The world in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I think this time our military demonstrated

to the whole world that it doesn’t make empty talk.”

Pyongyang resident Ri Pong Suk

Article, 1ANew drug-gang chief caught in Mexico

MEXICO CITY - Federal police said Wednesday that they captured the new leader of a drug gang formerly led by jailed U.S.-born suspect Edgar Valdez Villarreal, in another blow to a cartel fighting to control the region south of Mexico City to the Pacific resort of Acapulco.

Carlos Montemayor was arrested in Mexico City on Tuesday with the help of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and with information obtained after Valdez’s arrest on Aug. 30, said Ramon Pequeno, the federal police anti-drug chief.

Montemayor, whose daughter is married to Valdez, took over his faction of the splintered Beltran Leyva cartel after Valdez was caught, Pequeno said.

Authorities say Valdez, a Texas native known as “La Barbie” who faces possible extradition to the United States, tried to seize control of the gang after boss Arturo Beltran Leyva died in a December shootout with marines.

Yemeni attack leaves 17 Shiites dead

SANA, Yemen - A suicide car bomber struck a convoy of Yemeni Shiites on their way to a religious ceremony Wednesday, killing 17 and wounding more than 15 people, a security official said.

The official said authorities suspected that al-Qaida was behind the attack, though it would be the extremist organization’s first reported direct assault on the country’s Shiite minority group.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.

Yemen’s local branch of al-Qaida has been increasingly active over the past year, assaulting government targets inside the country as well carrying high-profile attacks abroad such as last month’s attempt to ship parcel bombs to the U.S. through cargo planes.

11 killed in violence across Iraq

BAGHDAD - Eleven people have been killed across Iraq in separate drive-by shootings and bombings, including one that targeted members of an anti-al-Qaida militia, Iraqi officials said Wednesday.

In the deadliest attack, a roadside bomb killed four people in the town of Shurqat, 155 miles northwest of Baghdad.

Three of the dead were members of the Sons of Iraq, a Sunni militia that has been instrumental in lessening al-Qaida’s deadly role in the country. Members of the group are often targeted by al-Qaida out of revenge and to intimidate others from joining them.

A Shurqat police official said that first a roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol in the town, which is just north of Saddam Hussein’s hometown, Tikrit.

No one was killed in that bombing, but as people gathered nearby to assess the damage, another roadside blast exploded just five minutes later and killed the three Sunni militia members and one bystander. Ten civilians were also wounded by the second blast.

Police, Christians clash in Egypt

CAIRO - Hundreds of Christians smashed cars and windows and tried to assault a municipal building in Cairo on Wednesday after police violently stopped the construction of a church, leaving one person dead.

Police clashed with Christians first at the church construction site in the early hours of the morning and then several hours later when a mob of hundreds assaulted the local governor’s office in retaliation.

The slain Christian was shot in the thigh and died after arriving at a nearby hospital, according to the official Middle East News Agency, which also said 68 people were injured in the clashes and 133 were arrested.

Two priests were summoned by the general prosecutor for interrogation.

Coptic Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s population of 80 million. They complain frequently of discrimination, though they generally live in peace with the Muslim majority with occasional flareups of tension and violence, especially over limits on church building.

Front Section, Pages 7 on 11/25/2010

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