Amnesty

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez granted amnesty to many opponents accused of supporting a failed 2002 coup that briefly drove him from power. Chavez said he signed an amnesty decree that would also pardon many others accused of attempts to overthrow his government in recent years. It was not immediately clear how many accused opponents would be affected by the amnesty.

Nigeria's last prominent militant leader agreed to halt fighting in the oil-producing Niger Delta and surrendered his weapons Sunday in return for an unconditional pardon. Government Ekpemupolo, also known as Tompolo, whose gunmen were behind many attacks on the oil industry in the western Niger Delta, handed over rocket launchers, machine guns and explosives to Defense Minister Godwin Abbe at his camp in Oporoza in Delta state. "It is an act of patriotism that Tompolo and his group surrendered their arms," Abbe said at the ceremony.

Their leaders slipped out of this capital under cover of darkness. Their plum jobs are gone. Their former offices were the first looted in a spasm of vandalism last week. On Monday, these mid-level officials and fighters of Somalia's now-defunct Islamic Courts Union got a renewed offer of amnesty from Somalian Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi, who also set a three-day deadline for residents of Mogadishu to turn in their guns.

Kamel Ghannam, a 31-year-old Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade commander, is the kind of battle-hardened veteran that the Palestinian Authority president needs in his often-violent power struggle with Hamas. But President Mahmoud Abbas can't have him right now because the warrior is on Israel's "wanted terrorists" list. He is hiding to elude an Israeli army crackdown in the West Bank.

More than 500 militants in Chechnya and other parts of Russia's troubled North Caucasus mountain region have surrendered to authorities as part of an amnesty that expired Monday, an official said. Authorities last summer promised that militants who surrendered would not be prosecuted unless they were suspected of grave crimes such as murder, rape or terrorism. An official with the office of President Vladimir V.

The upper house of parliament passed a resolution calling for amnesty for Afghans accused of war crimes over the last 25 years. President Hamid Karzai will decide whether it should become law, said Kadamali Nekpai, a spokesman for the upper house. The lower house previously passed the resolution, which the United Nations and human rights activists have condemned. Meanwhile, the U.S. military announced that an American soldier was killed Monday in Kunar province.

Thousands of people, many wearing red, marched peacefully Saturday through downtown Los Angeles, calling for broad amnesty for illegal immigrants. Police estimated that about 7,000 to 10,000 people participated in the march. Two demonstrations two weeks ago, both held to commemorate last year's massive Los Angeles march, were marked by low turnout.

If there's one thing Abdul Rasul Sayyaf knows, it's how to guard an exposed flank. As one of many warlords battling for control of Kabul in the early 1990s, Sayyaf ordered his fighters to protect their positions and press for advantage -- which they did by shelling civilian neighborhoods and slaughtering members of Afghanistan's oppressed ethnic Hazara minority, human rights groups say. Sayyaf is still watching his back. But now he's doing it as a member of Afghanistan's parliament.

The Supreme Court refused to stop the Bush administration from transferring a Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detainee to his home country of Libya. Lawyers for the man argued that he faced torture at the hands of the Libyan government if sent there. Abu Abdul Rauf Zalita says he married an Afghan citizen and that after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, he and his pregnant wife fled to Pakistan, where he was handed over to U.S. authorities for a bounty. The U.S.

President Bush on Saturday tackled head-on a key criticism of the immigration agreement pending before Congress, asserting it would settle the status of illegal immigrants without granting them amnesty. With the Senate set to debate the measure this week, the clash over what constitutes amnesty looms as one of the major points of contention in the bill, which also would toughen border security and establish a guest worker program.