World Briefs

BEIJING – China promised more currency reform to ease trade tensions but told Washington to get its own economy in order as the two sides opened high-level economic talks Thursday.

The unusual Chinese appeal at the Strategic Economic Dialogue highlighted the close links between the world's largest and fourth-largest economies and the global importance of their ability to keep relations smooth.

In unusually pointed language, China's central bank governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, blamed the crisis on U.S. financial excesses and said they should be fixed.

"The important reasons for the U.S. financial crisis include excessive consumption and high leverage.” “The United States should speed up domestic adjustment, raise its savings rate and reduce its trade and fiscal deficits."

CIUDAD JUAREZ, MEXICO – THE NO. 2 federal prosecutor in a violent Mexican border city near Texas has been shot dead.

Jesus Martin Huerta is one of the highest ranking government officials killed in drug-fueled violence sweeping Ciudad Juarez.

The attorney general's office says two gunmen opened fire on Huerta's car while it was stopped at an intersection. A woman behind the wheel who also worked for the attorney general's office was also killed.

Police named no suspects in Wednesday's attack.

But drug gangs have increasingly targeted police and federal officials as they resist a national crackdown.

More than a dozen police officers have been shot dead this year in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israel on Thursday lifted a four-week ban on international journalists entering Gaza and temporarily eased a blockade on shipments of goods to the coastal strip.

Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner said an entry ban on international aid workers was also lifted. The announcement followed weeks of pressure from foreign governments and the leaders of major news organizations urging Israel to reopen Gaza to media.

Crossings between Israel and the Gaza Strip had been closed for more than four weeks since a shaky truce between Israel and Gaza's violent Hamas rulers began to unravel in a series of cross-border rocket attacks from Gaza and Israeli raids into the territory.

For the fifth time since the closure began, Israeli authorities on Thursday temporarily opened the crossings to goods traffic. They allowed in 40 truckloads of medicines and essential foodstuffs and permitted 105,700 gallons of diesel fuel for the Gaza power plant to be pumped through a trans-border pipeline.