Czechs extradite suspected militant

NEW YORK - A Swedish-Lebanese national was charged in New York yesterday with helping to set up a terrorist training camp in rural Oregon and websites showing how to assemble bombs and prepare poisons. The suspect, Oussama Abdullah Kassir, 41, was extradited earlier yesterday from the Czech Republic to New York, where he faces federal charges of multiple counts of conspiring to provide material support and resources to Al Qaeda. If convicted, he faces a life sentence, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said the "jihad" training camp, set up in Bly, Ore., was intended to offer military preparation for would-be fighters in Afghanistan, prosecutors said. (Reuters)

LIMA - Prison doctors yesterday denied assertions that former president Alberto Fujimori, detained here awaiting trial on corruption and murder charges, is in poor health and should be transferred to a hospital. Fujimori, who fled Peru for Japan seven years ago as his 1990-2000 government collapsed in scandal, was extradited from Chile on Saturday to face the charges. Prison doctors told journalists that Fujimori has "minor" blood pressure problems, but ruled out the need to move him to a hospital. (AP)

WELLINGTON - New Zealand's Mount Ruapehu erupted, spewing out ash and rock that injured one climber and caused around 50 people to be evacuated off the mountain, local media reported today. The 10-minute eruption started at about 8.20 p.m. yesterday and sent a cloud of ash and dust to a height of 15,000 feet, Geological and Nuclear Sciences said. It also caused mudslides down the side of the mountain, which was the location of Middle Earth in the "Lord of the Rings" film trilogy. Mount Ruapehu is the highest mountain in New Zealand's North Island. (Reuters)