Chapel project completed

Chapel project completed

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican says the restoration of a chapel that includes two Michelangelo frescoes has been completed.

The Cappella Paolina, or the Pauline Chapel, in the Apostolic Palace is used by the pope and is not open to the general public.

It contains Michelangelo frescoes depicting the Conversion of St. Paul and the Crucifixion of St. Peter.

Officials said Tuesday that the five-year $4.5 million restoration was privately funded.

Pope Benedict XVI will inaugurate the restored chapel with a prayer service Saturday.

Opposition leader arrested

NIAMEY, Niger — Security forces in Niger on Tuesday arrested the country’s main opposition leader, hours after he called for a general strike and accused the president of carrying out the equivalent of a coup by unilaterally dissolving the nation’s top court.

The arrest comes amid rising tensions in the desert nation, where President Mamadou Tandja has come under sharp criticism at home and abroad for maneuvering to stay in power after his second five-year term in office expires in December.

American released

MINSK, Belarus — An ailing American lawyer who was imprisoned in Belarus last year on charges of using fake documents and attempted industrial espionage walked free Tuesday night after a presidential pardon.

Emanuel Zeltser, a 55-year-old diabetic, was sentenced to three years in prison in August 2008 after being convicted in a closed trial on charges his supporters called politically motivated.

In November, Zeltser was placed in a prison hospital after arriving at a penal colony in eastern Belarus, where he was denied medicine, according to lawyers.

On leaving the prison clinic in the eastern town of Mogilyov, Zeltser said, “I am glad about my freedom.”

“I have problems with my health; I plan to get better. I am not making any plans,” he said by telephone outside the prison.

7 teens hit by gunfire

DETROIT — Seven teenagers were wounded — three critically — after they were sprayed with gunfire near a Detroit school Tuesday by two gunmen who apparently used T-shirts to cloak their faces.

The teens were waiting at the bus stop when a green minivan pulled up, and two shooters opened fire, according to Detroit police spokesman Rod Liggons.

The shooting may have stemmed from a fight that broke out in the school Monday, according to witnesses.

A green minivan police say they believe was used by the two gunmen was found a few hours later parked in a residential neighborhood about a mile away from the scene of the shooting. Dogs were brought to the area in an attempt to track the suspects.

Governor reveals more

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, already struggling to salvage his family and his political career after admitting a scandalous affair, added explosive details Tuesday, including more visits with the mistress he calls his “soul mate” and additional women in his past.

The once-promising presidential prospect said he is committed to reconciling with his wife, but professed to The Associated Press his continued love for the Argentine woman at the center of the firestorm that gutted his political future.

In emotional interviews with the AP over two days, he said he would die “knowing that I had met my soul mate.”

Sanford also said that he “crossed the lines” with a handful of other women during 20 years of marriage, but not as far as he did with his mistress.

Board: Gay officer should be discharged

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A military administrative board recommends a gay New York National Guard officer who publicly announced he’s gay should be discharged for violating the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

Lt. Dan Choi would be the first New York National Guard member discharged for violating the policy against homosexual conduct. About 10,500 military and National Guard members were discharged for violating the policy between 1997 and last year.

Tuesday’s recommendation against Choi must be approved by the chief of the National Guard Bureau.

Choi is a 2003 West Point graduate. He announced in March he’s gay. The California native served in Iraq in 2006 and 2007 with the 10th Mountain Division.

He says he’s basically being fired for telling the truth about who he is.

Combined dispatches