Brazilian Soap-Opera Actor Convicted Of Killing Co-Star -- Around The World

RIO DE JANEIRO - A Brazilian soap-opera actor was convicted yesterday of murdering his co-star, in what prosecutors said was a brutal case of life imitating art.

Guilherme Padua, 27, was found guilty of premeditated murder in the 1992 stabbing death of Daniella Perez, 22.

Judge Jose Geraldo Antonio described Padua as "violent and perverse" and sentenced him to 19 years in prison.

In 1992, Padua and Perez were the stars of Brazil's top-rated nightly soap opera, "Body and Soul." He played "Bira," a jealous and brooding man rejected by Perez's fiery "Yasmin."

Prosecutors said Padua was romantically involved with Perez, who was married to another soap star, and that he plotted with his wife, Paula de Almeida Thomaz, to kill the actress.

200 REMAIN STRANDED ON FROZEN LAKE IN CANADA

BARRIE, Ontario - Helicopters rescued scores of people from a frozen lake that cracked as they were ice fishing yesterday, opening a 300-foot gap between them and the shore.

Blinding snow and winds of 55 mph temporarily grounded the rescue helicopters after they lifted about 300 people and two dogs to safety. Some 200 others remained stranded, and officials said the helicopters may not be able to reach them until this morning.

The 200 people were expected to be able to take shelter in heated fishing huts on the ice, said Constable Glenn Schweyer of York regional police.

The crack stretched about 20 miles across Lake Simcoe, located about 30 miles north of Toronto.

FEAR RISES IN ZAIRE AS FIGHTING ESCALATES

GOMA, Zaire - Several British aid workers left this eastern city yesterday under mounting fear the Zairian army would launch an air strike against rebels holding the city.

The government accused neighboring armies of joining the fighting in eastern Zaire and said drugged children were being used as human shields.

The Kivu region of eastern Zaire, which borders on Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda, is filled with refugees, troops, rebels and mercenaries in an explosive cocktail that, if ignited, could deepen the chaos of Africa's third-largest country.

JAPANESE LEADER APOLOGIZES FOR AIDE'S SEX-SLAVE REMARKS

BEPPU, Japan - Japan's prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto apologized to South Korea's president Kim Young-sam yesterday for a top aide's suggestion that many Korean women became sex slaves during World War II for the money - and that the Japanese military's use of the women was justified by the mores of the times.

At the start of a Japan-South Korea summit intended to improve often edgy relations between the two countries, Seiroku Kajiyama, Japan's chief government spokesman, was quoted as saying that the Asian women sent to front-line brothels were simply trying to make money and were no different from Japanese prostitutes.

Kim said it was "regrettable" that Japanese politicians have continually made remarks defending Japan's colonization of Korea from 1910 to 1945 and its actions during World War II.

- Seattle Times news services