Veracruz state prosecutors have concluded that 73-year-old grandmother Ernestina Ascencio* wasn't raped or beaten by Mexican federal army soldiers but died of natural causes, spokesmen said at a news conference in the state capital, Xalapa. Juan Alatriste Gómez, a special prosecutor assigned to review the case, said there were no witnesses to the alleged crime and that an anal tear originally cited as evidence of an assault could have come from any number of "diverse reasons." State prosecutor Emetrio López, who filed the original charges against the soldiers, said he agreed with Alatriste's findings. The original investigators in the case have been suspended temporarily.

Major General Rick Lynch, who commands US forces south of Baghdad, told reporters May 7 recent history indicates that it takes an average of nine years to put down internal insurgencies, and there is "no instantaneous solution" in Iraq. "You can't just build a government overnight," said Gen. Lynch. "I can't see significant advances in that sphere in the same timeframe. Bringing stability to Iraq could take years."

From AP, May 6:

GREENSBURG, Kan.— The rebuilding effort in tornado-ravaged Greensburg, Kansas, likely will be hampered because some much-needed equipment is in Iraq, said that state’s governor.

Colombian prosecutor general Mario Iguarán confirmed that several foreigners, at least three from Ecuador, are among the 105 presumed paramilitary victims whose bodies were exhumed from a mass grave near La Hormiga, Putumayo department, May 5. Another 106 bodies were exhumed from 65 common graves in the area over the past ten months. Ecuadoran families had been inquiring about loved ones who had disappeared across the border. Most of the victims, who investigators believe were killed between 1999 and 2001, had been dismembered before burial. With these finds, the number of bodies of presumed paramilitary victims exhumed nationwide since the beginning of 2006 to 900. Iguaran’s office estimates 10,000 Colombians lie in unmarked graves across the country, now in its fifth decade of civil war. "It has surprised us, despite the fact that we are in the middle of a conflict," said Iguarán, adding that his office has reports of 3,000 common graves from victims' families and other sources. The investigation is being carried out by the Judicial and Investigative Police Directorate (DIJIIN). Radio Caracol cited an internal report it said identified those responsible for the Putumayo graves as Carlos Mario Jiménez, alias "Macaco," leader of the Central Bolívar Bloc of the United Colombian Self-Defense Forces (AUC), and his second-in-command Arnolfo Santamaría Galindo, alias "Pipa." (El Espectador, Bogota; AP, May 6)

Three campesino leaders from San Salvador Atenco were each sentenced to 67 years and six months in prison on charges of kidnapping May 5. The sentences come almost exactly a year after a violent clash between Atenco residents and Mexican state and federal police troops. Ignacio del Valle, Felipe Alvarez and Héctor Galindo, leaders of the People's Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT), have five days to appeal the verdict. The charges are related to incidents in February and April 2006, when FPDT members allegedly held State of Mexico officials captive. Although the leaders were arrested in the aftermath of the May 2006 violence, the judge said his decision was based solely upon "the kidnapping and illegal detention of the state officials." (El Universal, May 6)

A thoroughly uncritical May 6 AP account of the controversial Dead Sea "recovery" program portrays the new progress on the project as a straightforward victory for diplomacy in the interests of ecology. Some excerpts:

GHOR HADITHA, Jordan — Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Arabs are slowly pushing through the tangle of their disputes and suspicions in a race to save a biblical and ecological treasure, the Dead Sea.

In a new video posted on the Internet by al Qaeda's propaganda arm, as-Sahab, the organization's number-two man Ayman al Zawahiri mocks the bill passed by Congress setting a timetable for the pullout of US troops in Iraq. "This bill will deprive us of the opportunity to destroy the American forces which we have caught in a historic trap," Zawahiri says. "We ask Allah that they only get out of it after losing 200,000 to 300,000 killed, in order that we give the spillers of blood in Washington and Europe an unforgettable lesson." (ABC, May 5)

Tens of thousands of people lined the streets of Lahore to cheer on the suspended chief justice, Iftakhar Mohammed Chaudhry. They threw flowers in the path of his motorcade, and banged drums to welcome him. Addressing a crowd of lawyers outside the city's High Court building, Chaudhry urged his supporters to continue their fight to protect the country's independent judiciary. Massive protests have been held almost weekly in major cities across Pakistan since the suspension. Chaudry is appealing his removal, and a judicial panel is reviewing the case. (VOA, May 6) Meanwhile, some 250 masked gunmen calling themselves Taliban set up checkpoints on roads in the Tribal Areas' Bajaur agency along the Afghan border. The gunmen stopped vehicles, confiscated tape players and cell phones, and warned clean-shaven males to grow beards under threat of "strict action." (DPA, May 6)