LIMA — The Supreme Court has approved the extradition of a convicted murderer wanted in the United States in the disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway seven years ago.
Joran van der Sloot’s attorney said Monday that the high court said he can be turned over to U.S. authorities after he serves his 28-year prison sentence in the South American nation.
Peru’s justice minister and Cabinet must endorse Friday’s decision before it is final, attorney Maximo Altez said.
Van der Sloot faces extortion charges in Alabama in the unsolved 2005 disappearance of Holloway in Aruba exactly five years before he killed a Peruvian college student in Lima.
The Dutchman remains the prime suspect in Holloway’s disappearance, and the U.S. charges stem from his alleged acceptance of $25,000 in early 2010 in exchange for an unfulfilled promise to lead her mother’s lawyer to the body.
CANADA
Porn actor suspected in killing of his male lover arrested
TORONTO — A 29-year-old gay porn actor accused of killing his male lover and mailing his body parts to the country’s top political parties has been arrested in Germany, a Canadian official said Monday.
The official confirmed Luka Rocco Magnotta was apprehended Monday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to announce the arrest.
Martin Steltner, a spokesman for the Berlin prosecutors office, told the Associated Press that a man wanted on an international arrest warrant was apprehended in an Internet cafe in Berlin, but he could not confirm the man’s identity.
Mr. Magnotta is wanted by Canadian authorities on first-degree murder and other charges. He is suspected of killing Jun Lin, a 33-year-old Chinese student at Montreal’s Concordia University, in late May and then mailing his body parts to Canadian political parties.
Bear suspected of eating released murderer
KAMLOOPS, British Columbia — Conservation officers have euthanized a black bear that they think ate the remains of a released killer.
British Columbia Environment Minister Terry Lake said Monday that the bear’s description matched one seen guarding a cache that contained human remains.
Mr. Lake says the animal was put down because bears remember food sources.
Officials suspect the bear pulled the body of Rory Wagner, 54, from his car after he died on a remote logging road.
Wagner pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 1994. He and two others were charged with killing a man who they believed had sexually assaulted a relative. He served his prison time and was released.
Wagner was reported missing May 23. Police say his death was not suspicious. Hunters found the site last week.
NICARAGUA
Leader of anti-Sandinista rebels dies at 81
MANAGUA — Adolfo Calero, who led the largest force of U.S.-backed rebels against Nicaragua’s Marxist Sandinista government in the 1980s and found himself entangled in the Iran-Contra scandal, has died at 81.
Mr. Calero died Saturday of lung problems in the Nicaraguan capital of Managua, his aide Julio Romero confirmed on Sunday.
As leader of the Nicaraguan Democratic Force, Mr. Calero helped pressure the Sandinistas toward the elections that pushed them from power in 1990.
He also was the key contact with senior U.S. officials during the Iran-Contra affair, when Reagan administration officials secretly arranged the sale of weapons to Iran to finance the Central American rebels, bypassing congressional restrictions. Sandinista supporters called the rebels “contras,” or “counter-revolutionaries.”
MEXICO
Former president endorses opposition candidate
MEXICO CITY — The former president of Mexico who broke the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s 71-year grip on power is calling on Mexicans to unite around the candidate of the former ruling party if he wins.
Vicente Fox angered members of his own conservative National Action Party with his comments. In 2000 elections, Mr. Fox defeated the party known as PRI, which had held the presidency since 1929.
However, Mr. Fox now says that “it is clear there is an apparent winner,” referring to PRI candidate Enrique Pena Nieto’s lead in the polls.
The former president told reporters over the weekend that Mexicans should “unite around” the winner of the July 1 elections.
COLOMBIA
Pregnant woman killed in attack blamed on FARC
BOGOTA — A woman who was about to give birth was killed in an attack attributed to FARC rebels that also claimed the lives of a 62-year-old woman and two policemen, authorities said Monday.
The attack late Sunday took place in southern Colombia’s Caqueta region, after the woman went into labor and requested help getting to a hospital.
A patrol “was assisting a woman who had sought help when she went into labor,” as they were attacked in the La Montanita area, a police spokesman said.
Authorities blamed the attack on Front 15, a brigade within the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
• From wire dispatches and staff reports
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