The world in brief

LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY “The airports are now considered the most important thing the rebels can focus on because all of the strikes now come from the air.” Anti-regime activist Mohammed Saeed in Syria Article, 2AMonti builds Italy campaign coalition

ROME - Ex-Italian Premier Mario Monti announced Friday he is heading a new campaign coalition made up of centrists, business leaders and pro-Vatican forces who back his “ethical” vision of politics, paving the way for him to possibly secure a second term at the helm of the government if his alliance wins big in parliamentary elections.

After a four-hour huddle with supporters, Monti stopped short of saying he is running as a candidate for the premiership, but said the Feb. 24-25 ballot list would carry the banner “Monti Agenda for Italy” or something similar.

Monti was appointed premier 13 months ago after his scandal-plagued predecessor Silvio Berlusconi failed to stop Italy from sliding deeper into the eurozone debt crisis. He quit earlier this month after Berlusconi pulled his party’s support from Monti’s government, but is now continuing in a caretaker role until the next elections.

Mexicans find possible drug tunnel

MEXICO CITY - Mexican authorities have discovered a sophisticated smuggling tunnel equipped with electricity and ventilation not far from the Nogales port of entry into Arizona, U.S. and Mexican officials said Friday.

The Mexican army said the tunnel was found Thursday after authorities received an anonymous call in the border city of Nogales, Sonora, south of Arizona. U.S. law enforcement officials confirmed that the Mexican military had discovered the 120-yard-long tunnel with elaborate electricity and ventilation systems.

U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Victor Brabble said the tunnel did not cross into the U.S.

The army said the anonymous caller was reporting gunmen standing outside a two-story house in a hilly neighborhood near the international bridge where motorists travel between Mexico and the United States.

Inside the house, soldiers discovered a fake wall inside a storage closet under a staircase that led to a dark room. After lifting a drain cover in that room, soldiers found another staircase at the entrance of the tunnel that went 16 feet underground and measured a yard in diameter.

Airstrike on al-Qaida in Yemen kills 2

SANA, Yemen - An airstrike killed two suspected al-Qaida militants in Yemen on Friday, and tribesmen with links to the group were believed to be behind an attack on an oil pipeline elsewhere in the country, Yemeni security officials said.

Officials and residents suspect that the strike in the southeastern province of Hadramawt was carried out by a U.S.

drone. Washington considers al-Qaida in Yemen the group’s most dangerous branch and has carried out drone strikes that have killed militants there before.

Yemeni security officials said the two men were killed while riding a motorcycle. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.

The attack around the town of Shehr comes just days after another suspected drone strike in the same area killed five al-Qaida militants.

Pakistan seeks aid to get police freed

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Pakistani officials pressured tribal elders Friday to help rescue 23 policemen believed to have been kidnapped by the Taliban during attacks on their posts in the country’s troubled northwest tribal region.

Also Friday, missiles fired from unmanned U.S. aircraft killed four suspected militants at a training center elsewhere in the remote frontier area.

The 23 tribal policemen disappeared before dawn Thursday when militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons attacked two posts in the Darra Adam Khel tribal region.