ABU GHRAIB, Iraq - The U.S. military freed 500 Iraqi detainees from Abu Ghraib prison today, a goodwill gesture requested by the Iraqi government ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Another 500 will be released later this week, the military said.

The first batch was loaded onto Iraqi public buses and driven out of the notorious prison in the morning.

The U.S. government said it only releases detainees who are not guilty of serious, violent crimes - such as bombing, torture, kidnapping, or murder - and who have had admitted their crimes, renounced violence, and "pledged to be good citizens of a democratic Iraq."

Arab governments often pardon nonviolent offenders during Ramadan, which is expected to begin on Oct. 4 or 5. Senior Muslim clerics determine the start of the holiday based on their observations of the moon.

BELFAST, Northern Ireland - The Irish Republican Army once rejected disarmament as an intolerable demand for surrender. "Not a bullet, not an ounce," read defiant slogans in hard-line Catholic parts of Belfast.Today, the IRA will confirm it has bid farewell to the bulk of its arms, said an aide to John de Chastelain, a retired Canadian general who has been overseeing the weapons destruction at secret locations in the Republic of Ireland.The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.The breakthrough should smash the biggest stumbling block in Northern Ireland's peace process since Britain opened negotiations with Sinn Fein, the IRA-linked party, a decade ago.Unfortunately, most politicians and analysts agree, the IRA move comes years too late to kick start the revival of a Catholic-Protestant administration, the central dream of Northern Ireland's 1998 peace accord. That complex, landmark agreement required the IRA to disarm by May 2000.The Rev. Ian Paisley, whose uncompromising Democratic Unionist Party represents most Protestants today, has dismissed the coming IRA moves as inadequate.

LIMA, Peru - A powerful earthquake hit northern Peru late Sunday, causing power outages and cutting phone service throughout much of the region. At least one person was killed, officials said.The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a magnitude of 7.5 and struck at 8:55 p.m. It was centered 50 miles northeast of the jungle city of Moyobamba.Resident Carlos Mori said about 20 houses had collapsed and that four people were dead.By The Associated Press