World Briefs

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. – With California slipping into a financial sinkhole, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing to save more than $180 million by cutting short the sentences of thousands of immigrants in the state's prisons and turning them over to federal authorities for deportation.

Immigration authorities warn that a mass release of inmates from California and other states could swamp the federal system, which is already at capacity.

ISLAMABAD – Pakistani ground troops moved into Taliban-controlled areas Friday and engaged in the first gun battle of a new offensive in the volatile northwest, as an aerial and artillery bombardment pounded other targets.

Officials said Friday's action did not represent the start of a full-scale operation.

ROME – The global financial meltdown has pushed the ranks of the world's hungry to a record 1 billion, a grim milestone that poses a threat to peace and security, U.N. food officials said Friday.

The financial meltdown has compounded the crisis in what the head of the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization called a "devastating combination for the world's most vulnerable”.

PARIS – Air France focused on aiding families of victims from the crash of Flight 447, offering a first advance on compensation on Friday while investigators worked quietly to solve the mystery of what brought the jet down.

Air France chief executive Phillipe Gourgeon told RTL radio that the airline plans to make an advance of about $24,400 for each of the 228 victims.

Air France may also hold a memorial for the victims.

BOGOTA – Colombia's coca crop shrank by nearly a fifth last year while cultivation of the bush that is the basis of cocaine, rose for a third straight year in Peru and Bolivia, the world's two other coca-producing nations, the United Nations said Friday.

In its annual survey of the Andes' cocaine trade, the U.N. agency said coca cultivation in Colombia dropped to 81,000 hectares — the lowest since 2004 — while Bolivia's crop increased by 6 percent and Peru's by 4.5 percent.

The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime put Peru's production capacity last year at 302 tons compared to 113 tons for Bolivia.