WORLD BRIEFS

GUATEMALA/Volcanic eruptions force evacuations

Explosive eruptions shook two huge volcanos in Central and South America on Friday, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes and disrupting air traffic as ash drifted over major cities. Guatemala's Pacaya volcano started erupting lava and rocks Thursday afternoon, blanketing the country's capital with ash and forcing the closure of the international airport. A television reporter was killed by a shower of burning rocks when he got too close to the volcano, about 15 miles south of Guatemala City. Winds blew the ash over the country's most populous city, Guayaquil, and led aviation officials to halt flights out of the Pacific port and from Quito to Lima, Peru.

PERU/Sentence of New Yorker may be commuted

Cabinet ministers will discuss whether to deport a paroled New Yorker who served 15 years in prison for aiding leftist rebels. Cabinet chief Javier Velasquez says ministers will discuss whether to commute the sentence of Lori Berenson, 40, at the next regular cabinet meeting Wednesday. If the sentence is commuted, Berenson will then be expelled. Under terms of her parole, Berenson must stay in Peru until her sentence ends, which without a commutation would be November 2015. Berenson's release from prison Thursday revived passions about her prior links to a rebel group that bombed banks and kidnapped and killed civilians during the 1980s and '90s.

BRITAIN/Gov't official apologizes for expenses

The new coalition government faced its first major setback Friday, as a senior Treasury minister admitted to claiming lawmakers' expenses to rent rooms in homes owned by his partner. Chief Treasury Secretary David Laws apologized and said he would immediately pay back the money, which the Daily Telegraph newspaper said totaled $57,822. Prime Minister David Cameron had promised to crack down on politicians' abuse of the parliamentary expenses claim system, after hundreds of lawmakers in the previous administration were found to have used taxpayers' money to fund everything from second homes to horse manure and a mole catcher. Five lawmakers have been charged with false accounting.