The world in brief

LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Their behavior continues to be murdering and totally unacceptable in the eyes of the world.”

British Foreign Secretary William Hague,

ahead of a meeting in which the EU imposed more sanctions on members of the Syrian regime to stop violence in the country Article, this pageOff to Mexico, pope assesses violence

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE - Pope Benedict XVI set off on a pilgrimage to the New World on Friday, calling on Mexicans to conquer an “idolatry of money” that feeds drug violence and urging Cuba to leave behind a Marxism that “no longer responds to reality.”

The pope, speaking aboard a flight carrying him to central Mexico, said a lust for money was behind the drug violence that has claimed more than 47,000 lives in the country since a government crackdown began in 2006.

On Monday, Benedict will head for Cuba, and said it is “evident that Marxist ideology as it was conceived no longer responds to reality,” and he urged Cubans to “find new models, with patience, and in a constructive way.”

Asked about reports that dissidents in Cuba are still routinely harassed and arrested, including in the weeks leading up to his visit, Benedict said that the church wants “to help in the spirit of dialogue to avoid trauma and to help bring about a just and fraternal society, as we want in the whole world.”

5,000 African troops to hunt Kony

ENTEBBE, Uganda - The African Union said Friday that it will send 5,000 soldiers to join the hunt for notorious rebel leader Joseph Kony, a new mission that comes amid an Internet campaign targeting the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army.

The mission is to be launched in South Sudan today and will last until Kony is caught, United Nations and African Union officials said at a news conference in Uganda.

“We need to stop Kony with hardware - with military hardware in this case,” said Francisco Madeira, the African Union’s special envoy on the Lord’s Resistance Army. “We are on a mission to stop him.”

Earlier this month, an Internet movie campaign by the U.S.-based advocacy group Invisible Children sought to make Kony “famous” so that policymakers would make it a priority to remove him. The video has been viewed more than 100 million times.

The Lord’s Resistance Army is responsible for 2,600 civilian deaths since 2008, according to the African Union.

Taliban bomber kills 5 Pakistani rivals

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - A Taliban suicide bomber attacked the headquarters of a rival group Friday in northwest Pakistan, killing at least five fighters in the second such bombing this month, militants and a government official said.

Clashes among insurgents are common along the Afghan border, where tribal loyalties hold sway and the government has little or no control. The militants often are competing over proceeds from smuggling, kidnapping and drug production.

Over the past year, the Pakistani Taliban and Lashkar-e-Islam have been battling for control of the Tirah Valley, a remote part of the Khyber tribal region where Friday’s attack occurred.

The bombing killed at least five members of Lashkar-e-Islam, said Bakhtiyar Khan, a government administrator in Khyber. Hazrat Omar, a spokesman for the group, said six fighters and two passers-by died.

Mohammed Afridi, a Pakistani Taliban spokesman in Khyber, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Medvedev: Shield ruins nuclear parity

MOSCOW - A U.S.-led NATO missile defense plan that Washington says is aimed at deflecting potential Iranian threats will break existing nuclear parity with Russia and prompt it to retaliate, President Dmitry Medvedev warned Friday.

Moscow rejects Washington’s claim that the plan is solely to deal with an Iranian threat and has voiced fears that it will eventually become powerful enough to undermine Russia’s nuclear deterrent.

“No one has explained to me why we should believe that the new missile defense system in Europe isn’t directed against us,” Medvedev said in a speech at a security conference, adding that the shield will “break the nuclear parity.”

NATO has said it wants to cooperate with Russia on the missile shield, but has rejected Moscow’s proposal to run it jointly. Without a NATO-Russia cooperation deal, the Kremlin has sought guarantees from the U.S. that any future missile defense is not aimed at Russia and threatened to retaliate if no such deal is negotiated.