■ECUADOR
Colombian sought over raid
An Ecuadorian judge on Monday issued an arrest warrant for former Colombian minister of defense Juan Manuel Santos over allegations he ordered a bloody raid against leftist rebels inside Ecuador, local media reported. The military raid against rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) operating inside Ecuador was denounced by authorities in Quito as a violation of the country’s sovereignty and prompted a diplomatic rift between the South American neighbors. The arrest warrant, which experts said has little chance of being executed, was issued by Judge Daniel Mendez, who is heading an investigation into the raid. The Colombian army raid killed 25 people, including FARC No. 2 Raul Reyes and an Ecuadoran national.
■UNITED STATES
Dog spoils trip to Peru
A teenager from Eay Claire, Wisconsin, using a classic excuse for evading schoolwork missed a class trip to Peru despite his tale being true: The dog ate his passport. Officials at Chicago’s O’Hare airport told 17-year-old Jon Meier the chewed-on document was fine, but authorities in Miami rejected it and wouldn’t let him board the southbound aircraft. His family’s golden retriever, Sunshine, chewed a corner of the document, obscuring some numbers. Meier couldn’t get another passport in time to join the trip with his Spanish class from Eau Claire North High School. The 12-day trip ended on Monday.
■SWITZERLAND
Tobacco linked to Taliban
Cigarette and tobacco smuggling finances militant groups such as the Pakistani Taliban and saps about US$40 billion a year from government budgets, a report and campaigners said in Geneva on Monday. The claims were made as 160 countries resumed talks at the WHO on expanding an international anti-smoking treaty to clamp down on the illicit trade in tobacco. Apart from issues such as enforcement and coordination, the 10-day preparatory negotiations are also examining a possible halt to duty free sales of cigarettes or measures against Internet sales, WHO documents showed. Some 11.6 percent of the global cigarette market was illicit, equivalent to some 657 billion cigarettes a year, the International Union Against Tobacco and Lung Disease estimated in a report. Citing enforcement officials, other researchers also alleged that “half a dozen terrorist” or militant groups rely on black market tobacco and smuggling for revenue. They included the Pakistani Taliban, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Hezbollah, leftwing FARC rebels in Colombia, the Real IRA in Northern Ireland, and a Tutsi rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
■URUGUAY
Ex-rebel to face ex-president
A former leftist guerrilla is set to face an ex-president in October’s presidential election after the unlikely pair won in respective primaries to lead their parties to the polls. Ex-rebel Jose Mujica, 75, triumphed with 53 percent, according to the initial count of Sunday’s primaries, to represent the Frente Amplio (Broad Front) coalition party in the October race to succeed sitting President Tabare Vazquez. Former president Luis Lacalle, who ruled the South American nation for five years in the 1990s, took 57 percent to lead the center-right National Party. The third party candidate, Pedro Bordaberry, son of 1970s Uruguayan dictator Juan Bordaberry, won the liberal Colorado Party’s primaries with a comfortable 72 percent of the vote.
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