World Briefs

CAIRO – Egypt's government was hoping to look strong and proactive in the swine flu scare with its decision to slaughter all the country's pigs, after taking heavy criticism at home for poor planning and corruption in past crises.

But instead, some Egyptians called the move a knee-jerk overreaction that even the World Health Organization said was unnecessary.

Egypt, which has no swine flu cases, is the only country in the world to order a mass pig slaughter in response to the disease. The move mirrored Egypt's battle with bird flu, in which the government killed 25 million birds within weeks in 2006.

JERUSALEM – A U. N. agency urged Israel on Friday to freeze demolitions of Arab homes in east Jerusalem, citing a growing housing crisis in the part of the city the Palestinians claim as their future capital.

Some 1,500 demolition orders are currently pending and thousands more homes are at risk, according to a report by the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The report is the latest sign of growing international concern about Israel's housing policies in east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed.

BOGOTA – Colombian authorities have arrested a retired lieutenant colonel and seven other soldiers in the killings of two civilians who they allegedly presented as guerrillas slain in combat to inflate rebel body counts.

The former officers were part of a purge of more than two dozen soldiers last year — including various high-ranking officers.

Colombian prosecutors are investigating the killings of more than 1,600 people in the past five years who are suspected of being the victims of extrajudicial killings by security forces.

MEXICO CITY – Mexican health authorities said Thursday they confirmed 300 swine flu cases and 12 deaths due to the virus among a total of 679 people tested so far.

Less than half of the suspected cases tested have been confirmed as swine flu.

HAVANA – Fidel Castro again bristled at the Obama administration's steps toward improving relations with Cuba, writing in a May Day message that the U.S. would like to see Cubans "return to the fold of slaves."

The former president's column was published in official newspapers as Cuba celebrated international worker's day with a traditional march by hundreds of thousands of people across the sprawling Plaza of the Revolution.