WORLD BRIEFS

PAKISTAN: It was justified, killer says

The confessed killer of a provincial governor pleaded guilty Monday in Rawalpindi to a murder he said was justified under Islam while, outside the court, supporters bearing flowers and cards wished him a happy Valentine's Day. Mumtaz Qadri, 26, a bodyguard for Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer, shot him dead in January. Qadri has told authorities he killed Taseer because the governor spoke out against harsh Pakistani blasphemy laws that impose the death sentence for insulting Islam. The assassination horrified Pakistan's relatively small liberal elite. Many Pakistanis, including some in the religious establishment and in legal circles, have praised Qadri - a sign of the spread of Islamic fundamentalist thought in this nation.

AFRICA, EUROPE: 7 seized in Taliban aid plot

Seven people, including two American citizens, were charged by the United States with plotting to smuggle drugs and sell surface-to-air missiles to the Taliban in Afghanistan. Four of them, working with people they thought were connected with the Taliban, agreed to receive and transport tons of Taliban-owned heroin through West Africa, the charges said. Instead, they were dealing with undercover informants for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Charged were Maroun Saade, Walid Nasr, Francis Sourou Ahissou, Corneille Dato, Martin Raouf Bouraima, Alwar Pouryan and Oded Orbach. Saade, Nasr, Ahissou, Dato and Bouraima were arrested in Monrovia, Liberia. Pouryan and Orbach were arrested in Bucharest, Romania, and await extradition to the United States.

CHILE: Aftershocks rattle area

Another strong earthquake has shaken central Chile, part of a wave of aftershocks that have been rocking the same area that suffered so much destruction almost a year ago from a disastrous magnitude-8.8 quake. A magnitude-6.6 quake struck just after midnight Sunday. A magnitude-6.8 quake Friday sent thousands running for higher ground. Chile has updated the toll from the Feb. 27, 2010, disaster to 524 deaths and 31 disappeared. That massive quake left 220,000 homeless and caused $30 billion in damage.