WORLD BRIEFS

IRAQ: 'Day of Rage' draws warning

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki warned his people to boycott a planned anti-government protest scheduled Friday, saying it was being organized by supporters of Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida. Al-Maliki gave no proof for his assertion, made in a nationally televised speech Thursday. His comments were the strongest to date on demonstrations slated to take place across Iraq that have been described as a "Day of Rage" on Facebook and in Internet postings.

SOMALIA: Drive against insurgents

Somalia, working with neighboring allied nations, has begun a coordinated offensive against al-Qaida-linked militants that has seen fighting in Mogadishu and two border towns involving Ethiopian tanks, officials said Thursday. Kenyan troops were deployed to a border crossing. Dozens have died in the push this week against the al-Shabab insurgent movement by 8,000 African Union peacekeepers and thousands more Somali forces. In Mogadishu, 39 civilians have been killed and more than 120 wounded in four days of fighting, said Ali Muse of Mogadishu's ambulance service.

IRAN: Pressing search for uranium

Iran is expanding its covert global search for the uranium it needs for its nuclear activities and a key focus is Zimbabwe, says a new intelligence report acquired by The Associated Press. The report from a member country of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, shared with the AP by an official from that nation, says Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi met secretly last month with Zimbabwean mining officials.

MEXICO: Sweep of drug suspects in U.S.

U.S. agents and local police arrested and interrogated more than 100 suspected associates of Mexican drug cartels across the United States on Thursday in response to the killing of a U.S. anti-narcotics agent in Mexico last week. DEA agents launched the operation after the Mexican military announced the arrest of eight suspects in the death of Jaime Zapata, an agent for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, who was killed in a roadside ambush.