World Briefs

MEXICO CITY – Mexico is offering $2 million each for information leading to the arrest of 24 top drug lords.

The most-wanted list is a public challenge to the cartels' violent grip on Mexico. Some 8,000 people have been killed in the past two years, as gangs battle each other for territory and fight off a nationwide crackdown.

HAVANA – Cuba's state-controlled media on Monday downplayed eased U.S. rules on family ties with Cuba, calling the measure a defeat for the communist government's foes that still left Washington's 47-year-old trade embargo intact.

The article in the Communist Party newspaper Granma was the first official mention of the Cuba clauses in a package signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 11.

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa barred the Dalai Lama from a peace conference in Johannesburg this week, hoping to keep good relations with trading partner China but instead generating a storm of criticism.

Friday's peace conference was organized by South African soccer officials to highlight the first World Cup to be held in Africa, which South Africa will host in 2010.

MUMBAI, India – The only gunman charged in last year's terror attacks in Mumbai told an Indian court Monday, the first day of court proceedings, that he would agree to a government-provided lawyer and also repeated that he was a Pakistani national. Mohammed Ajmal Kasab — captured during the attacks and jailed ever since — addressed the court via video link from prison because of concerns about his security. This was his second such appearance.

TOKYO – A FedEx Corp cargo plane caught in a gust of wind crashed and burst into flames as it landed at Japan's Narita airport on Monday, killing the two crew and closing the main runway at the busy gateway to Tokyo. Airlines canceled more than 30 flights and diverted some to other airports as the longest of two runways was closed."We have information that strong winds caused the plane to divert from the runway," a Narita Airport spokeswoman said.