Factional fighting unhinges Beirut

Beirut, Lebanon

Armed clashes in the Lebanese capital Wednesday between supporters of the Western-backed government and the Hezbollah-led opposition threatened to ignite simmering tensions in the divided country. Opponents of the government set tires ablaze to block the capital's main roads, notably those leading to the international airport where flights were suspended.

Protesters said they were answering a call by labor unions to oppose government policies aimed at combating inflation, but the unions in the end canceled a planned march because of the chaos.

Lebanon's sectarian and political tensions mirror a broader regional conflict. The U.S. and Saudi Arabia support the Sunni-led government while Iran and Syria back the Shiite-led opposition.

Lebanon has been without a president since November amid an ongoing political deadlock between the two rival camps.

Johannesburg, S. Africa

Ruling-party thugs kill Mugabe foes

Gangs of ruling party youths beat to death 11 opposition activists in a single remote Zimbabwean town Monday, setting a gruesome new standard for the postelection violence surging through that nation, according to opposition party officials.

Two large truckloads of youths, led by two senior members of President Robert Mugabe's party, marauded through Chiweshe, a rural area about 90 miles north of Harare, the capital, and beat prominent members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change with branches, gun butts, bicycle chains and whips, party officials said. Four of the victims were teachers, and at least two were elderly.

The deaths brought to at least 32 the number of opposition activists killed in the past two weeks, said party spokesman Nelson Chamisa. Thousands of others have been beaten, tortured, arrested, kidnapped or chased from their homes since the March 29 election, opposition officials say.

The violence apparently was intended to weaken opposition resolve ahead of a possible runoff election. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the election but failed to reach the majority necessary for a first-round victory, according to official results.

Bogotá, Colombia

Drug-linked militia leader sent to U.S.

The Colombian government Wednesday extradited a right-wing paramilitary leader to the United States, where he has been wanted on drug-trafficking charges.

Carlos Mario Jimenez, alias Macaco, had given himself up as part of a paramilitary demobilization program that by 2006 had seen 31,000 militia members and leaders lay down their arms, a keystone of President Alvaro Uribe's plan to end this country's four-decades-long civil war.

Militia leaders including Jimenez were promised light prison sentences and immunity from extradition as long as they gave up their lives of crime, made restitution and confessed fully for their crimes. But Jimenez violated the terms of the agreement of the Peace and Justice Law by continuing to run his drug trafficking and illicit business empire from jail, Colombian and U.S. officials charged Wednesday.

Also

Italy's latest government: Conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi, whose coalition won parliamentary elections last month, formed Italy's 62nd postwar government on Wednesday.

Amazon death toll: Rescue workers say they have retrieved another nine bodies from a boat that capsized in northern Brazil, raising the death toll on Wednesday to 41 in one of the worst accidents in decades along the Amazon River system.

Seattle Times news services