World scene

COLOMBIA

Top drug lord caught in jungle raid

BOGOTA | Colombia’s most-wanted drug lord was cowering like a dog under a palm tree when he was captured Wednesday in a jungle raid involving hundreds of police officers, the defense minister said.

Daniel Rendon Herrera, alias “Don Mario,” was taken in shackles to the capital, Bogota, to await possible extradition to the United States.

Mr. Rendon Herrera, 43, purportedly commanded hundreds of armed men in a private militia and directed a criminal organization that sent hundreds of tons of cocaine to the United States.

His organization is responsible for 3,000 murders in the past 18 months, said Gen. Oscar Naranjo, who directs the national police. Police said he had offered his assassins $1,000 for each officer they killed, in hopes of evading arrest. Colombian officials had offered a reward of up to $2 million for information leading to his capture.

NORTH KOREA

Nuke team ousted on founder’s birthday

SEOUL | North Koreans bowed before statues of the country’s founding father, Kim Il-sung, and danced to honor his birthday, as the regime kicked out international nuclear monitors and world leaders decried its decision to restart its atomic program.

Wednesday’s celebrations came a day after North Korea declared that it would restart its nuclear program, quit disarmament talks and boot out international inspectors because of the U.N. Security Council statement condemning its April 5 rocket launch.

A diplomat from the International Atomic Energy Agency said Pyongyang expelled U.N. inspectors from its Yongbyon nuclear complex and removed all agency seals and surveillance cameras. State Department spokesman Robert Wood said American officials who had been helping the North disable the Yongbyon nuclear plant were now making preparations to leave.

GERMANY

Soldier convicted in ’07 Iraq deaths

VILSECK | A U.S. Army master sergeant was convicted Wednesday of murder in the execution-style slayings of four bound and blindfolded Iraqi detainees.

Master Sgt. John Hatley and two others took the four men to Baghdad’s West Rasheed neighborhood, shot them in the head and dumped their bodies into a canal in spring 2007, the prosecution said. Hatley acted as “judge, jury and executioner” in hatching the plot.

An eight-member military jury found Hatley guilty of premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit premeditated murder after a three-day court-martial in Germany. The 40-year-old career soldier will be sentenced Thursday at the U.S. Army’s Rose Barracks in southern Germany.

BAHRAIN

Commander of sub in crash ousted

MANAMA | The skipper of an American nuclear submarine that collided with another U.S. Navy vessel at the mouth of the Persian Gulf last month has been relieved of command, the Navy said.

The statement Tuesday said there was enough information to remove Cmdr. Ryan Brookhart from his post at the helm of the USS Hartford, even though an investigation into the incident is ongoing. He has been temporarily assigned to a staff job in Bahrain, home to the U.S. 5th Fleet.

The incident occurred in the pre-dawn hours of March 20, while both ships were on regularly scheduled deployments to conduct security operations. Officials said the vessels were heading to port in the same direction when they collided in the Strait of Hormuz. The submarine was submerged at the time. From wire dispatches and staff reports