EAST ASIA

DIPLOMAT SAYS NORTH KOREA SENT NUCLEAR MATERIAL TO LIBYA

Stung by the lapses of intelligence on Iraq’s weapons programs, a top American diplomat insisted yesterday that Washington has concrete evidence North Korean nuclear material went to Libya’s since-shuttered atomic arms operation.

He warned that North Korea’s cash-strapped communist regime could still be a risk for a further spread of atomic arms technology and materials.

Christopher Hill, the main American envoy on the North Korea nuclear standoff, told the Associated Press that even though Libya got the nuclear material from a Pakistani black market nuclear network, the North Koreans must have known where their material would end up. Mr. Hill, the American ambassador to South Korea who leaves next week to become assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said there is “physical evidence that the material that arrived in Libya had started its journey” in North Korea. He said the evidence was “beyond my reasonable doubt.” It was the strongest on-the-record claim by an American official that such evidence exists.

– Associated Press

PERSIAN GULF

FOES OF SADDAM TAKE ROLES AS PRESIDENT, PRIME MINISTER

Cementing Iraq’s first democractic government in 50 years, one of Saddam’s Hussein’s most implacable enemies was sworn in as president yesterday and quickly named another longtime foe of the ousted dictator to the powerful post of prime minister.

The new government’s main task will be to draft a permanent constitution and lay the groundwork for elections in December, although some worry that the two months of political wrangling to form the leadership hasn’t left enough time.

The swearing-in ceremony came just two days short of the second anniversary of Baghdad’s fall to American-led forces and underlined the growing power and cooperation of the Shiite Arab majority and Kurdish minority – groups that were long oppressed by Saddam’s regime.

– Associated Press

NORTH AMERICA

MEXICO CITY MAYOR STRIPPED OF IMMUNITY

MEXICO CITY – Congress stripped Mexico City’s leftist mayor of his immunity from prosecution yesterday, clearing the way for his arrest in a vote that could also block him from running in the 2006 presidential race, which he leads in the polls.

The House vote against Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador – which came on the same day he declared his presidential candidacy – could force him to stand trial on charges of ignoring a court order to stop construction of a road on contested private land. If a judge approves federal prosecutors’ request for Mr. Lopez Obrador’s arrest, the mayor will be removed from office to stand trial. But if the court dismisses the case, Mr. Lopez Obrador would remain mayor and run for president.

– Associated Press

SOUTH AMERICA

POLICE MAKE ARREST IN KILLING OF NUN

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – Police arrested yesterday an associate of the rancher charged in the killing of an American nun who died defending poor settlers in the Amazon rain forest.

With yesterday’s arrest, five men are accused in the death of the nun, Dorothy Stang. Stang, a naturalized Brazilian originally from Dayton, Ohio, was shot to death February 12 near Anapu, about 1,250 miles north of Rio de Janeiro. The man arrested yesterday, Regivaldo Pereira Galvao, has denied any role in her death.

– Associated Press