Dominican: Food ills
SANTO DOMINGO — International health officials on Monday began monitoring free school breakfasts given to poor students in Dominican public schools after dozens of youngsters fell ill for unknown reasons. The illnesses occurred in three schools earlier this year, and the meals were suspended for three months in the Caribbean nation. Anselmo Aburto, a nutrition consultant for the Pan American Health Organization, said several U.N. agencies are monitoring the meals.
N. Korea: Carter visit
WASHINGTON — Former President Jimmy Carter was preparing to leave for North Korea today to try to gain the freedom of an American imprisoned for illegally entering the communist nation, U.S. officials said Monday night. North Korea agreed to release Aijalon Mahli Gomes if Carter were to come to bring him home, a senior U.S. official told The Associated Press. Gomes, of Boston, who was arrested on Jan. 25 after entering North Korea, was sentenced in April to eight years in prison and fined $700,000. Carter was expected to return with Gomes on Thursday, a second U.S. official said.
Mexico: Bomb threat
MEXICO CITY — Mexican authorities said there was no danger after investigating a bomb threat against the country's stock exchange. Security officials swept the headquarters of the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, Latin America's second-largest stock exchange, after the threat was made Monday morning in a phone call to the Public Security Ministry, exchange spokesman Roberto Gavaldon said. No explosive was found in the building, and the exchange was never evacuated and operations continued normally, Gavaldon said.
Pakistan: Flood aid
SHADAD KOT — Pakistan's president defended the government's much-criticized response to the country's record-breaking flood crisis as emergency workers worked frantically to shore up a system of levees protecting two southern cities. The floods, which began nearly a month ago with hammering rains in the country's northwest, have affected more than 17 million people, a U.N. official said, warning that the crisis was outstripping relief efforts. About 1,500 people have died in the floods.
Spain: Pair freed
BARCELONA — Two Spanish aid workers kidnapped almost nine months ago by an al-Qaida affiliate arrived Tuesday in Barcelona after a multimillion-dollar ransom was reportedly paid for their freedom — a sign of the terrorist group's growing sophistication in bankrolling operations through kidnappings, experts said. Aid workers Roque Pascual and Albert Vilalta were abducted last November when their convoy was attacked by gunmen on a stretch of road in Mauritania. They were whisked away to Mali, whose northern half is where al-Qaida of Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, has stretched its tentacles.