World Briefs

JERUSALEM Israel would dismantle nearly two dozen wildcat settlement outposts in the West Bank in the next few weeks if the U.S. drops its objections to continued building in existing, government-sanctioned settlements, officials said.

Last week, President Barack Obama met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington and demanded a halt to all settlement growth. But Netanyahu has defied that demand since his return to Israel, saying his government will continue to build homes in existing settlements.

BAGHDAD – A roadside bomb struck a US convoy in western Iraq, killing three Americans, including a senior State Department official, US officials said Tuesday.

The blast killed Terence Barnich, deputy director of the State Department's Iraq Transition Assistance Office in Baghdad, a US soldier, and a civilian contractor as their convoy left a construction site near Fallujah on Monday, military and government officials said. Two others were wounded.

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea reportedly tested two more short-range missiles Tuesday, a day after detonating a nuclear bomb underground, pushing the regime further into a confrontation with world powers despite the threat of UN action.

Two missiles — one ground-to-air, the other ground-to-ship — with a range of about 80 miles were test-fired from an east coast launchpad, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported, citing an unidentified government official.

SAO PAULO – A man suspected of being a key player in al-Qaida’s international communications has been taken into custody by Brazilian authorities in a case shrouded in secrecy, police said Tuesday.

A federal police spokeswoman declined to identify the man or provide his nationality because the case falls under secrecy laws that let authorities withhold information while they investigate.

He was arrested under laws that prohibit the promotion of racism in Brazil, not on terrorism charges, the spokeswoman said.

CARACAS, Venezuela – President Hugo Chavez says Venezuela could eventually withdraw from the Organization of American States and seek Cuba's help to create an alternative regional group.

Chavez claims the OAS serves the interests of the United States. The Venezuelan leader has repeatedly criticized Cuba's expulsion from the organization in 1962 on grounds that its communist government went against the hemispheric body's principles. Chavez said "Venezuela would love to join Cuba" as a nonmember.