LIMA, Peru – Left-leaning former President Alan García led his pro-business rival yesterday in a battle for a runoff spot in Peru's election.
With more than 85 percent of Sunday's vote counted, nationalist former army commander Ollanta Humala was first with 30.9 percent and was poised to advance to the runoff.
García, whose 1985-1990 presidency was plagued by food shortages and 7,000 percent inflation, was second with 24.6 percent. Lourdes Flores, a conservative pro-business lawyer bidding to become Peru's first female leader, had 23.5 percent.
Reuters
5½ tons of cocaine seized at airport
MEXICO CITY – Soldiers seized 5½ tons of cocaine with a value of more than $100 million from a commercial plane that arrived in Mexico from Caracas, Venezuela, the Defense Ministry said yesterday.
The army waited for the plane Monday at the airport of Ciudad de Carmen, 550 miles east of Mexico City, after receiving information from Venezuelan and U.S. authorities, said Gen. Carlos Gaytán.
Soldiers arrested Miguel Vázquez, 47, a Colombian who was co-pilot of the plane, but the pilot somehow managed to escape, Gaytán said. Two Mexicans, Fernando Poot, 53, and Marco Perez, 50, who were waiting at the airport with another plane, also were arrested.
Associated Press
North Korea is urged to rejoin nuke talks
TOKYO – The top U.S. negotiator on ending North Korea's nuclear program yesterday renewed his call for the North to rejoin six-party talks, but said after meeting with officials from other key nations that he didn't expect it to happen soon.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill held a round of meetings with counterparts from Japan, South Korea and China yesterday on the sidelines of a security conference in Tokyo.
“My understanding is that . . . (North Korea) is still not willing to rejoin the six-party process,” Hill said late yesterday. North Korea's delegate to the nuclear talks, Kim Kye Gwan, was also attending the conference.
The security conference was sponsored by the Institute for Global Conflict and Cooperation at the University of California San Diego.
Associated Press
Suspects surrender in killing of Jewish man
PARIS – Two suspects in the brutal killing of a young Jewish man in France have turned themselves in to police, judicial officials said yesterday.
The men, whose names were not released, were fingered by other members of a gang accused in the kidnapping, torture and killing of Ilan Halimi earlier this year. Halimi's murder revived concerns about anti-Semitism in France.
Authorities found 23-year-old Halimi naked, handcuffed and covered with burn marks near railroad tracks in the Essonne region south of Paris on Feb. 13. He died on the way to the hospital after being held captive for more than three weeks.
One suspect turned himself in Monday in Bobigny, northeast of Paris, officials said. A second turned himself in directly to investigators in Paris. The two men are suspected, along with a third man who remains at large, of leading roles in the killing, officials said.
All were described as being close to the main suspect, Youssouf Fofana, who is under arrest.
Associated Press
