MANAGUA -- U.S. legislators urged Nicaragua's president not to deport a
 California woman accused of providing medical care to leftist rebels and
 performing illegal abortions.

 Nicaraguan authorities issued the order in December against Dorothy Granada,
 70, a nurse who set up a clinic in remote Mulukukú village, 150 miles northeast of
 Managua, in 1990. The government accuses Granada of caring for members of
 the Andres Castro United Front, a leftist paramilitary group of ex-Sandinista
 soldiers, and of performing abortions, which are illegal in Nicaragua.

 Granada -- who in 1997 won the Pfeffer International Peace prize, which cited her
 dedication to social justice and nonviolence -- has denied the charges and is in
 hiding in Nicaragua pending a judge's ruling on her appeal.