Around the world
SURRENDER: A Colombian congresswoman surrendered to authorities Friday to face charges she took drug money. She was the eighth lawmaker arrested in a sweeping probe of drug corruption. The Supreme Court ordered the arrest of Ana Garcia, a Liberal Party representative, on Thursday on charges of illicit enrichment. Garcia, from the Caribbean island of San Andres, turned herself in at a police post in Cota, just north of Bogota, the capital.NOT PLEASED: Bangladesh's former prime minister said Friday that fraud cost her party this week's parliamentary elections but backed off from supporters' threats to stage nationwide protests. "Why should we go the streets? My party believes in democracy," said Khaleda Zia, who was forced to resign in March for alleged corruption. Zia demanded a new vote in several districts but said her Bangladesh Nationalist Party will await the official decision peaceably.
CUTTING DOWN: Britain's Queen Elizabeth II plans to pass most of her duties on to heir to the throne Prince Charles as she gets older, London's Daily Express said. The newspaper said an unnamed courtier had told one of its reporters: "Although the queen will never abdicate, as Her Majesty gets older she will devolve more and more responsibility to the Prince of Wales." The queen celebrates her official 70th birthday today.
Across the nation
ARREST: A white man was arrested on Friday in Enid, Okla., and charged with setting the fire that destroyed a black church in northern Oklahoma earlier this week, police said. Police Chief Capt. Jim Hood said Christopher Harper, 35, was charged with arson and is cooperating with investigators in the town of Enid, where the First Missionary Baptist Church was wrecked in a blaze in the early hours of Thursday morning.
CONVICTION: A 17-year-old boy who wasn't taking his medicine for mental disorders when he fatally stabbed his grandparents was convicted of murder Friday after a Peoria, Ill., jury rejected his insanity defense. Brian Pruitt had spent two years in mental hospitals and was supposed to take a variety of medicines for his problems, according to court testimony. Because he stopped taking the medicine months before the slayings, he was insane and not responsible for his actions, said his lawyer, public defender Robert McIntire. The jury didn't agree.