World datelines

El Salvador: Flood toll

SAN SALVADOR — Salvadoran authorities say at least 192 people were killed by floods and landslides that swept through the country last week. El Salvador's Civil Protection agency says in a statement that 89 of the victims were killed in the state of San Vicente, where days of heavy rains caused mud and boulders to sweep down the side of the Chichontepec volcano a week ago.

Italy: Mafia boss caught

ROME — Police captured one of Sicily's top Mafia fugitives on Sunday, dealing a stiff blow to the island's Cosa Nostra crime syndicate, Italian officials said.

Convicted mobster Domenico Raccuglia, who has been on the run for 15 years, now faces several life sentences for crimes including the murder of a rival's 9-year-old son, whose body was then thrown into a vat of acid. Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni described Raccuglia as Cosa Nostra's No. 2, and hailed his arrest as delivering "one of the hardest blows" to the Sicilian Mafia in the last few years.

Italy: First lady speaks

ROME — Iran's first lady made a rare public appearance and even more rare, a speech, at a Rome forum on the eve of a U.N. summit to fight hunger beginning Monday.

The wife of Iranian Mahmoud Ahmadinejad almost never appears in public with her husband and is believed never to have previously addressed a public gathering. With a black chador wrapped tightly about her, Farahi did not take the podium but spoke from her seat among the rows of spouses of some of the 60 heads of state expected to attend the summit.

Iran: Israeli abduction?

TEHRAN — Several Iranian news Web sites are reporting that a former deputy defense minister who has been missing for more than two years was abducted by Israeli agents.

Israel's Foreign Ministry refused to comment. Ali Reza Asgari disappeared while on a private trip to Turkey in February 2007.

Iraq: Veto threatened

BAGHDAD — Iraq's Sunni Arab vice president threatened Sunday to veto the country's election law unless changes are made giving Iraqis living abroad more guaranteed seats in parliament, throwing the January vote into question. The veto threat comes a week after lawmakers passed the long-delayed legislation, paving the way for national polls in January.

Pakistan: Explosives kill 3

PESHAWAR — A pickup truck laden with explosives attacked a police station in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, killing at least 3 people in an area that has become the focal point for militant retaliation against a recent army offensive. Suspected militants have killed more than 300 civilians and security personnel in the last month.

Paraguay: Deadly fire

ASUNCION — Paraguayan authorities say 1,200 people have escaped a fire that destroyed a supermarket on the outskirts of the capital, killing two people.

Officials say firefighters and police recovered the bodies of two dead males from the wreckage.