World briefs 1/28/06

Police: Serial killer suspect was acting out anger

MEXICO CITY -- A female wrestler suspected of killing at least 10 elderly women in Mexico City said she acted out of anger, apparently because her mother abandoned her and she was sexually abused, according to police and a videotaped confession broadcast Friday. "I felt rage, anger, rancor," 48-year-old Juana Barraza told two interrogators who could be heard but not seen on the video, played on the Televisa television network. Barraza said she killed the women because "they looked at me."

Iran potentially just years away from nuclear bomb

VIENNA, Austria -- If Iran wants nuclear arms, the question is no longer whether it has the skills to make them but when it will finish building the first one. Iran says its uranium enrichment has the sole purpose of making fuel for nuclear reactors to generate electricity. But enrichment can also create the fissile core of nuclear warheads. So oil-rich Iran's assertion it needs an enrichment program to meet energy needs has been met with skepticism from the United States and other nations. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the foreign ministers of the U.N. Security Council's four other permanent members and Germany are meeting Monday in London to see if they can agree on a coordinated approach when the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency discusses Iran later in the week.

Documents: Army seized wives to get to insurgents

The U.S. Army in Iraq has at least twice seized and jailed the wives of suspected insurgents in hopes of "leveraging" their husbands into surrender, U.S. military documents show. In one case, a secretive task force locked up the young mother of a nursing baby, a U.S. intelligence officer reported. Iraqi human rights activist Hind al-Salehi contends that U.S. anti-insurgent units, have at times detained wives to pressure men into turning themselves in. A U.S. command spokesman in Baghdad, Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, said only Iraqis who pose an "imperative threat" are held in long-term U.S.-run detention facilities.

Investigator: Princess Di's death 'complex'

LONDON -- It may not have been just another car accident. An inquiry into the death of Princess Diana is "far more complex than any of us thought," the official leading the investigation said Friday. Lord Stevens, the former head of London's Metropolitan Police, acknowledged that some of the issues raised by Mohammed al Fayed -- whose son, Dodi, was killed in the 1997 car crash with Diana -- were "right to be raised." He did not elaborate. Diana, 36, her companion Dodi Fayed, 42, and their driver, Henri Paul, were killed when the car crashed into a pillar in an underpass. The only survivor, Diana's bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, was badly hurt. A French judge ruled in 1999 that the crash was an accident.

Major earthquake occurs off Indonesian coast

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- A magnitude-7.7 undersea earthquake rocked eastern Indonesia early Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. There was no danger of a tsunami, and no injuries were reported. The earthquake occurred in the Banda Sea about 120 miles south of Ambon city, the USGS said. It occurred at a depth of 212 miles. The Internet news portal Detik. com reported from Ambon that people fled their houses in panic when the earthquake, which lasted about two minutes, struck.

Bolivian president slashes salary to hire teachers

LA PAZ, Bolivia -- President Evo Morales cut his salary in half and declared no Cabinet minister can collect a higher wage than his own, with the savings to be used to hire more public school teachers. The move followed a campaign pledge to tackle political corruption and restore honesty to the government of South America's poorest country. But critics called it a propaganda ploy that will do little to help the needy. Five days into his leftist government, Morales announced Thursday his salary would be $1,875 a month and that his Cabinet would also have their salaries capped at that figure. He said the savings would be used to hire more teachers.

-- From wire reports