World Briefs

HARARE – A stalled power-sharing agreement in Zimbabwe came under fresh strain on Monday after Western powers said it would be unacceptable if Robert Mugabe were to remain president.

Although the opposition Movement for Democratic Change remains committed to a deal which would allow Mugabe to stay on as president while its leader Morgan Tsvangirai would become prime minister, both the United States and former colonial power Britain said that the 84-year-old had to leave office.

"Power-sharing isn't dead but Mugabe has become an absolute impossible obstacle to achieving it," said Britain's Africa minister Mark Malloch Brown.

KABUL, Afghanistan – President Hamid Karzai pressed America's top military leader Monday on the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan as it prepares to pour up to 30,000 more forces into the country.

Karzai asked Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, what kinds of operations the newly deployed troops would carry out and said the Afghan government should be consulted about those operations.

Mullen over the weekend announced that the U.S. would send an additional 20,000 to 30,000 troops to Afghanistan by summer, reflecting the deteriorating security situation around the country more than seven years after the U.S. invasion.

MEXICO CITY – Mexican police on Sunday found nine decapitated bodies and the army identified eight soldiers who had died fighting powerful drug gangs and whose murders were seen as a brazen challenge to the government.

The bodies showed signs of torture. They were left on the side of a highway about an hour north of the tourist resort of Acapulco in the southern state of Guerrero, state police said.

Their heads were stuffed in a plastic bag and left outside a shopping center.

Mexico's President Feline Calderon has deployed tens of thousands of troops and police since 2006 to take on drug cartels. The defense ministry vowed not to back down despite its latest losses. "They are trying to scare the military. Regardless, the ministry promises to continue fighting," it said in a statement.

MADRID, Spain – Economic woes eased for thousands in Spain on Monday as the Christmas lottery — billed among the world's richest — dished out some euro2.32 billion ($3.23 billion) in prizes.

The top prize of the lottery dubbed "El Gordo" (The Fat One) went to holders of tickets bearing the number 32365 — which appears on 1,950 tickets, each winning euro300,000 ($418,000). Thousands of others cashed in on runner-up prizes.

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