U.S. charges FARC with drug crimes

The United States charged 50 leaders of Colombia’s largest guerrilla group with sending more than $25 billion worth of cocaine around the world to finance their fight at home, a federal indictment that depicts the rebels as major narco- terrorists.

The indictment made public Wednesday in U.S. District Court said the leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, ordered the killings of Colombian farmers who did not cooperate with the group, the kidnapping and killing of U.S. citizens and the downing of U.S. planes seeking to fumigate coca crops.

U.S. officials said the indictment strikes a blow against the group because it lays out the FARC’s hierarchy and details of its operations. “Members of the FARC do not want to face American justice,” Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said.

He acknowledged that 47 of those charged remain at large, probably in well-defended jungle strongholds that have so far proved beyond the reach of Colombian authorities.

The FARC supplies more than half the world’s cocaine and 60 percent of the drug that enters the United States, the indictment said.

Chicago

Disabled Iraq vet wins nomination

Tammy Duckworth, a former Army helicopter pilot who lost both legs in a grenade attack in Iraq, is now leading the charge for the Fighting Democrats.

Duckworth narrowly won the Democratic nomination for Congress in a primary race Tuesday for the House seat held by Republican Rep. Henry Hyde, who is retiring after 32 years. She is the best-known of the Iraq war veterans who want to go to Capitol Hill this year.

About 10 veterans of the current fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are candidates for Congress, all but one of them Democrats. The Fighting Democrats, as they are being called, contend their battlefield experience will allow them to criticize the war without being written off as naive and weak on defense.

WASHINGTON

Gay marriage opposition down

Public backlash over gay marriage has eased in the three years since the Massachusetts Supreme Court issued a controversial decision to legalize those marriages, says a poll released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

But gay marriage still is a divisive issue, the poll found.

“Most Americans still oppose gay marriage, but the levels of opposition are down and the number of strong opponents are down,” said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center. “This has some implications for the midterm elections if this trend is maintained. There are gay marriage ballot initiatives in numerous states.” Results:

•Opposed to gay marriage in February 2004: 63 percent.

•Opposed now: 51 percent.

•Strong opposition in February 2004: 42 percent.

•Strong opposition now: 28 percent.

•Strong opposition has dropped sharply among senior citizens and Republicans.

•Even split: allowing adoptions by gay couples

•Six in 10 now favor allowing gays to serve openly in the military.

The telephone poll of 1,405 adults was conducted March 8-12 and has a margin of sampling error of 3 percentage points.

San Juan, Puerto Rico

New search planned for missing teen

Aruban police reportedly have a new witness in the disappearance of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway and plan another search for her body on the island.

The witness provided information that prompted investigators to organize a search in sand dunes along the northern tip of the island, Gerald Dompig, Aruba’s deputy chief of police, said in an interview with CBS television’s “48 Hours Mystery.”

Compiled from wire reports