World Scene

PAKISTAN

Interrogation center bombed, 13 killed

LAHORE | A suicide car bomber Monday struck a building where police interrogate high-value suspects in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore, killing at least 13 people and wounding dozens including women taking children to school, officials said.

The bomb blast came amid reports of a Pakistani crackdown on Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda operatives on its soil.

Pakistani officials reversed course Monday on a recently captured American suspected of being a member of al Qaeda, saying the man is not the terror network’s U.S.-born spokesman, as they initially thought.

The man arrested in the southern city of Karachi was first identified as al Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn, the most-wanted American in the terrorist network. But authorities later said it was a case of mistaken identity and that they have a different American in custody. Pakistani intelligence officials instead identified him as Abu Yahya Majadin Adam.

HAITI

U.S. missionary freed; leader held

PORT-AU-PRINCE | One of two U.S. Baptist missionaries still held on kidnapping charges in Haiti was released Monday, but the group’s leader remained in custody.

Charisa Coulter was taken from her jail cell to the airport by U.S. Embassy staff more than a month after she and nine other Americans were arrested for trying to take 33 children out of Haiti after the earthquake.

Defense attorney Louis Ricardo Chachoute said Ms. Coulter was released because there was no evidence to support the charges of kidnapping and criminal association. He predicted Laura Silsby, the leader of the Idaho-based missionary group, would be released soon as well.

UNITED NATIONS

U.S., Iran join to fight drugs

VIENNA, Austria | U.S. and Iranian officials, whose relations are normally fraught over Tehran’s nuclear program, have held a rare meeting at which they agreed to cooperate — on fighting drugs.

U.S. envoy Glyn Davies said he had held a meeting Friday with Ali Asghar Soltanieh of Iran, which is chairing the weeklong U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs meeting in Vienna.

The United States said Monday it was prepared to work with Iran on tackling global drug flows and there was room for cooperation with Iran on this issue.

MYANMAR

Election laws set stage for vote

YANGON | Myanmar announced the enactment of long-awaited laws Monday that set the stage for the country’s first election in 20 years to be held sometime this year.

State radio and television said the new laws would be published in state newspapers beginning Tuesday; it gave no details about them. The laws will set out the mechanisms and rules for the election and campaigning, and the conditions under which parties may participate.

Myanmar’s military government announced in early 2008 that the election would be held in 2010, but has not set a date.

PORTUGAL

Austerity plan to cut deficit

LISBON | Portugal became the latest euro zone country to announce austerity measures to rein in a ballooning budget deficit Monday as debt-stricken Greece urged global action to curb speculation in credit default swaps.

The European Commission said it was prepared to propose the creation of an IMF-style European Monetary Fund to cope with future debt crises in the euro single currency zone.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she favored the idea, which she said would require a change in the EU treaty, but the European Central Bank’s chief economist deemed it illegal.

• From wire dispatches and staff reports