Peru asks for Fujimori's return
July 30, 2003 www.cnn.com
TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Peru has asked Japan to extradite former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori so he can stand trial in Lima, according to Peru's embassy in Tokyo.
Fujimori left for Japan in November 2000 after a corruption scandal involving his former security chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, who is now in jail.
Fujimori tried to resign the presidency by sending a fax from Japan, but Peru's congress did not accept it, and instead declared him morally unfit to govern.
He has so far been shielded from extradition attempts by his Japanese citizenship -- Japan says its nationals should be subject to Japanese law -- and by the fact the two countries have no extradition treaty.
Japan granted the former Peruvian leader nationality on the grounds that his parents, who emigrated to Peru where he was born, were Japanese.
Earlier this week, Fujimori posted a political manifesto on his Web site, announcing the formation of a new political movement, "Si Cumple," in an apparent bid to return to Peru for the 2006 presidential election.
"The time has come for the great Fujimorista counterattack, in order to put Peru back again in the road of order, peace, stability and progress," he wrote.
In September 2001, Peru issued an international arrest warrant for Fujimori on charges of murder, serious injury and forced disappearance in the cases of 25 people allegedly killed by paramilitary death squads in the early 1990s.
Japan declined Interpol's request for Fujimori's arrest and extradition in March this year.
Peru's embassy said a spokesman for the Japanese government told them, there was "no compelling reason to honor it in light of domestic law."

Bush wants marriage reserved for heterosexuals
Urges America to remain a "welcoming country"
July 30, 2003 Poste http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/07/30/bush.gay.marriage.ap/index.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush said Wednesday he has government lawyers working on a law that would define marriage as a union between a woman and a man, casting aside calls to legalize gay marriages.
"I believe marriage is between a man and a woman and I believe we ought to codify that one way or the other and we have lawyers looking at the best way to do that," the president said a wide-ranging news conference at the White House Rose Garden.
Bush also urged, however, that America remain a "welcoming country" -- not polarized on the issue of homosexuality.
"I am mindful that we're all sinners and I caution those who may try to take a speck out of the neighbor's eye when they got a log in their own," the president said. "I think it is important for our society to respect each individual, to welcome those with good hearts."
"On the other hand, that does not mean that someone like me needs to compromise on the issue of marriage," he added.
Bush has long opposed gay marriage but as recently as earlier this month had said that a constitutional ban on gay marriage proposed in the House might not be needed despite a Supreme Court decision that some conservatives think opens the door to legalizing same-sex marriages.
The Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that made homosexual sex a crime, overturning an earlier ruling that said states could punish homosexuals for having sex.
Conservative Justice Antonin Scalia fired off a blistering dissent of the ruling.
The "opinion dismantles the structure of constitutional law that has permitted a distinction to be made between heterosexual and homosexual unions, insofar as formal recognition in marriage is concerned," Scalia wrote. The ruling specifically said that the court was not addressing that issue, but Scalia warned, "Do not believe it."
Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colorado, is the main sponsor of the proposal offered May 21 to amend the Constitution. It was referred on June 25 to the House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution.
To be added to the Constitution, the proposal must be approved by two-thirds of the House and the Senate and ratified by three-fourths of the states. Top