World Briefs

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan – The commander of the Pakistani Taliban Baitullah Mehsud claimed responsibility Tuesday for a deadly assault on a Pakistani police academy and said the group was planning a terrorist attack on the House “that will amaze everyone”.

Mehsud, who has a $5 million bounty on his head from the U.S., said Monday's attack on the outskirts of Lahore was retaliation for U.S. missile strikes against militants along the Afghan border.

STRASBOURG, France – Some 25,000 French and German police — and perhaps as many protesters — are taking up positions around three cities on both sides of the Rhine before a NATO summit involving President Barack Obama and 25 other leaders.

French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie called it France's biggest security operation in years, and warned of possible terrorist acts and clashes over Afghanistan and waging war in the 21st century. The summit runs Friday and Saturday in the French city of Strasbourg and the German cities of Kehl and Baden Baden.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – In a cautious first step toward unlocking 30 years of tense relations, senior US diplomat Richard Holbrooke had a brief but cordial meeting with Iran's deputy foreign minister Tuesday at an international conference on Afghanistan.

The meeting was the first official face-to-face interplay between the Obama administration and the Iranian regime. But Hillary Clinton cautioned that the talks were not "substantive."

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – The FBI says an identity-theft ring in Puerto Rico stole the personal data of 7,000 children and was selling it in the U.S.

The special agent in charge of Puerto Rico for the FBI says members of the ring broke into dozens of schools to steal documents.

Authorities told reporters that some members were illegal immigrants from the Dominican Republic who sold the data to countrymen seeking to enter the U.S.

TRIPOLI, Libya – An overcrowded boat packed with migrants seeking a better life in Europe capsized in the stormy Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya, killing at least 21 and leaving 200 missing and feared dead four days after the accident.

The boat, which a Libyan police official said had a capacity of just 50, overturned Friday in high winds with about 250 on board.