Thailand

Protesters defiant as police boost presence

BANGKOK — Thailand's prime minister pledged Friday to use peaceful means to end the siege of the capital's airports by anti-government protesters and demoted the national police chief, amid speculation that he had disagreed with government policy.

But the likelihood of a violent confrontation still appeared high, as both protesters and police reinforced their presence at Suvarnabhumi international airport, seized Tuesday by the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy.

The group is demanding the resignation of the government, which it accuses of being a puppet of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by a 2006 military coup and fled overseas to escape corruption charges. Current Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat is Thaksin's brother-in-law.

The capital remains cut off from all civilian air traffic, stranding thousands of travelers and dealing a severe blow to the economy and tourism industry.

In brief

Cuba

Russian president visits Fidel Castro

HAVANA — Russia's president met with ailing revolutionary icon Fidel Castro on Friday, winding up a visit aimed at freshening relations with his country's old Cold War ally and raising Moscow's profile across the rest of the Latin America.

Dmitry Medvedev spent hours talking and sightseeing with President Raul Castro before meeting privately with his 82-year-old older brother.

Medvedev and Raul Castro laid a wreath at a monument to Soviet soldiers who died while serving in Cuba in the early 1960s, a symbol of Cuba's once-prominent part in the communist bloc and the history of its ties to Russia.

Russian officials deny that Medvedev's four-nation trip is meant to provoke the United States, but the chat with Fidel Castro capped meetings with Washington's staunchest opponents in the region. Details about the meeting with the older Castro were not immediately available.

JERUSALEM

Gaza mortars wound six Israeli soldiers

Palestinian militants in Gaza blasted a military base in southern Israel with mortars late Friday, wounding six soldiers in the latest assault in an unraveling of a truce between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers.

Israel's rescue service said one of the soldiers was critically injured, and the others were slightly or moderately hurt.

Responsibility for the attack was claimed by the small Popular Resistance Committees, an ally of the Islamic Hamas militant group.

The military base is near a fuel terminal that supplies much-needed gasoline and cooking fuel to impoverished Gaza.

According to the Israeli military, Palestinian militants fired a total of 11 mortars at southern Israel from Gaza on Friday. Three of them landed at the base, the military said.

Iraq

Suicide bomber kills Shiite worshippers

BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber struck Shiite worshippers Friday at a mosque run by followers of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, killing at least 12 people, a day after Iraqi lawmakers approved a security pact with the United States.

The blast underlined fears on both sides of the argument — proponents of the deal warn the Iraqis aren't ready to take over their own security while opponents, led by the Sadrists, say the American presence is the main reason for the instability plaguing the country.

In Baghdad, thousands of al-Sadr's loyalists took to the streets to rally against the deal in the main Shiite district of Sadr City.

The bomber blew himself up among a group of men waiting to be searched near the green iron gate at the entrance of the main mosque in Musayyib, 40 miles south of Baghdad.

Kenya

Somali pirates hijack one ship, free another

NAIROBI — Somali pirates seized control of a Liberian-flagged chemical tanker in the Gulf of Aden on Friday and a NATO helicopter gunship, too late to prevent the hijacking, picked up three security guards who jumped into the sea.

Both France and Germany, which have ships in the area as part of an international anti-piracy coalition, sent the aircraft after receiving a distress call just after dawn, French military spokesman Cmdr. Christophe Prazuck said. But in the 15 minutes it took to get to the site, the pirates had already boarded and had taken the crew of 25 Indians and two Bangladeshis hostage.

One hijacked ship, the Malta-flagged cargo ship Centauri, was released Thursday with all 25 Filipino crew unharmed after more than two months in the hands of pirates, Greece announced.

— From wire reports