Protestant group renounces violence

The largest Protestant paramilitary group in Northern Ireland renounced violence Sunday, officially ending the decades of terror it inflicted on the province’s Catholic minority.

The outlawed Ulster Defense Association said it was disbanding all of its armed units and would store its weapons beyond the reach of rank-and-file members, but was not willing yet to hand over its arsenal to international disarmament officials.

The announcement followed months of pressure on the UDA to catch up to Northern Ireland’s other two big paramilitary groups – the Catholics of the Irish Republican Army and the Protestants of the Ulster Volunteer Force – which had already renounced violence.

The IRA killed about 1,775 people, including more than 900 British soldiers and police, from 1970 to 1997. The UDA, founded in 1971, killed more than 400 people, mostly Catholic civilians, before calling a 1994 cease-fire.

JERUSALEM

Offices raided in Olmert inquiry

Police raided more than 20 government buildings and private offices Sunday morning, seeking evidence in a series of criminal investigations of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

The early morning sweep came just as Olmert’s popularity, which plummeted after last year’s inconclusive war against Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, has begun to rebound.

Olmert’s office would not comment on Sunday’s raids, but in the past he has often insisted he has done nothing wrong, dismissing the investigations as a political witch hunt.

In one case, Olmert is suspected of buying a luxurious Jerusalem home at a substantial discount from a developer in exchange for arranging construction permits for the builder. Olmert was once mayor of Jerusalem.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia

Ex-Khmer Rouge officials arrested

Police arrested the ex-foreign minister of the brutal 1970s Khmer Rouge regime and his wife today and brought them to Cambodia’s U.N.-backed genocide tribunal to face charges of crimes against humanity, an official said.

Ieng Sary, thought to be 77, and his wife, Ieng Thirith, who is believed to be 75, are accused of involvement in the slayings of political opponents during the 1975-79 radical communist regime, according to documents from prosecutors seen by the Associated Press. Ieng Thirith served as the regime’s minister for social affairs.

Police detained the couple at their Phnom Penh residence at dawn. Officers later brought them to tribunal offices, where they were to make an initial appearance before the judges later today, said tribunal spokesman Reach Sambath.

The radical policies of the Khmer Rouge are blamed for the deaths of some 1.7 million people from starvation, disease, overwork and execution.