WORLD BRIEFS

RUSSIA: Bomb kills 17 in Caucasus

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin blamed extremists "without souls, without hearts" for a suicide car bombing that killed 17 people Thursday in a crowded l market in the North Caucasus. It was the fourth terrorist attack at the market in a decade. The Kremlin has been trying to contain Islamic militancy in the mountainous southern region. Nearly 140 were wounded in the bombing in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia. Putin met with Russia's top Muslim cleric and said Russia's estimated 20 million Muslims should play a key role in eradicating Islamic extremism in the nation.

GULF OF ADEN: Marines free pirated ship

U.S. Marine commandos stormed a pirate-held cargo ship off the Somalia coast Thursday, taking nine prisoners without firing a shot in the first such boarding raid by the international anti-piracy flotilla, U.S. Navy officials said. The crew managed to kill the engines before taking refuge in an panic room-style chamber, leaving the ship adrift and the pirates so frustrated they started damaging equipment after hijacking the vessel Wednesday. The multinational task force was formed in January 2009 to patrol off the Horn of Africa. In a separate case, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov said a cargo ship held for four months by pirates has been freed. The Bulgarian-flagged chemical tanker Panega was hijacked off Aden, Yemen.

SOMALIA: Blasts kill 14 at airport

A suicide car bomber exploded at the gate to Mogadishu's airport Thursday, and suicide bombers in a second vehicle rushed toward the terminal before exploding themselves short of their goal, officials said. Up to 14 people were killed, including five attackers. The coordinated assault by al-Shabab fighters was the latest in a surge of attacks by Islamist insurgents.

CUBA: Fidel Castro signals change

Fidel Castro's comment to an American journalist that Cuba's economic system doesn't work is the strongest signal yet that the communist island is looking to private enterprise and foreign investment to bolster growth. "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore," Castro told journalist Jeffrey Goldberg of Atlantic magazine. Castro, 84, didn't elaborate, Goldberg said. Since reappearing in public in July following an illness that almost killed him, Castro's statements have focused on international affairs. His silence on domestic issues signals he is willing to allow his brother Raúl to reduce state control of the economy, said Tomas Bilbao, executive director of the Washington-based Cuba Study Group. "These are pragmatic admissions from an idealist," he said. Raúl Castro, 79, has initiated measures to open the economy since being handed power by his brother in 2006. Cuba has suffered its worst slide since the former Soviet Union ended its support in the 1990s, Bilbao said.