World Briefs

BEIJING – China vowed closer trade, energy and military ties with Latin American and Caribbean countries in a policy paper released yesterday ahead of a planned trip to the region by President Hu Jintao.

Although the paper contained few specifics, China pledged to pursue a "comprehensive and cooperative" partnership with a region that has traditionally been viewed as falling under US diplomatic sway.

"The policy paper is to further clarify China's goals towards Latin America and the Caribbean," Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said.

"It will help the international community and the Chinese people understand China's foreign policy towards the region."

The paper said China would give "positive consideration" to new free trade agreements with Latin American and Caribbean nations.

MEXICO CITY – A plane crash that killed two top officials in the war against drug trafficking appears to be an accident, but foreign investigators are in Mexico to rule out an attack by cartels.

The government Learjet 45 plowed into rush-hour traffic in a wealthy neighborhood of Mexico City late Tuesday, killing Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mourino, former anti-drug prosecutor Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos and at least 11 others, including four people on the ground, Mexico City prosecutor Miguel Angel Mancera told the Televisa network.

The deaths are a major blow to President Felipe Calderon's already embattled government and its fight against drug trafficking.

Mourino, 37, was Calderon's top Cabinet minister, in charge of domestic politics and security. Vasconcelos was previously in charge of prosecuting and extraditing drug traffickers.

MOSCOW – Russia will deploy missiles near NATO member Poland in response to U.S. missile defense plans, President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday in his first state of the nation speech. The president did not say how many missiles would be deployed.

Medvedev also singled out the United States for criticism, casting Russia's war with Georgia in August and the global financial turmoil as consequences of aggressive, selfish U.S. policies.

He said he hoped the next U.S. administration would act to improve relations. In a separate telegram, he congratulated Barack Obama on his election victory and said he was hoping for "constructive dialogue" with the incoming U.S. president.

Medvedev also proposed increasing the Russian presidential term to six years from the current four, a major constitutional change that would further increase the power of the head of state and could deepen Western concern over democracy in Russia.