MEXICO CITY

Fighting among drug cartels leaves more than 40 dead

Fighting among the Zetas gang and other vicious drug cartels led to the deaths of more than 40 people whose bodies were found in three Mexican cities over a 24-hour span, a government official said Saturday.

At least 20 people were killed when gunmen opened fire in a bar late Friday in the northern city of Monterrey, where the gang is fighting its former ally, the Gulf Cartel, federal security spokesman Alejandro Poire said.

The bodies of 11 people shot with high-powered rifles were found earlier Friday, piled near a water well on the outskirts of Mexico City, where the gang is fighting the Knights Templar, Poire said. That is an offshoot of the La Familia gang that has terrorized its home state of Michoacan.

Poire said an additional 10 people were found dead early Saturday in various parts of the northern city of Torreon, where the Zetas are fighting the Sinaloa cartel.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia

Thousands defy warnings, march for electoral reforms

At least 20,000 Malaysians defied government warnings by marching for electoral reforms Saturday, as police fired tear gas and detained more than 1,600 in the country’s biggest political rally in four years.

The crackdown on the opposition-backed demonstration in Malaysia’s main city triggered criticism that Prime Minister Najib Razak’s coalition was unwilling to allow public dissent or make election laws fairer ahead of national polls widely expected by mid-2012.

JERUSALEM

Foreign activists detained while others protest barrier

Some 120 foreign activists were being held in Israeli jails Saturday, awaiting possible deportation, after arriving at Tel Aviv’s airport over the weekend as part of a solidarity mission with the Palestinians, a government official said.

Others who managed to get through Israeli border controls traveled to the West Bank, where some joined a demonstration against Israel’s separation barrier.

Palestinians oppose the barrier as a land grab because it frequently juts into the West Bank, swallowing up Palestinian farmland and properties. Israel says the structure, built in response to a wave of suicide bombings, is a security measure.