U.S. arrests Cuban wanted as terrorist

Miami

A Cuban militant whose presence in the United States opened the government to allegations it was sheltering a terrorist was charged Thursday with entering this country illegally – a move that could lead to his deportation.

Luis Posada Carriles is wanted in Venezuela in connection with the deadly 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner.

The United States did not immediately say whether it actually plans to deport Posada, or where. But U.S. authorities have essentially ruled out sending him back to Venezuela, where the bombing plot was allegedly hatched, and could instead choose a third country that has no intention of prosecuting him.

Posada, 77, will be held without bail at a federal lockup in El Paso, Texas, for a hearing before an immigration judge June 13, officials said. Soto said Posada will ask to be released on bail.

Taliban gun down antidrug workers

Kandahar, Afghanistan

Suspected Taliban militants gunned down six Afghan employees of a U.S.-funded anti-drug project in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, the second fatal attack on project staff in two days, officials said.

The victims were driving to Kabul with the body of one of five men killed in Wednesday’s attack when they were ambushed in Zabul province’s Shahjoy district, said Naik Mohammed, a doctor at a hospital in Qalat, where the victims’ bodies were taken.

Two of the six Afghans killed Thursday were employees of Chemonics International Inc., a Washington-based consulting firm, the company said. Five of the victims in Wednesday’s attack also worked for Chemonics, a contractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Soldiers die in storm in Andes Mountains

Santiago, Chile

Five Chilean soldiers froze to death and 65 were missing after a fierce snowstorm pounded the Andes mountains, and more bad weather Thursday hampered rescue efforts, the army’s top commander said.

Angry relatives complained that the soldiers, mostly young draftees, had been sent into difficult circumstances without adequate training.

Thirty soldiers were located alive Thursday, reducing the number missing to 65, said army spokesman Col. Carlos Mezano.

The entire group was returning from a mountain drill Wednesday in the Los Barros region, about 300 miles southeast of Santiago, when the storm hit, Gen. Emilio Cheyre said.