WORLD IN BRIEF

U.N. peacekeepers criticized

African leaders criticized the world’s largest United Nations peacekeeping force Friday for failing to protect civilians and end the violence that is convulsing eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon acknowledged the 17,000 troops were “stretched to the limit.” He spoke in Nairobi, Kenya, at a summit with African leaders, including Congolese President Joseph Kabila and Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Meanwhile, fighting raged anew in Congo between the army and rebels outside Goma, where about 45,000 refugees from the rebellion in mineral-rich eastern Congo have taken refuge. Ban denied an earlier U.N. account that Angolan troops had joined Congolese soldiers battling rebels near Goma, a report that had raised new fears the conflict could spread in the region.

Cartel weapons cache discovered

The Mexican army said it has made its largest seizure of drug-cartel weapons ever. Army officials said they confiscated 288 assault rifles, 500,000 rounds of ammunition, numerous grenades and several .50-caliber rifles at a house in the city of Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas. Three people were detained in Thursday’s raid. Assistant Attorney General Marisela Morales said Friday the arsenal “is the largest in the history of Mexico.” The announcements came on another day of extreme violence in Mexico. In the northeast, police mistakenly opened fire on a family of six, seriously wounding a teenage girl. In the west, inmates rioted, killing six. And police in Tijuana found three more bodies accompanied by messages that appeared to be from drug traffickers.

Missile defense plan awaits 2 votes

Poland’s foreign minister said the fate of a planned U.S. missile defense system in Eastern Europe now depends on the Czech Republic and that prospects of Czech approval are growing more distant. The Polish and Czech governments signed deals this year to host parts of the system, but approval of their parliaments is needed. Poland’s is expected to easily accept the placement of 10 missile interceptors there, but a close vote is expected when the lower house in Prague votes next year on a linked radar base in the Czech Republic.

Don’t sign pact, Shiite clerics warn

Shiite clerics warned the Iraqi government not to sign a security pact that would keep U.S. troops in Iraq until 2012, as the prime minister studied what U.S. officials described as the final draft. Parliamentary approval of the agreement is needed by year’s end when the U.N. mandate expires. Failure to approve the agreement or get the U.N. Security Council to issue a new mandate would force the U.S. to suspend operations in the country. Meanwhile, the leader of a jihadi group in Iraq argued that the election of Barack Obama as U.S. president represented a victory for radical Islamic groups that had battled U.S. forces since the invasion of Iraq. The speech was made by the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella organization that claims ties to al-Qaida.

New missile strike follows anger, pleas

A suspected U.S. missile targeting a Taliban commander in Pakistan killed 13 people near the Afghan border, a sign that America’s new general for the region, David Petraeus, is not heeding Islamabad’s pleas for a halt to the strikes. Pakistani officials say the raids violate the nuclear-armed country’s sovereignty.

Postwar protest draws thousands

Thousands of opposition supporters demonstrated in the first major protest against Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili since the nation’s August war with Russia. The United Opposition coalition held its rally in Tbilisi exactly a year after riot police used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons to disperse peaceful demonstrators who called for the ouster of Saakashvili.

—- From news services

Leapin’ lizards, it’s a whole new species

French scientists said they discovered a new species of gecko, after hatching an egg 12,000 miles from its South Pacific island home. Given the Latin name Lepidodactylus buleli, the 3-inch-long gecko makes its home near the tops of the trees that line the west coast of Espiritu Santo, one of the larger islands of the Vanuatu archipelago east of Australia, France’s National Museum of Natural History said.

—- Associated Press