Nation in brief: Wolfowitz to head arms control panel

Former World Bank chief Paul Wolfowitz will head a high-level advisory panel on arms control and disarmament, the State Department said Thursday.

The move by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice marks a return to government for Wolfowitz, a conservative with close ties to the White House. As deputy defense secretary under President Bush, he was a major architect of the Iraq war.

Wolfowitz was replaced as World Bank chief last June after a stormy two-year tenure. His leadership was undermined by a furor over a hefty compensation package he arranged for a bank employee who was also his girlfriend.

Wolfowitz will become chairman of the International Security Advisory Board, which reports to the secretary of state. The panel is charged with supplying independent advice on arms control, disarmament and nonproliferation.

Wolfowitz currently is a defense and foreign policy studies expert at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.

Jacksonville, N.C.

Deal offered man wanted in killing

A prosecutor offered a deal Thursday to Mexican authorities and a Marine wanted in the killing of a 20-year-old pregnant colleague: If he is arrested in Mexico, he won’t face lethal injection in North Carolina.

Investigators believe Cpl. Cesar Laurean has fled to his native Mexico, which refuses to send anyone back to the United States unless provided assurances they won’t face the death penalty.

“The choices presented to me were either a possible life without parole sentence, or the defendant living in Mexico the rest of his life and never brought to trial,” Onslow County District Attorney Dewey Hudson said in announcing an indictment charging Laurean, 21, with first-degree murder.

The remains of Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, 20, were found with those of her fetus earlier this month in a fire pit in Laurean’s backyard.

New York

Greens come with hopping surprise

You just don’t want to eat some greens.

That’s how a Brooklyn mom felt when she found a tiny frog comfortably nestled in the leaves of organic lettuce she was preparing to eat.

“I jumped away,” said 39-year-old Yvonne Brechbuhler, who described the green critter as no bigger than the tip of her pinky finger.

“I didn’t know what it was. But once I realized it was a frog, I was OK,” she said Thursday.

Intrigued, she named the frog “Curious.”

Brechbuhler, a stage actress, said she bought the lettuce at her local food co-op and kept it in the refrigerator three days before using it last week.