Honduras
Major gangs to sign truce, says bishop
TEGUCIGALPA - Honduras' two largest and most violent gangs will sign a truce next week and ask for a dialogue with the government and police to help them start leaving their gang lifestyle, a Roman Catholic bishop said Friday.
San Pedro Sula's bishop, Romulo Emiliani, told The Associated Press that the Mara Salavatrucha and 18th Street gangs will begin their truce on Tuesday.
He said that the gangs need government help to stop charging protection fees to finance their war with each other and that authorities should try to turn the country's prisons into rehabilitation centers. The gangs will issue a public apology, he said.
Puerto Rico
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Bill outlaws gender, sex-orientation bias
SAN JUAN - Legislators in Puerto Rico on Friday approved a heavily debated bill that outlaws employment discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation.
Opponents of the bill prayed on the steps of the seaside Capitol building as lawmakers voted on a simplified version of the measure, which was widely rejected by religious organizations in the conservative U.S. territory.
The original version was broader and would have also banned such discrimination when it comes to commercial transactions, property rentals and public transportation, among other circumstances. About half of U.S. states have approved similar bills.
The new measures come as the U.S. territory begins to debate gay rights more seriously in the Caribbean region, where sodomy laws and harassment of gays are common.
Britain
Tweet on sex abuse is libelous, court rules
LONDON - A tweet posted by the wife of Britain's parliamentary speaker about a politician wrongly linked to child sex abuse was libelous, the High Court ruled Friday.
A BBC report last year led to widespread Internet chatter that falsely linked politician Alistair McAlpine to decades-old child sex abuse. The broadcaster didn't name McAlpine but has paid him damages.
Sally Bercow, wife of Speaker John Bercow, said she has settled a libel case brought by McAlpine after the High Court decided that her 2012 tweet naming the politician to her then-56,000 followers was defamatory.
Bercow had previously apologized for the tweet, which read "Why is Lord McAlpine trending? *Innocent face*." She had denied, however, that the message was defamatory, arguing that it was conversational. McAlpine's lawyers had argued it pointed a "finger of blame" during a media firestorm, and Judge Michael Tugendhat rejected Bercow's stance that the tweet merely posed a question.
Canada
Qatar ends attempt to move UN agency
TORONTO - Qatar has abandoned its bid to relocate the United Nations civil aviation agency from Canada to the tiny emirate, ending a bitter fight between the two nations, both countries said Friday.
Canada had accused Qatar, which has been trying to burnish its international presence, of trying to buy the U.N. agency in Montreal.
The Associated Press
