World briefs 03/13/03

Turkish leader holds talks on new government

ANKARA, Turkey -- Turkey's prime minister-designate worked Wednesday to form a new government that the United States hopes will quickly authorize the deployment of U.S. combat troops for a war against Iraq.

Once his Cabinet is approved -- probably today -- Recep Tayyip Erdogan has to decide on putting a new resolution before parliament that would allow 62,000 U.S. troops to be based in Turkey to open a northern front against Iraq if there is war.

Parliament shocked the United States earlier March 1 when it refused to authorize the deployment, straining relations with Washington, Turkey's closest ally.

In a sign Washington was preparing for a second no vote in parliament, Turkey's ambassador in Washington, Faruk Logoglu, said U.S. and Turkish military officials were holding informal talks on American planes using Turkish airspace should the ground deployment of troops be rejected for a second time.

Peru lawmakers charge former president

LIMA, Peru -- Peru lawmakers Wednesday approved embezzlement and illegal enrichment charges against exiled former President Alberto Fujimori, accusing him of secretly shifting Defense Ministry funds to pay for intelligence activities.

The charges are in addition to existing Interpol warrants charging Fujimori with murder, causing grievous bodily harm and forced disappearances. Fujimori remains in exile in Japan, which refuses to extradite him because he is a Japanese citizen.

Congress voted 62-0 Wednesday to lift Fujimori's immunity so the attorney general's office can charge him with embezzlement and illegal enrichment. The other 58 members of Congress either did not attend the session or abstained from voting.

Japan sends surveillance battleship to sea

TOKYO -- Japan has sent a battleship to the Sea of Japan, the Defense Agency said today, amid media reports that North Korea could be preparing another missile test.

Defense Agency spokesman Yoshiyuki Ueno said that the Aegis-missile equipped destroyer has top-of-the-line surveillance capabilities.

Ueno refused to say when it was deployed, and described its mission as part of regular patrol activities.

But the dispatch came as two major Japanese newspapers reported North Korea appears to be making final preparations to test-launch its Rodong ballistic missile, possibly around the Sea of Japan, which separates the two nations.

Former drug lord arrested on new charges

BOGOTA, Colombia -- The former head of one of Colombia's most powerful drug cartels was arrested Wednesday on new drug trafficking charges, only four months after he was released from prison, authorities said.

Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, who along with his brother Miguel ran the Cali drug cartel in the mid-1990s, was arrested in his hometown of Cali, according to the Attorney General's office.

Details of Rodriguez' arrest or the specific charges were not immediately available.

He had been released after serving half of a 15-year sentence for drug trafficking. Rodriguez's highly publicized release in November embarrassed Colombian officials, who along with U.S. drug agents scrambled in vain to try to find new crimes to charge him with in an attempt to keep him behind bars.

-- From wire reports