A man arrested in Mexico and first believed to be Vicente Carrillo, boss of the powerful Juarez narcotics cartel, is really a well-known architect and not the notorious drug lord, his family said yesterday.

The capture of Carrillo, one of Mexico's biggest drug barons and listed as one of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's top 10 major international fugitives, would be an important victory in a war on drug gangs that is responsible for an explosion of violence on the U.S. border.

But relatives of architect Joaquin Romero Aparicio told local media that he was wrongly arrested in a Mexico City shopping center Saturday, confirming earlier reports by the Televisa network that the captured man was not Carrillo. Prosecutors were carrying out DNA tests and fingerprint checks.

Carrillo, who runs the Juarez cartel along with sidekick Juan Jose Esparragoza, is the brother of cartel founder Amado Carrillo, whose own attempts to change his appearance with plastic surgery led to his death on the operating table in 1997.

Edinburgh, Scotland

Police and Group-of-Eight protesters clashed early today, as demonstrators smashed car windows and attempted to blockade one of the main approach roads to the exclusive Gleneagles Resort hosting the summit.

More than 100 black-clad activists, many covering their faces with bandanas and wearing hoods, streamed from a makeshift camp in Stirling in central Scotland.

"Objects were thrown at police. There have been two arrests but no reported injuries," a police spokeswoman said.

Huay Nam Khao, Thailand

Thailand evicts Hmong refugees

Soaked by rain, thousands of poor ethnic Hmong refugees from Laos were living without shelter in northern Thailand yesterday, forced from their homes under a Thai campaign to pressure them to return to their native land.

Monday's evictions came after Thailand's National Security Council decided last month to deport illegal Hmong immigrants, whom Thai authorities suspect of illicit drug trafficking and helping Hmong exile groups stage attacks against Laos.

During the Vietnam War era, the Hmong in Laos sided with a pro-American government. After the communists won in Laos in 1975, many Hmong fled, fearing persecution. More than 300,000 Laotians, mostly Hmong, are known to have fled to neighboring Thailand, though most were repatriated or resettled in third countries, particularly the United States.

Oranjestad, Aruba

Pair freed; missing student's mom upset

The mother of a U.S. woman who disappeared in Aruba made a tearful plea yesterday for countries to deny asylum to two brothers she accused of a violent crime against her daughter after a court released them from jail.

An Aruban court Monday released the two Surinamese brothers who had been held since June 9 along with the 17-year-old son of a high-ranking justice official in Aruba. The three were the last people seen with Natalee Holloway, 18, on May 30, when she disappeared.

"Two suspects were released yesterday who were involved in a violent crime against my daughter," Beth Holloway Twitty said at a news conference.

"The criminals will not only be allowed to walk freely ... but there are no limits as to where they may go," she said. "I am asking all nations not to offer them a safe haven."

A judge on Monday ordered the release of brothers Deepak Kalpoe, 21, and Satish Kalpoe, 18, saying there was not sufficient evidence to continue holding them.

Joran van der Sloot, 17, is still in custody though he has not been formally charged.

Berlin

Private memorial at border dismantled

Locals and tourists watched in dismay yesterday as workers pulled up wooden crosses and ripped out a reconstructed section of the Berlin Wall, fulfilling a court order to dismantle a private memorial to people killed at the East German border.

The owners of the nearby Checkpoint Charlie museum had refused to remove it after their lease on the land expired in December. "Today, they have shot the dead a second time," said Burkhardt Sach, 52.

Museum owners built the memorial in October, using original sections to reconstruct a stretch of wall next to 1,065 crosses, their tally of those who died at communist East Germany's fortified border.

Also

Tobago slaying: A 22-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the slaying Friday of U.S. teenager Kitty Nichole Pepe in Tobago, police said yesterday. Police said they thought the two had been dating.

Pirates thwart aid: The World Food Program suspended relief shipments to Somalia after pirates seized a ship carrying aid for tsunami victims, a U.N. spokesman said yesterday.

Compiled from The Associated Press, Reuters and The Washington Post