COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A lawyer for a runaway Christian convert from Ohio who was also an illegal immigrant says the 18-year-old woman has gained permanent residency in the United States.

Kort Gatterdam, a lawyer for Rifqa Bary, said Tuesday the news means Bary can now start applying for a driver’s license, Medicaid coverage and college scholarships.

Gatterdam says Bary, a native of Sri Lanka, received her permanent residency card last week and can apply for citizenship in five years.

Bary had sought the green card as she argued in court she could not reunite with her Muslim parents, whom she alleged threatened her with harm for converting.

Gen David Petraeus said the action could cause problems “not just in Kabul, but everywhere in the world”.

Pastor Terry Jones, of the Dove World Outreach Centre, has said he will make a bonfire this week on the anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks.

Hundreds of Afghans have protested against the plan in the capital, Kabul.

The US embassy in Kabul issued a statement condemning the plans by the non-denominational Dove World Outreach Centre in Gainesville, Florida.

President Barack Obama, in one of his most dramatic gestures to business, will propose that companies be allowed to more quickly write off 100% of their new investment in plants and equipment through 2011.

The unusually blunt International Atomic Energy Agency warning was voiced in a restricted report on Iran made available to The Associated Press that otherwise contained few surprises. It followed Iran’s recent decision to strip two experienced inspectors of the right to monitor its nuclear activities after the two reported what they said were undeclared nuclear experiments.

Burma’s military leader, General Than Shwe, is beginning a five-day visit to its major ally China.

He is expected to have talks with the country’s leaders and seek support for his government’s plans to hold national elections later this year.

Burma’s military government is shunned by many countries because of its human rights record.

But it has strong relations with China, which has invested millions of dollars in projects in Burma.

A Mexican Senate committee reported last Tuesday that drug gangs have dominated the mayors of some 195 municipalities and influence another 1536, which account for a staggering 71% of the total two thousand 439 municipalities in Mexico.

The president of the Municipal Development Committee of the Senate, Ramon Galindo, said that organized crime groups “have complete control over 8% of the municipalities and have infiltrated up to 63 percent of the total.”

In the study titled “Local authorities and organized crime,” prepared by experts and presented by the committee, it is detailed how criminal cells operate in the municipalities.

“In most Mexican municipalities there is a criminal structure capable of controlling the business of organized crime, drug pushing, cultivation and drug trafficking, kidnapping and extortion,” warns the document.

Map showing the total number of municipalities in Mexico. 71 percent of these municipalities are controlled or influenced by drug cartels

The chairman of the Senate committee explained that the municipalities are prey to criminal groups because they are “the weakest link” because of the lack of funding, lack of sustainable economic and social policies, and neglect and disinterest of state and federal governments.

According to the study, the cartels have generated a “expansive, simple and sustainable” filtration in the municipalities.

The cartels have learned and mastered the formula of the equation. They have understood that the municipality, as the level of government closest to people, is key in their success, particularly for drug pushing operations,” according to text.

He adds that later they establish themselves, at a municipal level, logistical support, infrastructure, political cooperation and the complicit silence.

The analysis finds that the criminal structure operates “under the shield of corruption: politically protected and logistically supported by the municipal police,” which “keeps the red lights turned on.”

Galindo said, to counteract this problem, it is “urgent” to adjust policies and strengthen municipalities politically and economically.

Additionally he added the need for all local government officials: mayors, aldermen, and trustees, to stop being simple decorative figures and become true exemplifying “pillars of the state.”

The senator added that another outstanding issue is to reduce threats and even death in those localities which are in dispute by warring cartels.

In the past three years drug cartels, who have increasingly taken on the characteristics of an insurgent rebel movement, have assassinated 41 local officials, including mayors, former mayors, magistrates, council clerks and mayoral candidates.

The senator predicted, in his closing statement, the war against drugs and organized crime launched by President Felipe Calderon, will be long and drawn out, unless strategies for long term social and economic development are made a priority within municipalities across the country.