Congo
Suspected militant leader held in Rwandan genocide
KINSHASA - The suspected leader of an extremist Hutu militia was arrested in eastern Congo after years on the run, a Congolese official said Friday.
Bernard Munyagishari was wanted on charges of genocide and other crimes.
North Kivu governor Julien Paluku said Munyagishari was arrested and taken to Kinshasa, Congo's capital. The prosecutor of the Tanzania-based United Nations court for Rwanda's 1994 genocide said he will be held for trial.
Munyagishari is alleged to have led the Interahamwe militia that committed mass rapes and killings of Tutsis in western Rwanda.
The U.N. Security Council on Friday welcomed Munyagishari's capture, and congratulated Congolese authorities on their participation in the arrest and cooperation with the international court.
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At least 500,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed during Rwanda's genocide.
Mexico
12 prison officials charged with aiding tunnel escape
MEXICO CITY - The federal prosecutor's office says the director and 11 officials at a prison in northern Mexico have been charged with helping 17 inmates escape through a tunnel starting in the prison's laundry room.
The prosecutor's office alleges the prison officials in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, across the border from Texas, helped the inmates escape through a hatch hidden underneath a washing machine. The tunnel emerged outside the prison's grounds.
The officials were also charged Friday with gang involvement in connection with Tuesday's jailbreak. They were brought before a judge who will decide their case.
Spain
Economy protesters clash with riot police
BARCELONA - Riot police firing rubber bullets and wielding truncheons clashed with protesters Friday as authorities cleared away a makeshift camp set up as part of a countrywide demonstration against the nation's economic problems. More than 100 people were injured.
The trouble started when police tried to clear the protesters from a main square in Barcelona so sanitation workers could clean it up before possible celebrations after a soccer match tonight.
Many of the protesters, who are angry about high unemployment, austerity measures and politicians' handling of the economy, refused to move.
Felip Puig, the spokesman for Catalonia's regional Interior Ministry, said 84 protesters and 37 police were injured. Officers were seen hauling people away, but Puig did not say how many had been arrested, and he didn't say how serious the injuries were.
The protesters were allowed to return to the plaza, which has been occupied by protesters for nearly two weeks, after it was cleaned.
North Korea
Officials: We'll release proselytizing American
Officials said Friday they will free an American detained for reportedly proselytizing after a visiting U.S. official expressed regret.
Eddie Jun was arrested in November and accused of committing a serious crime against North Korea, the official Korean Central News Agency said. Pyongyang didn't provide details about the alleged crime, but South Korean press reports say Jun, a Korean-American with business interests in North Korea, was accused of spreading Christianity.
Robert King, the U.S. envoy for North Korean human rights who is visiting the country this week, "expressed regret at the incident on behalf of the U.S. government and assured that it would make all its efforts to prevent the recurrence of similar incident," North Korea's news agency said.
King is leading an American delegation trying to verify food supply surveys by the United Nations and U.S.-based charities and see if there are ways to monitor aid distribution.
Netherlands
Plan would make it harder for tourists to get pot
AMSTERDAM - The Cabinet says it will push ahead with plans to force anyone wishing to purchase marijuana at the country's weed cafes to first obtain an official pass - a move designed to curtail tourists from buying the drug.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte says he plans to begin rolling out the system in the country's south later this year, an area popular with French and German buyers, before moving on to Amsterdam's famed tourist cafes later in his term.
The Associated Press
