemala and their bodies set ablaze, officials in San Salvador said Tuesday.

The congressional deputies were members of the right-wing Nationalist Republican Alliance and were shot Monday along with their driver as they paid a visit to Guatemala City. Their bodies were found on a farm outside the city.

The killings come amid a wave of lawlessness in Guatemala, which has become a haven for organized crime and a way station for the transshipment of illicit drugs from South America to the United States, American officials say.

Among the dead was Eduardo D'Aubuisson, a son of the late Salvadoran rightist leader Roberto D'Aubuisson.

SOUTH AFRICA

Government outlines hunting restrictions

South Africa's environment minister announced restrictions on hunting Tuesday, declaring he was sickened by wealthy tourists shooting tame lions from the back of a truck and felling rhinos with a bow and arrow.

Dismissing threats of legal action by the hunting industry, Marthinus Van Schalkwyk said the new law would ban "canned" hunting of big predators and rhinos in small enclosures that offer them no means of escape. In addition, lions bred in captivity would have to be released into the open for at least two years before they could be hunted.

AFGHANISTAN

Parliament approves amnesty legislation

The upper house of parliament passed a resolution Tuesday that calls for an amnesty for Afghans who are suspected of war crimes during a quarter-century of fighting, an official said.

President Hamid Karzai will decide whether it should become law, said parliamentary spokesman Kadamali Nekpai.

ISRAEL

Government says talks with Abbas to stop

Israel on Tuesday ruled out holding Mideast peace talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas once he forms a coalition with Hamas militants, saying the new unity government must give in to international demands to recognize Israel's right to exist.

Hoping to find a way to persuade Hamas to moderate its hard-line position, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sought the advice of Arab security chiefs in Jordan on how to proceed, Arab officials said Tuesday.

Elsewhere

ITALY: Three patients at hospitals in Tuscany were mistakenly given organs from an HIV-positive donor, raising concerns about transplant procedures.

CANADA: The government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced an initiative Tuesday to establish a research institute to develop an AIDS vaccine, committing $119-million to the project, with $95-million from the government.

[Last modified February 21, 2007, 05:54:05]