N. Korea detains American

N. Korea detains American

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said today it has detained an American man who illegally entered the country last week, after reports that a 28-year-old missionary from Arizona crossed into the communist country to draw attention to its human-rights record.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said in a brief dispatch that the American was detained and under investigation after illegally entering through the North Korea-China border last Thursday. It didn’t identify the American man.

However, the report comes as South Korean activists say 28-year-old American missionary Robert Park slipped across the frozen Tumen River into North Korea from China last week in an attempt to call attention to the reclusive country’s human-rights conditions and ask its leader to step down.

Latin America marks its 1st same-sex marriage

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Two Argentine men were joined Monday in Latin America’s first same-sex marriage, traveling to the southernmost tip of the Americas to find a welcoming spot to wed.

Gay-rights activists Jose Maria Di Bello and Alex Freyre were married in Ushuaia, the capital of Argentina’s Tierra del Fuego state, exchanging rings at an informal ceremony witnessed by state and federal officials.

The couple previously tried to marry in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires but were thwarted by city officials citing conflicting judicial rulings. Argentina’s Constitution is silent on whether marriage must be between a man and a woman, effectively leaving the matter to state and city officials.

Outcry over Israeli plan to build in east Jerusalem

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israel announced Monday it is building nearly 700 new apartments for Jews in east Jerusalem, where Palestinians hope to set up the capital of a future state. The U.S., Palestinians and the European Union condemned the plan, a fresh setback to American efforts to restart Mideast peace talks.

The Palestinians have said they will not resume talks without an Israeli settlement freeze and criticized what they said was another show of bad faith by Israel.

Group calls for details on Irish-US clergy abuse ties

BOSTON — Victims of clergy sex abuse and a group that tracks pedophile priests called on local Roman Catholic leaders and the Irish government Monday to detail known connections between the clergy abuse scandals in the U.S. and Ireland.

Two Irish bishops resigned Christmas Day, joining two others who had quit since a government report in November revealed how Dublin church leaders had shielded pedophile priests from the law.

Terence McKiernan, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, said the report detailed evidence that some accused priests in Ireland had been transferred to parishes in the U.S.

The organization said it was creating the first database of Irish priests accused of sexual misconduct who had spent time in U.S. dioceses.

Iranian forces arrest prominent dissidents

TEHRAN — Iranian security forces stormed opposition offices in a series of raids Monday and rounded up at least a dozen prominent dissidents in a new crackdown on the country’s reformist movement, opposition Web sites and activists reported.

The arrests came a day after violent clashes between anti- government demonstrators and security forces coinciding with Ashura, the peak of an intense mourning period in Shiite Islam. At least eight people were killed in the clashes, state television reported. Opposition sources said the death toll was higher.

Speaking to reporters in Hawaii, where he is vacationing, President Barack Obama expressed solidarity with opponents of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and called for the immediate release of those “unjustly detained” in Iran.

Doctors in Brazil remove 4 more needles from boy

SAO PAULO — Doctors have removed four more sewing needles from the neck of a 2-year-old Brazilian boy who was stuck with dozens by his stepfather in an alleged plot to spite his wife.

Doctors successfully operated on the toddler Monday in the northeastern city of Salvador. One of the four needles was dangerously close to his spine.

The boy was doing well after the three-hour surgery, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Last week, doctors removed 14 needles from the boy’s intestines, liver and bladder, and in an earlier surgery, they extracted four needles from near the toddler’s heart and lungs.

Combined dispatches