Colombian rebel sentenced as a terrorist
WASHINGTON — A Colombian rebel leader was sentenced to 60 years in prison Monday and labeled a terrorist for helping hold three U.S. contractors hostage as part of a decades-long struggle with the Colombian government.
Though he denounced terrorism and said he hoped the hostages would be released, Ricardo Palmera restated his allegiance to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and justified its actions as part of a legitimate military revolution.
Palmera admitted serving as the FARC’s chief negotiator and spokesman during discussions over the release of the hostages.
30 held hostage at bank in Venezuela
CARACAS, Venezuela — Would-be robbers took about 30 people hostage inside a Venezuelan bank Monday after police arrived outside, the country’s top emergency official said.
Police were negotiating with the gunmen as they held customers and employees inside the bank in the town of Altagracia de Orituco in central Guarico state, said Gen. Antonio Rivero, head of emergency management agency.
Emergency teams waited outside to help hostages and their families, Rivero said. He said no one had been hurt.
The hostage standoff began about 11 a.m., shortly after four gunmen entered the bank, when a uniformed police officer pulled up to use the cash machine, said Amanda Saldivia, a reporter for local radio station Guarana Radio FM.
Self-taught pathologist’s testimony reviewed
TORONTO — A pathologist whose expert testimony against people accused of killing children led to at least seven wrongful convictions said Monday he taught himself pediatric forensics and was ignorant of the criminal-justice system.
Dr. Charles Smith has a medical degree but admitted that he was self-taught in pediatric pathology, the field in which he was once considered a leader in Canada. Smith testified that his lack of formal training contributed to mistakes over two decades of performing autopsies in cases of suspicious child deaths.
“(My training) was self- taught, it was minimal, and retrospectively I realize it was woefully inadequate,” he said.
Ontario’s provincial government ordered a probe after an investigation of 45 child deaths involving autopsies or expert testimony from Smith found the pathologist made questionable findings in 20 cases dating to 1991.
Canada extends mission in Afghanistan, with condition
TORONTO — Canada will extend its military mission in Afghanistan only if another NATO country puts more soldiers in the unstable south, the prime minister said Monday.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government is under pressure to withdraw its 2,500 troops from Kandahar province, the former Taliban stronghold, after the deaths of 78 soldiers and a diplomat. The mission is set to expire in 2009 without an extension by Canadian lawmakers.
Rights activist ends 110-day hunger strike
SANTIAGO, Chile — An indigenous-rights activist jailed for setting fire to a farm once owned by Mapuche Indians ended a 110-day hunger strike Monday, government officials said.
Patricia Troncoso ended her fast after Chilean officials agreed to transfer her to a rural prison and allow home leave on weekends, benefits often granted for good behavior.
Troncoso, 37, has led the fight in Chile for indigenous land rights. In 2005, she was sentenced with four others to 10 years in prison for setting fire to a farm in southern Chile. Two of her four cohorts received the same concessions she did Monday.
