Top 3 Guatemalan police officials fired
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) - Guatemala's top three police officials have been fired after hundreds of pounds of cocaine allegedly disappeared from a shipment seized by authorities.
Interior Minister Raul Velazquez says police made the 1-ton seizure Thursday. But when federal prosecutors weighed the drugs, 258 pounds were missing.
National Police spokesman Donald Gonzalez said Friday that Velazquez dismissed the agency's general director Porfirio Perez, assistant director Rolando Mendoza and chief of operations Victor Lopez.
Gonzalez says they are under investigation for possible involvement in the missing drugs. Guatemala ordered Perez investigated last month after $300,000 dollars in seized cash went missing.
UN chief wants halt
to sexual violence
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday demanded global action to stop government forces and armed groups from using sexual violence to pursue their goals.
He told the U.N. Security Council that the perpetrators generally operate with impunity, and he called for stepped up efforts nationally, internationally and by the U.N. to prevent and respond to sexual violence.
"Parties to armed conflict continue to use sexual violence with efficient brutality," Ban said. "Like a grenade or a gun, sexual violence is part of their arsenal to pursue military, political, social and economic aims."
The U.N. chief announced that he was in discussions with other U.N. partners to appoint a new senior U.N. official to address sexual violence.
Hopes fade to find ferry boat survivors
NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga (AP) - Eighty-five passengers were missing and feared dead today after their ferry flipped and sank off Tonga, with only two bodies recovered more than two days after the disaster.
The latest count of those aboard the ill-fated ferry was 141. Of those, 54 were rescued and two bodies recovered, leaving 85 missing and presumed dead.
The Princess Ashika went down at midnight Wednesday while carrying passengers and cargo from the capital, Nuku'alofa, to outlying northern islands.