World digest || Anarchists grow more coordinated

Anarchists grow more coordinated

ROME

A loosely linked movement of European anarchists who want to bring down state and financial institutions is becoming more violent and coordinated after decades out of the spotlight and may be responding to social tensions spawned by the continent’s financial crisis, security experts say.

Italian police said Tuesday that letter bombs were sent to three embassies in Rome by Italian anarchists in solidarity with jailed Greek anarchists, who had asked their comrades to organize and coordinate a global “revolutionary war.”

Identical package bombs exploded at the Swiss and Chilean embassies in Rome on Thursday, badly wounding the two people who opened them. A third bomb was safely defused at the Greek Embassy on Monday.

Governor wants to release Obama info

HONOLULU

Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie wants to find a way to release more information about President Barack Obama’s Hawaii birth and dispel conspiracy theories that he was born elsewhere.

Abercrombie was a friend of Obama’s parents and knew him as a child and is deeply troubled by the effort to cast doubt on the president’s citizenship.

The newly elected governor will ask the state attorney general’s office about what can be done to put an end to questions about Obama’s birth documentation from Aug. 4, 1961, spokeswoman Donalyn Dela Cruz said Tuesday.

8 die in fire in abandoned building

NEW ORLEANS

The deadliest city blaze in decades killed eight homeless squatters who were burning debris in an abandoned warehouse to stay warm Tuesday, authorities said.

Firefighters said they could not tell the ages or genders of those who died because their bodies were so badly burned. Agencies that work with the homeless said they believe some or all the victims were in their late teens or early 20s.

Colonel: No way to seal Afghan border

WASHINGTON

There’s no practical way for U.S. troops to seal Afghanistan’s vast border with Pakistan and stop all Taliban fighters from slipping through, so they are focusing on defending vulnerable towns and fighting insurgents on Afghan soil, a U.S. military commander said Tuesday.

Army Col. Viet Luong said that “to secure the border in the traditional sense” would “take an inordinate amount of resources.” He said it would also require far more cooperation from the tribes inside Pakistan who often provide Taliban fighters safe passage.

Cuba commutes death sentence

HAVANA

Cuba’s Supreme Court on Tuesday commuted the death sentence against a Cuban-American who was the last person remaining on death row in the island nation, according to a veteran human-rights activist.

Elizardo Sanchez, the head of the independent Havana-based Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, said the court sentenced Humberto Eladio Real to 30 years in prison instead.

Associated Press