World datelines

Russia: Gadhafi on energy

MOSCOW — Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said Saturday he hopes to increase energy ties with Moscow during his first visit to post-Soviet Russia, which hopes to persuade him to back its plans for an OPEC-like natural gas cartel.

"We consider oil and gas cooperation especially important now," Gadhafi said in the Kremlin before talks with President Dmitry Medvedev. The Libyan leader, who last visited Moscow during the Soviet era, arrived in Moscow on Friday with an entourage of defense and energy officials and a dark-green Bedouin tent that was pitched in a Kremlin park.

Afghanistan: 19 militants killed

KABUL — A series of operations by U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan targeted an al-Qaida leader and a bomb-making cell, killing 19 militants, the coalition said Saturday.

Afghan police said they had investigated unconfirmed reports that civilians may have been killed and found that only militants died.

Afghanistan: Kin kidnapped

KABUL — The brother of the Afghan finance minister has been kidnapped in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, the second kidnapping of a prominent Afghan in Pakistan in the past two months, a spokesman for the Finance Ministry in Kabul said Saturday.

The man, Zia ul-Haq Ahadi, a businessman and the brother of Finance Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Ahadi, was abducted near his home in the residential district of Hayatabad on Friday morning, Aziz Shams, the spokesman, said.

Bolivia: Drug operations

LA PAZ— Bolivian President Evo Morales suspended U.S. anti-drug operations on Saturday as Washington's relations with his leftist government spiraled downward.

Morales accused the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration of espionage and funding "criminal groups" trying to undermine his government. Morales' decision creates "an unfortunate situation," DEA spokesman Garrison Courtney said in Washington, but added, "We will find other ways to make sure we keep abreast of the drug-trafficking situation through there."

Mexico: Police chief quits

MEXICO CITY — The top officer of Mexico's federal police force has quit amid allegations that drug gangs have infiltrated senior levels of crime-fighting agencies, according to a resignation statement posted Saturday.