News Briefs
BY Wire Reports
Sunday, October 14, 2012
10/14/12 at 2:40 AM
Mexico City: U.S. ID'd dead Zetas chief before body stolen
U.S. officials say the U.S. knew that Mexican marines had killed the head of the widely feared Zetas drug cartel before the body was stolen in a pre-dawn raid from a Mexican funeral home.
One official says the U.S. independently verified the identity of Zetas founder and leader Heriberto Lazcano, killed in a shootout Sunday afternoon in a northern Mexican town, before his body was stolen at gunpoint early Monday.
The account throws into question the Mexican navy's insistence that marines left Lazcano's body unguarded because they thought they had killed a common criminal. They only later discovered from fingerprints on the body that it was Lazcano, the navy said.
Kabul, Afghanistan: Blasts in southern Afghanistan kill 9
A suicide bomber on a motorbike blew himself up at a local intelligence office in southern Afghanistan, in the deadliest of three attacks that left at least nine people dead on Saturday, officials said.
Six people - four Afghan intelligence officers, a coalition service member and a civilian employee working for the coalition - died in the bombing, which took place in the Maruf district of Kandahar province.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, with spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi saying in a text message to reporters that the group was targeting international forces operating in Afghanistan.
A second attack killed two Afghan policemen and left three others wounded in Qalat, the capital of neighboring Zabul province, provincial spokesman Shariullah Nasari said. After a police vehicle ran over a roadside mine, he said, a second blast struck police who had rushed to aid their colleagues.
NATO also said that another service member with the U.S.-led coalition was killed in a roadside bombing in the south.
Madrid: Thousands march in Spain to protest austerity
Several thousand anti-austerity protesters in Spain marched down a major road in the capital banging pots and pans.
Many protesters also blew whistles as they blocked part of the Castellana boulevard Saturday carrying placards saying "We don't owe, we won't pay."
With unemployment nearing 25 percent, Spain has introduced biting austerity measures as well as financial and labor reforms in a desperate bid to lower its deficit and assuage investors' misgivings.
Spain has been granted a 100 billion euro ($130 billion) loan by eurozone nations to help banks worst hit by the collapse of the real estate sector. Spain's economy is in a double-dip recession with a forecast to shrink by 1.5 percent this year.
Toronto: FIFA: 3 Cuban footballers defected in Toronto
Soccer's governing body says the three Cuban soccer players who disappeared before a World Cup qualifier against Canada have defected.
FIFA said in an email the players defected Thursday, one day before the game. U.S. Customs and Border Protection would not confirm reports the men tried to cross into the United States at the Niagara Falls border point.
The defecting players left Cuban coach Alexander Gonzalez with only 11 players on his team. He said another player was ill and didn't make it to the game, which Canada won 3-0.
Last January, two players with the Cuban women's team defected following a match against Canada in Vancouver.
San Francisco: Wine-tasting boat sinks in San Francisco Bay
Nearly two dozen people who were enjoying a bachelor party on what's billed as San Francisco Bay's only "floating wine-tasting room" are OK after their boat hit a shoal near Alcatraz Island and began sinking Friday night, officials said.
The 45-foot Neptune hit the shoal around 8:42 p.m. and started taking on water after the impact left a 1-foot gash in the side of the boat, U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Lt. j.g. Josh Dykman said.
Three Coast Guard boats took all 22 passengers and crewmembers off the vessel and brought them to the pier, Dykman said. San Francisco fire and San Francisco police boats also responded. There were no injuries.
"We were only in the boat for maybe about 20 minutes or so," Matthew Rice said. "We were coming around Alcatraz checking it out and all of a sudden it was like boom ..."
Associated Images:
A man competes in Pacu Jawi or "mud cow racing" in Padang Pajang, West Sumatra, Indonesia, on Saturday. In the sport, farmers cling to wooden frames attached to two cows and race through a muddy paddy field. With their hands busy holding on to the frame, "jockeys" push their steeds to go faster by biting their tails. VINCENT THIAN / Associated Press
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