News in Brief

State

Governor visits Mexico as Goodwill Ambassador

SANTA FE (AP) - Gov. Gary Johnson is in Mexico with the New Mexico Amigos Goodwill Ambassadors.

Each year the civic, business and professional leaders from throughout the state take a trip to promote New Mexico. This year the target is Mexico.

The New Mexico Amigos, which has 265 active members, is a private, nonprofit group officially designated as goodwill ambassadors for the state. It was founded in 1962 and has taken trips to other states and to Canada and Mexico to focus attention on New Mexico and exchange ideas.

Johnson met with the governor of Chihuahua on Monday after a presentation on the maquiladora, or factory, industry in that Mexican state. A meeting with the governor of Jalisco was on his schedule for Tuesday.

The New Mexico delegation is to make a presentation to Mexican officials in Mexico City on Wednesday.

Johnson and the goodwill group are to visit Mexican President Vicente Fox in Mexico City on Thursday and be briefed by the U.S. Embassy there.

The governor will return to the state Sunday.

Drunk driver pleads not guilty to ninth charge

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) - A man convicted eight times on drunken driving charges has pleaded innocent to a ninth charge.

Juan Montoya Jr., 52, pleaded innocent Monday to charges of DWI, driving on a suspended or revoked license, having an open container and having no proof of insurance after he was arrested April 5.

Court records show Montoya's breath-alcohol level was 0.09 on two tests after his arrest, and that he refused to take a blood-alcohol test. New Mexico law sets 0.08 as the limit at which a driver is considered impaired.

It is the fourth time Montoya has been charged with felony DWI, which carries a maximum possible prison sentence of 18 months.

Montoya has had a suspended or revoked license for several years, but continues to drive, said Deputy District Attorney Janetta Hicks.

She filed court records showing Montoya had eight previous convictions for DWI starting with a May 1984 conviction in El Paso, Texas. Most of the cases took place within the past 10 years.

Court records do not indicate how much time Montoya served for previous convictions, but in at least one case, he was arrested for drunken driving within 18 months of a previous conviction.

National

Tunisian terrorist attacks may be linked to al-Qaidav

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. officials have some indications an April 11 terrorist attack in Tunisia is linked to the al-Qaida, but aren't yet certain Osama bin Laden's network was behind the operation.

The links go beyond the public claims of responsibility by the same group that took credit for the al-Qaida-run East Africa embassy bombings in 1998, said a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The official declined to go into more detail, and said some aspects of the operation's command and planning have yet to be uncovered.

If al-Qaida operatives are confirmed to be behind the attack, it would mark the terror group's first-known successful operation outside of the war zone in Central Asia since the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

In the Tunisia attack on the resort island of Djerba, a Tunisian named Nizar Naouar is believed to have blown up a gas truck near the historic Ghriba synagogue. Eighteen people were killed, many of them German tourists.

Several other plots linked to al-Qaida, in Europe and Singapore, have been thwarted since Sept. 11. Islamic insurgent groups with ties to al-Qaida, including those in Chechnya, the Philippines, and Algeria, are actively battling government forces.

U.S. officials have said the group is wounded but still capable of conducting terrorist attacks. It's unclear if bin Laden or one of his key lieutenants directed the April 11 attack, or if the bombers selected the target and conducted the attack on their own.

Officials had previously suggested the attack on a Jewish landmark might be tied to Israeli-Palestinian violence, rather than to al-Qaida.

Shortly after the attacks, two London-based pan-Arab newspapers received the claims of responsibility for the synagogue blast from the Islamic Army for the Liberation of the Holy Sites.

The group, which claimed it was retaliating for "Israeli crimes" against Palestinians, used the same name as a group that claimed responsibility for the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. That 1998 claim described bin Laden as a "source of inspiration" and referred to him as the "warrior sheik."

Somali man convicted of illegal money transfers

BOSTON (AP) - A Somali man arrested in a post-Sept. 11 crackdown on money transfer businesses was convicted Tuesday of operating without a state license.

Mohamed Hussein, 33, was found guilty of two counts of illegally transmitting money abroad. He faces up to 10 years in prison, though federal sentencing guidelines call for two to three years.

Prosecutors never filed terrorism charges against Hussein, 33, or his brother, Liban Hussein, 31, who ran Barakaat North America out of a tiny office in Boston.

The government clamped down on al-Barakaat outlets across the country last fall. Investigators said the al-Qaida terrorist group skimmed money from the tens of millions of dollars that annually flow overseas through al-Barakaat, which is headquartered in the United Arab Emirates.

Prosecutors said the Husseins' business wired about $2.8 million to an account in the United Arab Emirates between September 2000 and November 2001, even though the brothers knew they were breaking the law by not having a state license.

The brothers, natives of Somalia who hold Canadian citizenship, said their company simply helps Somalis send money home to their relatives. Through their lawyers, they have said they had no knowledge of any link between al-Barakaat and terrorists.

Mohamed Hussein's attorney, William Cintolo, said he would appeal.

"This case had continually been identified as aiding terrorists, and although there was not one shred of evidence of that, it was impossible to overcome what may have been subconsciously in jurors' minds," he said.

Prosecutors Joshua Levy and Allison Burroughs declined comment after the verdict.

Liban Hussein is free on bail in Canada, awaiting an extradition hearing.

Bar manager blamed for recklessness in fire stunt

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - The manager of a downtown bar is accused of recklessness for setting fire to a high-proof grain alcohol, burning nine University of Iowa students standing nearby.

Troy David Kline, 26, of Coralville, was charged with misdemeanor reckless use of fire for his role in the April 19 bar stunt.

The Johnson County attorney's office also charged the popular student club Et Cetera for using an open flame device in a drinking establishment.

Investigators say Kline poured alcohol into a stainless steel trough along the bartender's side of the bar and set fire to it. As the fire began to fizzle, Kline poured more liquor on the fire, causing a flash fire that burned students watching from the other side, authorities said.

The student who suffered the most serious injuries, Deana Busche, 20, of Schaumburg, Ill., was hospitalized with third-degree burns on her arms and second-degree burns to her face.

Two students burned in the stunt have sued the bar, claiming recklessness and negligence. The lawsuits allege the stunt had been performed routinely for weeks.

Kline surrendered to authorities Tuesday and was released on his own recognizance. He declined to comment as he left the courthouse. The misdemeanor charge carries up to a year in jail and fines up to $1,500.

International

Conjoined twins sharing heart to be separated

LONDON (AP) - Twins born joined at the chest and sharing a heart and liver must undergo surgery that will kill one of them and may give the other only a small chance to live, doctors said Tuesday.

Natasha and Courtney Smith were born by Caesarean section Monday, with their arms around one another.

"When I saw them for the first time they looked so beautiful that I melted with love for them," The Sun newspaper quoted their mother, Tina May, as saying. "But my happiness is tinged with the agony of knowing the ordeal that lies ahead for all of us."

Dr. Nicholas Fisk, who helped deliver the girls at London's Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital, said the twins were in stable condition.

"They cried and gurgled and opened their eyes" just after being born, he said.

Because their heart is too weak to support both babies, doctors will have to separate them, Fisk said. They will give the heart to Natasha because more of it is in her body, but that means Courtney will die, said perinatal cardiologist Dr. Helena Gardiner.

Natasha will face an uncertain future.

"It depends how successful the surgery goes," Gardiner said. "The first few days will determine whether she can survive . As far as I know there has never been a case of a baby surviving more than a few months when they were joined such as this. It is exceptionally rare."

Gardiner said the heart's structure was complicated and doctors would have to examine the girls extensively before surgery.

The twins together weighed 9 pounds, 12 ounces at birth. Their mother was recovering well, and Fisk said doctors hoped to discharge her from the hospital in four or five days. Her fiancÇ, Dennis Smith, had taken snapshots of their two daughters, which were printed in The Sun.

Last year, the parents of conjoined twins opposed doctors' recommendation to separate them because surgery would kill the weaker girl.

Judges ordered doctors to separate the babies, and the parents, Rina and Michaelangelo Attard, eventually said they were grateful for the decision, even though their weaker daughter, Rosie, died.

Doctors say the surviving twin, Gracie, has recovered well and is expected to have a normal life.

The ProLife Alliance, an anti-abortion group, said the lives of both girls were equally precious and suggested doctors consider giving Courtney a heart transplant.

Seven shot, 30 injured during Somali market fire

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - A raging fire fueled by drums of cooking oil destroyed half of Mogadishu's sprawling Bakara market Tuesday, and at least seven people were killed when police and private gunmen fired shots to deter thousands of looters, police said.

The fire broke out late Monday in the house wares section of an outdoor market that sells everything from foodstuffs and false passports to furniture and semiautomatic weapons.

Abdurahman Dinari, the transitional government's commerce minister, called the fire "a national disaster."

The cause of the fire in the market, a maze of wooden structures in the heart of the Somali capital, was not immediately known.

Thousands of people rushed to the market as news of the fire spread over private FM radio stations. Some were shop owners, some were gunmen from clan-based militias going to protect the shops and businesses of relatives and some were drawn by the prospect of looting.

Heavy gunfire echoed throughout the night, and flames and smoke were visible from rooftops across the war-ravaged city.

Police spokesman Mohamed Yussuf Omar Maddaleh said at least 30 people were injured in the shooting and confusion. Dozen of looters were arrested, Maddeleh said.

Units of the new army set up by the national transitional government that controls much of Mogadishu surrounded the market in their battlewagons.

Even those shop owners who managed to save some of their property were robbed once outside the market.

"I took out the cash and a few of my most expensive items of clothing from my shop," said Maddina Ali Ahmed. "But even that I lost to bandits as soon as I got out of the market."

Abdi Ahmed Dhuhulow, one of the major businessmen in the market, said it was impossible to calculate the property damage cause by the fire.