Police investigating drug trafficking came across a large arsenal of heavy caliber weapons in a house near the town of Atibaia, 50km north of Sao Paulo that they think were being used by one of Brazil's most notorious organized crime groups. "More than 500 heavy caliber firearms and knives of all kinds were confiscated in the largest seizure of weapons ever made in Brazil," said Ivaney Cayres de Souza, head of the Sao Paulo Police Department's narcotics division. The house and weapons belonged to Paulo Roberto Monteiro, a 49-year-old businessman "who is a gun smuggler with a criminal record."
■ United States
Anti-war mom leaves camp
The grieving woman who started an anti-war demonstration near President George W. Bush's ranch nearly two weeks ago left the camp after learning her mother had had a stroke, but she told supporters the protest would go on. Cindy Sheehan said on Thursday she was leaving immediately to be with her 74-year-old mother at a Los Angeles hospital. "I'll be back as soon as possible if it's possible," she said. Sheehan, whose 24-year-old son Casey died in Iraq, said the makeshift campsite off the road leading to Bush's ranch would continue. The camp has grown to more than 100 people.
■ United Kingdom
UK refuses Iraq timetable
The UK has ruled out setting a timetable for the withdrawal of its soldiers from Iraq, saying they will stay "until the job is done." Writing in Britain's Times newspaper yesterday, Defense Secretary John Reid said a pull-out would come only after Iraqis were capable of taking the lead in tackling the insurgency. "Any withdrawal of forces will be based on local conditions, not some immutable timetable," Reid wrote. Leaked British government documents published in a London newspaper last month suggested the UK is planning to cut its Iraq forces to 3,000 from 8,500 by the middle of next year.
■ United States
Rank reduced for assault
A military jury spared a US Army reservist jail time but reduced his rank for assaulting a prisoner who later died at a detention center in Afghanistan. Prosecutors in Fort Bliss, Texas had asked that private first class Willie Brand, 27, be sent to a military prison for 10 years with a dishonorable discharge for the 2002 beating. Instead, the panel on Thursday reduced his rank to private. Brand was convicted on Wednesday of assault, maltreatment, maiming and making a false official statement in connection with an attack on a detainee known as Dilawar.
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