BOGOTA, Colombia – A court has temporarily blocked the extradition of one of Colombia's most feared warlords to the United States while it decides whether he should first finish a sentence here, a lawyer said yesterday.
Carlos Mario Jiménez, better known by the alias “Macaco,” is wanted by the United States on charges of drug trafficking, money laundering and financing terrorist groups. His extradition was approved April 2.
Alirio Uribe, a lawyer who represents victims of the paramilitaries, said a court granted his request to stay the extradition late Thursday.
The government last year stripped Jiménez of the benefits of a peace process – including protection from extradition – saying he was continuing to run drug trafficking and paramilitary operations from behind bars. But many victims of the paramilitaries oppose his extradition, saying it would harm efforts to compensate people affected by the violent conflict.
Associated Press
Illegal migrants
rescued from truck
TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico – Police rescued 83 illegal migrants yesterday from the hidden compartment of a cramped, sweltering cargo truck carrying animal feed through southern Mexico.
At a roadblock near the Guatemalan border, the panicked migrants alerted officers to their presence by screaming and banging on the walls of the truck, Mexican immigration agent Mario López said.
López said the migrants were dehydrated, bruised and scraped. He said 76 were from Guatemala, five from El Salvador and two from Brazil.
Earlier this week, 54 illegal migrant workers from Myanmar suffocated in the back of an unventilated truck in Thailand.
Associated Press
Officials from China
and Taiwan to meet
BOAO, China – For the past eight years, Taiwan's leadership has repeatedly invited China's president to meet to discuss the tension making the Taiwan Strait one of the world's most potentially dangerous hot spots. The peace talks never came close to happening.
But today, Taiwan's vice president-elect, Vincent Siew, is to sit down with Chinese President Hu Jintao for a historic meeting on the sidelines of a business conference in this southern Chinese resort city.
Associated Press
Doctor sentenced
in terrorism case
LONDON – A British court sentenced an Indian doctor yesterday to 18 months in prison for withholding information about last year's botched Islamist terrorist attack on a crowded airport in Scotland.
Sabeel Ahmed, 26, pleaded guilty to receiving an e-mail about the mission from his older brother Kafeel Ahmed two days before he attempted to ram a jeep into Glasgow's airport – though the younger brother did not read the e-mail until the evening after the attack took place.
Because Sabeel Ahmed has already served half his sentence and agreed to leave Britain, he was being released from jail to be deported to India, Judge David Calvert-Smith said.
Associated Press
