Major hurricane hits Mexico's Baja peninsula

CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico -- Hurricane Juliette barged into the tourist resorts at the tip of the Baja California peninsula and hung around like an unwelcome guest Friday, smashing docks, ripping off roofs and tossing uprooted trees into flooded streets.

About 800 people had been evacuated from flimsy housing in the city of 25,000, but there were no new reports of major injuries.

Luxury beachfront hotels withstood the storm, but some windows were shattered and pools filled with storm-blown sand.

The Hurricane Center said Juliette was virtually stalled Friday, with its eye about 80 miles west of Cabo San Lucas -- just close enough to keep hurricane-force winds raking the town.

It was expected to weaken into a tropical storm while edging up the Baja California coastline.

Committee picks Nobel winner, keeps secret

OSLO, Norway -- The Nobel Peace Prize committee decided its 2001 award Friday in the shadow of terror attacks on the United States, with members sticking to a tradition of silence until the winner is announced next month.

"The committee has reached a decision, and it will be announced on Oct. 12. Beyond that, we have nothing to say," said Geir Lundestad, the committee's secretary.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the awards. The Nobel Prizes this year are worth $934,000.

Lundestad said the committee works from nominations made before a Feb. 1 deadline.

Plane with nine tons of explosives detained

MOSCOW -- Customs officials in Moscow on Friday detained a cargo plane carrying nine tons of explosives from Vienna to a mining company in the former Soviet republic of Kazakstan because the Russian carrier failed to get proper documents for the cargo.

Later Friday, security officials evacuated another major Moscow airport, Vnukovo, after reports that explosives had been found in a car. But authorities found no explosives, and the airport was reopened.

The plane's detention immediately topped television newscasts amid tension in Russia following the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States, but a spokesman for Moscow's Domodedovo airport later said it was ordinary industrial cargo.

Security Council lifts sanctions against Sudan

UNITED NATIONS -- The U.N. Security Council lifted five-year-old sanctions against Sudan on Friday after the United States gave a green light. Washington abstained in the vote.

Sudan is on the U.S. list of nations sponsoring terrorism, but the Bush administration has said the government in Khartoum has been cooperating following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The council delayed a vote scheduled for Sept. 13 because of the terrorist attacks against the United States two days earlier. But Washington gave the go-ahead for Friday's vote, said council president Jean-David Levitte of France.

The Security Council imposed diplomatic sanctions on Sudan in 1996, ordering U.N. members to reduce Sudan's diplomatic presence in their countries and to restrict the movement of its officials. Subsequent sanctions banned Sudanese planes from U.N. member states. The sanctions were never actively enforced, but they nevertheless remain on the books.

-- From wire reports