LIBREVILLE — A police sting in Gabon brought down a ring of grave robbers suspected of selling human skulls to makers of traditional medicines and amulets, officials said Wednesday.

Eight Gabonese suspects were arrested last week in connection with the sale of nine human skulls and femur bone, said Col. Alphonse Ngo'o, head of judicial police in the Central African nation.

Police started searching for the traffickers after a number of families in the capital, Libreville, complained that their relatives' graves had been dug up or disturbed, Ngo'o said.

Mexico: Drug submarine seized

HUATULCO — Mexico's navy seized a homemade submarine carrying a drug shipment off the Pacific coast on Wednesday and arrested its four-man crew.

Similar vessels carrying cocaine have been discovered off Colombia and Central America, but navy spokesman Capt. Benjamin Mar said the seizure is a first for Mexico.

The 30-foot makeshift submarine was detected heading north about 200 miles off the southern state of Oaxaca, Mar said.

Green-topped and shaped like an arrowhead, the vessel was intercepted when it surfaced hours later. The crew was taken into custody without resistance.

Russia: Ex-tycoon seeks parole

MOSCOW — Jailed former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky filed a request for parole Wednesday and his lawyer challenged Russia's new president to follow through on promises to uphold the rule of law.

Khodorkovsky, called a political prisoner by Kremlin critics, was convicted of tax evasion and fraud in May 2005 after a politically tinged trial. He is serving an eight-year sentence and has been in custody for nearly five years.

The legal onslaught against Khodorkovsky and his Yukos oil company was widely viewed as Kremlin punishment for his independence and political ambitions. Yukos has since been taken over by the state oil company, Rosneft.