BEIRUT — A car bomb exploded Monday in a district of Damascus that is home to many security personnel and members of President Bashar Assad’s Alawite sect, killing 11 people and wounding dozens of others, the official state news media reported.

The attack was part of a wave of violence reported Monday across Syria, including a massive car bombing apparently targeting a military post in the central province of Hama and aerial bombardment of rebel-held towns in northwestern Syria. Scores were reported killed.

Monday’s car bombing in Damascus’ Mazzeh Jabal 86 district, which has a large concentration of Alawites, is the latest in a series of explosions in the Syrian capital that could inflame sectarian tensions. Mostly Sunni Muslim rebels have been fighting to oust Assad, whose Alawite sect is an offshoot of the Shiite branch of Islam.

Other Damascus-area bombings in recent weeks have hit near a revered Shiite shrine, Sayyida Zainab, and in the Bab Touma district, a historic Christian neighborhood in Damascus’ Old City.

JERUSALEM — Israel's prime minister and defense minister tried to move their country closer to an attack on Iran in 2010 but military and security chiefs resisted, an Israeli television program reported Monday.

The Channel 2 television magazine “Fact” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the military to enter a level of preparedness termed P Plus, reportedly code for preparing for a military strike.

It remained unclear whether they intended to follow through with a strike or just wanted to signal that Israel was prepared to make such a move. Ultimately the instructions to the military were dropped.

In a taped interview that followed the segment, Netanyahu told “Fact” that he was “not eager to go to war” and would be “very happy” to see international sanctions force Iran to rein in its nuclear program, which Tehran says is peaceful in intent but Israel, the U.S. and others fear will produce a nuclear weapon.

“At the end of the day, as prime minister of the Jewish state, the responsibility is mine to prevent the threat to our existence,” Netanyahu said.

In the feature, which aired Monday night, veteran investigative journalist Ilana Dayan reported that the order was given somewhat casually, at the end of a ministerial forum convened on a different matter.

But Gabi Ashkenazi and Meir Dagan, then army chief of staff and head of Mossad, respectively, resisted the instruction, said Dayan's report. Ashkenazi reportedly said the army wasn't ready; Dagan contended that only the security Cabinet could authorize such a step because it might lead to war. Both men have since left their posts.

The report highlights the continuing disagreement between Netanyahu and some of his top security officials on the possibility of an Israeli strike against Iran's nuclear program, a topic that in recent years has become a permanent fixture on the agenda in Israel.

Two foreigners were killed and a third injured when a series of explosions rocked Bahrain, government officials said Monday, a new eruption of violence that authorities labeled as terrorist acts bent on destabilizing the divided country.

The three men, all Asians, were victims of homemade bombs, one man dying after kicking a device and another killed near a movie theater, Bahraini police told state media.

The third man, a cleaner, was reported to be in serious condition. Like many Gulf countries, Bahrain brings in a large number of foreign laborers from Asia, including many workers from Pakistan and elsewhere in South Asia.

“The culprits who committed these heinous crimes will be dealt with severely and pursued and legal actions will be taken against them in compliance with provision of the anti-terror law,” the Bahrain News Agency said in a statement attributed to Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Khalifa.

The main opposition party, Wefaq, condemned the reported attacks but questioned what had happened. “Due to absence of independent human rights and media parties, it is difficult to clearly detect the truth behind incidents that are said to have occurred,” it said in a statement.

The reported explosions in the heart of Manama mark a new kind of violence in the island nation. Until now, clashes have largely been confined to the villages outside the capital.

Bahrain has been enmeshed in turmoil for more than a year and a half, as dissidents push for greater democracy and a stronger voice for Shiite Muslims in the Sunni monarchy. Though the Bahraini government has agreed to some reforms after an independent commission called for change, human rights groups and opposition activists say abuses and suppression of dissent have persisted.

MADRID -- As Spain's economy sputters, the 2013 calendar is helping the country do what its politicians can't: cut down the number of public holidays.

In a move to boost productivity, the cash-strapped Spanish government announced earlier this year that it would eliminate Spaniards' beloved puentes, or "bridge" weekends. That's when a holiday falls on a Tuesday or Thursday and, to make a long four-day weekend, workers take off the Monday or Friday in between. Many employers tacitly acquiesce to an extra vacation day, and some close their offices altogether.

With Spain's economy ailing, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has called the puentes a luxury his country simply can't afford. So with some exceptions, such as Christmas or New Year's Day, most holidays will be moved to the nearest Monday, creating a three-day weekend instead.

But the government has been mired in negotiations with the Roman Catholic Church, regional governments and labor unions -- all of which want their holidays celebrated on fixed dates, regardless of the day of the week. So despite an agreement with Spain's largest business federation back in January, the calendar of public holidays was not altered in time for the start of the school year two months ago.

By lucky coincidence for the government, most of Spain's 2013 holidays fall on Monday, Friday or weekends anyway, saving politicians the headache of rejiggering the calendar for now. However, two "bridge" weekends will remain, with more in certain regions.

The holiday shuffle will commence in earnest in 2014, Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría announced Friday. She outlined possible compromises: The Catholic Church, for example, may agree to celebrate All Saints' Day (traditionally Nov. 1) on a Monday, in exchange for having the Day of the Immaculate Conception fixed on Dec. 8. Unions are pushing for Labor Day to remain on May 1, in accordance with most of Europe. Disagreements persist over at least three other holidays.

Spain has an average of 14 religious and municipal holidays per year, 40% more than the United States. Germany has between eight and 11 public holidays, depending on the federal state. France has between 11 and 13, again depending on the region.

ALSO:

Obama still a winner in Europe, poll shows

New Coptic Christian leader selected in Egypt

Mexican officials capture key lieutenant of Sinaloa drug cartel

-- Lauren Frayer

Photo: A swimmer on the beach last week in San Sebastian, Spain. Credit: Juan Herrero / EPA

MEXICO CITY -- A drug capo described by Mexican officials as "one of the most important lieutenants" for Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the fugitive leader of the Sinaloa cartel, has been captured, the Defense Ministry announced Sunday.

Jesus Alfredo Salazar Ramirez, known as "The Doll," was taken into custody Thursday by military officials and federal prosecutors in the state of Mexico, outside the capital, according to a news release [link in Spanish]. Salazar is the alleged leader of a cell within the Sinaloa cartel known as "The Salazars" and is wanted in both the U.S. and Mexico on drug trafficking charges.

Guzman's Sinaloa drug cartel is probably the most powerful in Mexico. Many Mexicans suspect the federal government has favored the Sinaloa gang in its six-year crackdown on the myriad groups that control drug production and distribution in the country.

The government of outgoing President Felipe Calderon strenuously denies such rumors and argues that it has gone after all cartels with equal zeal. The arrest of Salazar may bolster that argument among some here, especially as it comes after the arrest last week of another top Sinaloa lieutenant, Jose Salgueiro Nevarez, alias "El Che."

Calderon leaves office in December with Mexicans deeply divided about his legacy and his career-defining decision to crack down on the drug cartels. The president boasts that his government has killed or captured two-thirds of the 37 most dangerous criminals in the country.

But more than 50,000 people have died since Calderon unleashed the Mexican military on the drug gangs, and it is unclear if the cartels' power has ebbed: The Times' Tracy Wilkinson reported Saturday that Coahuila, Mexico's third-largest state, has quietly been taken over by the Sinaloa cartel's bloodthirsty rivals, the Zetas.

Salazar, Mexican officials allege, controlled the growth, production and trafficking of drugs in the state of Sonora, which borders Arizona and New Mexico; and part of the state of Chihuahua, which borders New Mexico and Texas. Most of the drugs, officials said, was sent to the U.S.

Officials said Salazar is also suspected of directing numerous executions, including the slaying of Mexican peace activist Nepomuceno Moreno in November 2011. Moreno was a grieving father who had joined the high-profile peace movement headed by poet Javier Sicilia.

Moreno had accused police of abducting his son. He was gunned down by men who intercepted his car in the Sonoran capital, Hermosillo.

ALSO:

An industry fortified by Mexico's drug war

Mexico drug war displaces families in Sinaloa highlands

Leader of Mexico's Zetas drug gang proves elusive even in death

-- Richard Fausset 

Photo: Mexican authorities Sunday provided a photo of alleged Sinaloa drug cartel figure Jesus Alfredo Salazar Ramirez, who was taken into custody last week. Credit: Sedena

CAIRO -- A bishop from the Nile delta was chosen to lead the Coptic Orthodox Church on Sunday when a blindfolded altar boy picked his name from a glass chalice in a ceremony resonant with tradition but marked by anxiety over heightening tensions between Christians and Muslims across Egypt.

Bishop Tawadros became the Church’s 118th pope after his name was selected from three finalists at a Mass in St. Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo. He succeeds Pope Shenouda III, who died in March after four decades as patriarch of the largest Christian community in the Middle East. Copts make up about 10% of Egypt’s population of 82 million.

Tawadros inherits a Church uneasy over simmering sectarianism amidst the rise of hard-line Islamists. Many wonder if he will choose to be a vibrant voice for a Christian community that has endured recent church burnings, deadly attacks and fears that Copts will be further isolated by the government of President Mohamed Morsi, a former leader of the once-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

Cheers echoed through the cathedral when the acting head of the Church, Bishop Pachomious, read out Tawadros’ name, picked by a blindfolded boy whom the devout believed was guided by God. The new 60-year-old pope was a pharmacist before entering a monastery in 1986, according to the official state news agency. He had been serving as a bishop in Beheira in northern Egypt.

The Coptic Laity Council was reported as praising Tawadros for “his wisdom, firmness and ability to maintain good rapport with everyone in his province, both Christians and Muslims alike.”

The Coptic Church, which was founded in the 1st century by St. Mark and predates Islam, has, despite periods of unrest, long co-existed with Muslims. The secular government of deposed President Hosni Mubarak routed radical Islamist movements and offered Copts a degree of security. But Christians have felt increasingly marginalized in recent years and thousands began leaving the country when Islamists rose to political prominence with the ousting of Mubarak in 2011.

Similar apprehensions have gripped non-Muslims across the region as the upheaval of the so-called Arab Spring has reshaped the political landscape. Morsi has promised inclusive government but has appointed no Copts or women to key positions. Copts worry about civil rights and demands by ultraconservative Islamists to filter the country’s new constitution through Sharia law.

Young Christians -- inspired by the same uprising that brought the Islamists to power -- have turned politically active and no longer want to rely on the Church to advance their rights. Shenouda was revered by most Copts but he was criticized for being compliant to Mubarak and for attempting to buffer his congregation from the realities of living in a Muslim-dominated nation.

The new pope “shouldn’t hide Christians like before. He shouldn’t say, ‘I’m worried about you and worried that you might get hurt,’” said Remon Amin, a 23-year-old stock trader. “We don’t want any more of that. No more hiding. We want to be the same as anyone else.”

Saad Katatni, head of the Brotherhood Freedom and Justice Party, said on his Facebook page that he was “optimistic about fruitful cooperation with [the new pope] as spiritual leader of Coptic brethren.”

Sectarian suspicions are high, however, and Copts, who have been adrift since Shenouda’s death, are bitter after a number of bloody assaults. A church bombing in Alexandria in 2011 killed 21 people and an attack months later by soldiers and thugs on a peaceful protest left more than 20 Christians dead.

The pope should “stay away from politics. He’s a spiritual man,” said Emad El Erian, a spokesman for a Coptic youth coalition. “President Morsi has a file on his desk with everything that happened to the Copts. The church burnings. The evicting of Christians. . . .  He should be the one who is judged on how Copts are treated.”

Tawadros is expected to be formally installed as pope during a ceremony Nov. 18.

ALSO:

Israel admits responsibility for 1988 assassination

Deadly Syrian stalemate spurs new diplomacy, little hope

U.N.: Reported executions by Syria rebels could be war crimes

-- Jeffrey Fleishman and Hassan El Naggar

Photo: The name of the new Coptic Church head Tawadros is displayed after a blindfolded altar boy selected it from a chalice Sunday in Cairo at St. Mark's Cathedral. Credit: Mahmud Khaled / AFP/Getty Images

MOSCOW –- On Russia’s annual Day of National Unity holiday, more than 5,000 young nationalistic protesters took to the streets of the nation’s capital, denouncing President Vladimir Putin and demanding his ouster.

Brandishing imperial Russian black, yellow and white flags, and wearing Cossack uniforms including black boots, hoods and masks, they marched peacefully for four miles along the embankment of the Moscow River on a gray afternoon before rallying in front of Gorky Park.

In contrast to many previous liberal opposition rallies, the march was allowed by the Moscow government and police stood aside, ignoring the crowd’s numerous chants that were filled with ethnic hatred. Police didn’t display clubs and shields and didn’t provoke demonstrators the way they had done at numerous past rallies.

Yet the attitude of the authorities failed to prevent the crowd from also chanting that Putin was “an enemy whose place is in prison” for ignoring the interests of the Russian nation and allowing migrants to work and live in Russia. One demonstrator near the front of the march carried a poster that read: “Putin is better than Hitler?”

In recent years, the Kremlin has continued to court Russian nationalists despite a significant transformation in their agenda, said Andrei Piontkovsky, a senior researcher of the System Analysis Institute, a Moscow-based think tank.

“Putin’s idea of suiting Russian nationalism with his ongoing effort to restore the might of the Russian empire and to advance beyond the Caucasus and even claiming break-away republics of Georgia no longer plays well with this new breed of Russian nationalists,” Piontkovsky said in an interview. “They don’t want to expand Russia, they don’t want to hear about its greater Eurasian status -- Putin’s favorite game. They want to get rid of the troublesome North Caucasus and its inhabitants they refuse to acknowledge as Russian citizens.”

Piontkovsky noted that the Kremlin had miscalculated in being soft with the right-wing nationalists in hopes of using them to its advantage against the liberal opposition.

The nationalists have instead sided with Putin’s sworn enemies as five of their leaders entered the recently formed Coordinating Council uniting opposition forces from the extreme left to the extreme right.

It is not clear how and when the liberals would part company with the nationalists, Piontkovsky said, but for the time being they are ready to work together against the Kremlin -- a point the Sunday rally in downtown Moscow proved quite clearly.

Alexander Belov, a leader of Russkiye, a nationalist movement, called for unity with liberals in his speech at the rally.

“He who sits in the Kremlin is an enemy!” he shouted as the crowd went on chanting the last word. “We shouldn’t shun and not cooperate with other opposition forces because only together we can get rid of Putin.”

“He will be drinking the blood of our people until we throw him out,” Belov shouted to massive applause.

The rest of the speeches and slogans included racist and xenophobic sentiments, including anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic statements.

As the crowd was chanting “No mosques on the Russian soil!” a bystander asked one demonstrator where Russian Muslims should go to pray.

“They should go back home and pray there,” was the blunt response of nationalist activist Dmitry Maslennikov, 28.

“But if they are Russian citizens what should they do?” insisted the bystander.

“They should be sorry,” Maslennikov replied to cut the discussion. “I know one thing: Jews, Muslims, masons and the government are our enemies!”

ALSO:

Israel admits responsibility for 1988 assassination

Deadly Syrian stalemate spurs new diplomacy, little hope

U.N.: Reported executions by Syria rebels could be war crimes

-- Sergei L. Loiko

Photo: Russian nationalists march in downtown Moscow. Credit: Sergei L. Loiko / Los Angeles Times

BEIRUT--A bomb exploded Sunday near the offices of a trade union in central Damascus, injuring 11 people, state media reported.

The official Syrian news service blamed “terrorists,” its usual label for armed rebels seeking the overthrow of President Bashar Assad.

The target of the attack was not immediately clear. The district where the bomb exploded is also home to a hotel and several security installations. Initial reports included no confirmation of fatalities.

The attack once again seemed to demonstrate rebels’ ability to strike at the heart of the Syrian capital, despite heavy security and a plethora of checkpoints throughout Damascus.

Rebels appear to be stepping up bomb attacks in and around the Syrian capital, where a number of car bombs and other blasts have exploded in recent weeks. The string of bombings comes as Syrian troops have pushed many armed rebels out of city neighborhoods and into outlying districts.

The apparent opposition bombing campaign has dramatized the capital’s vulnerability and rebels’ skill at piercing the security cordon. But the bombs have also unnerved capital residents and killed and injured many civilians. The attacks run the risk of alienating Syrians and buttressing Assad’s argument that his foes are foreign-backed “terrorists,” not democracy-seeking revolutionaries.

ALSO:

Israel admits responsibility for 1988 assassination

Deadly Syrian stalemate spurs new diplomacy, little hope

U.N.: Reported executions by Syria rebels could be war crimes

--Patrick J. McDonnell

Photo: Site of bombing in central Damascus. Credit: EPA/STR

JERUSALEM –- Three Syrian tanks entered a demilitarized zone Saturday afternoon along the border with the Golan Heights, spurring Israel to file a complaint with the United Nations, Israeli officials said.

Although the tanks did not enter the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel officials said the Syrian military presence is restricted from the border area under a U.N.-monitored cease-fire agreement.
The Syrian tanks were battling Syrian rebel forces when the fighting moved into the demilitarized area, Israeli media reported.

Israeli officials said they did not view the tanks as a provocation or an attempt to draw Israel into the fighting in Syria, where an uprising against President Bashar Assad has devolved into a civil war.

It’s not the first time violence from Syria’s war has drifted into the Golan Heights. In September, errant mortars struck the region.

Israel captured the Golan Heights in the 1967 Middle East War and announced in 1981 that it was annexing the region, though the move was not recognized by the international community.

ALSO:

Israel admits responsibility for 1988 assassination

Deadly Syrian stalemate spurs new diplomacy, little hope

U.N.: Reported executions by Syria rebels could be war crimes

-- Edmund Sanders

United Nations relief agencies are heading up a global mission to bring food, shelter and construction materials to Caribbean islands battered by super storm Sandy last week -- a belated response by the world body whose New York headquarters and staff were themselves hard hit by the deluge.

After a three-day closure amid the torrential rains and disrupted power, communications and transportation, U.N. agencies have swung into action to organize emergency aid to Haiti and coordinate the dispatch of relief supplies throughout the Caribbean.

More than 1.2 million Haitians are facing "food insecurity" and at least 15,000 homes were destroyed when the huge storm's drenching periphery lashed the world's poorest nation, where about 350,000 were still homeless and sheltering in tents nearly three years after the devastating earthquake of January 2010.

A yearlong drought and damage from Hurricane Isaac in August had already taken their toll on food production in Haiti and Sandy has significantly worsened the crisis, Johan Peleman, head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Haiti, told U.N. Radio in an interview.

"With this new tropical storm, we fear that a great deal of the harvest which was ongoing in the south of the country may have been destroyed completely," Peleman said.

Many of the rugged dirt roads that provide the only access to storm victims in Haiti's mountainous interior have been rendered impassible by the torrential rains of the last week, Peleman said.

In New York, U.N. officials said they had reports of at least 54 Haitians killed as a result of the storm.

The opposition Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation appealed to the government of President Raul Castro to allow foreign relief agencies to bring food and supplies to the stricken island. An array of religious and nongovernmental organizations, including Catholic Relief Services and Outreach Aid to the Americas, announced relief missions to Cuba, according to InterAction, an alliance of U.S.-based agencies. The Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations dispatched three plane-loads of aid for Cuba on Thursday, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Storm-related deaths were also reported in Jamaica, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic, with the U.N. reporting at least 71 killed across the Caribbean in Sandy's wake.

ALSO:

Deadly Syrian stalemate spurs new diplomacy, little hope

Remittances to Mexico fell 20% in September compared with last year

-- Carol J. Williams in Los Angeles

Photo: Residents make their way through the flooded streets of La Plaine, in northwest Haiti. Credit: Carl Juste / Miami Herald