World Briefs

BOGOTA – A Colombian warlord who has cooperated closely with prosecutors was extradited to the United States on Thursday despite human rights groups' objections that sending him away could leave hundreds of murders unsolved.

Heberth Veloza, alias "HH," has admitted to personally killing more than 100 people and has acknowledged that fighters under his command killed hundreds more. He is the 17th Colombian paramilitary boss to be extradited to the United States in less than a year to face drug-trafficking charges.

CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he has authorized Brazil's leader to raise the subject of Venezuela in talks with President Barack Obama this month.

U.S.-Venezuelan relations remain prickly despite the change of government in Washington.

Silva plans to meet Obama on March 17 in Washington and Chavez said that the Brazilian leader "has been calling me, worried by these (U.S.) statements that have continued coming out, attacks against Venezuela."

MOSCOW – In some of his strongest criticism of his successors, Mikhail Gorbachev on Thursday likened Vladimir Putin's United Russia party to the worst of the communists he once led and helped bring down, and said Russia is today a country where the parliament and the judiciary are not fully free.

In an interview with The Associated Press some 20 years after the Soviet empire started its rapid collapse on his tumultuous watch, Gorbachev also said the global economic crisis showed capitalism should be tempered with elements of the socialist system he played such a critical role in sweeping away.

BAGHDAD – A car bomb tore through a crowded livestock market south of Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 13 people in a mainly Shiite area that the U.S. military has described as one of the safest in Iraq.

The blast, which wounded 57 others, struck the market at the height of trading.

"We had just started to have our breakfast in a tea shop inside the livestock market when we saw huge flames rising, and people started to run," Hussein Abdul-Kadir said. "We saw several bodies and carcasses, some burned and on the ground."

MEXICO CITY – The Mexican government is concerned about getting less funding for its battle against drug trafficking under a bill passed by the U.S. House.

Deputy Secretary of Foreign Relations Carlos Rico says he is concerned that the bill passed last week allotted $300 million for Mexico under the so-called Merida Initiative, $100 million less than originally agreed upon between the governments.