Gwinnett Daily Post

Iraq elections face delay

BAGHDAD -- A senior official said Tuesday that Iraq must delay a national vote scheduled for January because of a political dispute, and the vice president who triggered the crisis indicated he would veto a key election law for a second time.

The prospect of delayed balloting in Iraq and a growing sense among Sunni Arabs that they are being shunted to the political margins has soured hopes for genuine reconciliation in a country torn by war. The acrimony and suspicion centers on Iraq's ethnic and sectarian divisions, sharpened by past bloodshed.

At one protest Tuesday, Sunni Arabs who believe the Shiite majority and Kurds are conspiring against them threatened to skip the vote, recalling a boycott in early 2005 at the height of the Sunni-led insurgency.

Italy police nab 'paralyzed' mob boss on the run

ROME -- A convicted Mafia boss who got out of jail by faking paralysis and anorexia has been arrested at a restaurant after more than two months on the run, police in Sicily said Tuesday.

Officers arrested Carmelo Di Stefano on Monday as he dined at a seaside village near the Sicilian city of Catania, which he had reached at the wheel of a sports car.

Police official Giovanni Signer said when officers asked him why he was not in a wheelchair, Di Stefano answered: ''It's a miracle!''

Di Stefano was sentenced to 30 years in prison for murder, associating with the Mafia and drug trafficking, police in Catania said in a statement.

He had been allowed to serve the sentence at his wife's home in the northern city of Bologna after being hospitalized twice for anorexia and post-traumatic paraplegia. Di Stefano, 36, escaped house arrest in September.

6.8-magnitude quake rattles island of Tonga

NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga -- A 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the Pacific island nation of Tonga, sending panicked residents into the streets at night, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

Residents in the capital, Nuku'alofa, 120 miles southwest of the epicenter, said their homes rattled, and the tremors set off frantic barking of dogs.

''There's no indication of damage right now in this area,'' said Faleo Vico, the duty Weather Office staffer in Nuku'alofa.