Defense´s new strategy may weaken Martin case
Changes in the defense´s strategy in the murder of Kansas University student Shannon Martin could weaken the arguments against two suspects in the case.

Altering testimony from the primary suspect, Kattia Cruz, might affect the prosecution´s case against Rafael Zumbado and Luis Alberto Castro, the two other suspects.

Defense attorney Luis Venegas admitted to “inconsistencies” in the testimony of his client, Cruz, in an article in the Tico Times. The Tico Times, reported Venegas met with Cruz last week to revise their strategy before a preliminary hearing. Venegas did not say how his client´s testimony would change.

The hearing for the case of Martin´s stabbing death in May 2001 in Golfito, Costa Rica, will be held tomorrow in Golfito.  Complete Story

Peru Grants Asylum to Two Venezuelan Army Officers
Peru has granted asylum to two Venezuelan army officers who fear reprisals for their opposition to President Hugo Chavez's government. The men, Wismerck Martinez Medina and Gilberto Landaeta Vielma, took refuge in the Peruvian embassy in the capital Caracas last week.

Peru's Ministry of Foreign Relations issued a statement Sunday, saying the two retired officers would travel to Peru as soon as Venezuela approves the move. The men have been accused of participating in a massive protest against Mr. Chavez in October.

Meanwhile, the Dominican Republic is studying an asylum request from two other army captains who took refuge in the country's embassy last week.

The attorney representing brothers Ricardo and Alfredo Salazar says the men have received death threats for their alleged role in a failed coup against President Chavez last April. The four officers are the latest Chavez opponents to seek asylum.

In March, Venezuelan labor leader Carlos Ortega went into exile in Costa Rica to avoid prosecution for treason for organizing a two-month strike that failed to oust President Chavez.

The president's opponents accuse him of driving the world's fifth-largest oil exporter into economic ruin and trying to model the country after communist-run Cuba. Mr. Chavez says his enemies seek to undermine his self-styled revolution.

U.N. Commission Leaves Gays, Lesbians Waiting another Year

GENEVA, Apr 25 (IPS) - Homosexual men and women will have to wait at least one more year for the first-ever formal recognition of their human rights in official United Nations documents.

A coalition of Islamic nations, with the support of other countries apparently under pressure from the Vatican, blocked approval in the U.N. Commission on Human Rights this week of a resolution sponsored by Brazil calling for guarantees to protect gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals.

Friday, as it wrapped up its annual sessions, the Geneva-based Commission, the maximum human rights authority at the U.N., put off debate on the text until next year.  Complete Story

Polls close in Argentina's presidential elections

The electoral process to elect the new president of Argentina ended Sunday afternoon, and the counting of votes started.

After a 10-hour voting process, the 75,000 voting centers closed at 6:00 p.m. local time (21:00 GMT).

The preliminary results will be released from 7:30 p.m. local time (22:30 GMT), according to the National Electoral Direction.

According to the opinion polls, none of the 18 candidates will win victory in the first round, and so a runoff, scheduled for May1 8, will be necessary.

Van Gogh, Picasso, Gaugin paintings stolen from UK gallery

Paintings by Van Gogh, Picasso and Gaugin, with an estimated value of 1 million pounds (1.6 million US dollars), were stolen in a raid on a gallery in Manchester, northwestern England, police said Sunday.

Staff at Whitworth Art Gallery in south of Manchester city center raised the alarm as they prepared to reopen at around 12:00local time Sunday, according to the police.

Van Gogh's "The Fortification of Paris with Houses," Picasso's "Poverty", Gauguin's "Tahitian Landscape" and several other items could have been snatched at any time after 21:00 local time Saturday.

"This was a well-planned theft and we have launched a major inquiry," a police spokesman said. "We are now trying to piece together what happened."

Dutchman Vincent Van Gogh painted The Fortification of Paris with Houses in 1878, at the age of 25, using pencil, chalk and watercolors.

Between 1891 and 1893, Parisian Paul Gauguin, born in 1848, created his dramatic Tahitian Landscape with pencils and watercolors.

And in 1903, a 24-year-old Pablo Picasso, of Malaga, Spain, used pen, ink and blue watercolors to create Poverty, the outline of a frail man guiding a small child.

The largest of the three masterpieces measures 39 by 53 centimeters, said the police spokesman.

The gallery collects some 40,000 art works in total, including 12 Picasso's and Van Gogh's Hayricks, as well as sculptures, drawings, prints, wallpapers, historic textiles, British watercolors, and modern and contemporary arts.

The gallery was founded in 1889 and is designated as of national significance by the British government.
 

Bus hijacking ends in Berlin

A bus hijacking incident, the third of such cases in Germany within one month, ended in Berlin on Sunday evening without bloodshed.

The knife-armed hijacker was overpowered by special police 30 minutes after he took over the bus with three other people on board. No one was injured in the incident.

There was no immediate report about his motivation.

On April 11, an armed man hijacked a double-decked bush in Berlin for several hours, after he robbed a bank affiliate.

Police later assailed the bus and caught the hijacker without harming passengers.

Just on Friday, a 17-year-old gunman with an Islamic agenda hijacked a bus in the northern German city of Bremen and forced driver and 15 passengers on a 160-kilometer odyssey. The hijacker later surrendered to police.

Self-declared Baghdad mayor arrested

Self-declared mayor of Baghdad Mohammed Mohsen al-Zubaidi was arrested Sunday by US forces. Zubaidi was detained in downtown Baghdad for "his inability to support the coalition military authority and for exercising authority which was not his," said US military spokesman Capt. David Connolly.

The former Iraqi exile returned home on April 16 to set up 22committees running civil administration of the capital city. Jay Garner, the retired US general in charge of post-war Iraq, has repeatedly rejected the authority claimed by Zubaidi and his followers.