In the World

BAGHDAD - A U.S. Navy SEAL was cleared Thursday of charges he covered up the alleged beating of an Iraqi prisoner suspected of masterminding the grisly 2004 killings of four American security contractors.

The Blackwater guards' burned bodies were dragged through the streets, and two were hanged from a bridge over the Euphrates river in the former insurgent hotbed of Fallujah, in what became a turning point in the Iraq war.

A six-man Navy jury found Petty Officer 1st Class Julio Huertas not guilty of dereliction of duty and impeding the investigation. "It's a big weight off my shoulders," said Huertas, 29, of Blue Island, Ill.

The jury said it had heard too many differences between the testimony of a sailor who claimed he witnessed the Sept. 1 assault at a U.S. base outside Fallujah and statements from a half-dozen others who denied his account. - AP

MEXICO CITY - Troops battled a suspected drug gang in a wealthy neighborhood on the outskirts of Mexico City and captured an alleged major trafficker with a $2 million U.S. bounty on his head, officials announced on Thursday.

Jose Gerardo Alvarez Vazquez, known as El Indio or El Chayan, is suspected of being responsible for a spike in violence in states near the capital as part of a struggle for control of the Beltran Leyva drug cartel, the military and the federal Attorney General's Office said.

Authorities said Alvarez Vazquez, 45, was arrested along with 14 other suspected drug traffickers during a Wednesday night shootout just west of the capital.

Three died in the shooting and two alleged traffickers were wounded. Investigators did not say whether the dead were soldiers or suspected drug dealers. - AP

YEREVAN, Armenia - Armenia is freezing its ratification of an agreement to normalize ties with Turkey and reopen their shared border, the Armenian president said Thursday, dealing a setback to efforts to end the countries' long-standing enmity.

Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 to protest the Armenia-backed war by separatists in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The region is an enclave within Azerbaijan but under the control of Armenian forces.

The closure increased tensions already high over the issue of whether the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians during the final days of the Ottoman Empire amounted to genocide. Neither Turkey nor Armenia have ratified the October pact to restore ties.

President Serge Sarkisian said he was not abandoning the normalization process, but would "suspend the procedure of ratifying the protocols" until there is a "proper environment." - AP

Belgian Premier Yves Leterme's government collapsed after talks broke down to resolve a long-simmering dispute between Dutch- and French-speaking politicians over a bilingual voting district. Leterme offered his resignation, but King Albert did not immediately accept it.

A Rwandan court has granted bail to an opposition leader a day after arresting her on charges of collaborating with terrorists and "promoting genocide ideology." Victoire Umuhoza Ingabire was released but ordered not to leave the capital and to report to authorities weekly. Her party says she is being harassed for challenging President Paul Kagame in elections scheduled for August.

A German on trial for attacking his high school with an ax, knives, and molotov cocktails said he did not feel any compassion for his victims. Nine students were injured when the former student, 19, attacked the school last year. The Bavarian youth, who officials have not identified, faces 47 counts of attempted murder.