ORLANDO, Fla.

Shooting in supermarket leaves one man wounded

A young man wounded by gunfire during a fight inside a Publix supermarket Friday in Orlando is expected to survive, according to police, but no arrests had been made hours after the shooting.

“It’s very fortunate that nobody else was hurt because this was done during working hours while people were in there – the day after Christmas – shopping,” said Orlando police Lt. David Arenas.

Police say a fight broke out and at least one shot was fired inside the store about 12:15 p.m.

The name of the wounded man was not released but police said he was in stable condition and expected to survive.

LA JOYA, Texas

Officials investigating claim of border agent’s abduction

A threat called into a Texas town claiming that a Mexican drug cartel member had kidnapped an officer has federal officials scrambling to account for more than 3,000 U.S. Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley.

La Joya police dispatchers received a call around 7 p.m. Thursday from a man claiming to have kidnapped a Border Patrol agent and threatening to kill him, according to police Chief Geovani Hernandez.

Hernandez said police believe the individual first called 911 Thursday morning to report illegal movement of people near the border. During that call, Hernandez said, the man seemed to believe he had hung up the phone and upon realizing the dispatcher was still on the line, became enraged.

The man called back eight more times on Christmas, Hernandez said, repeatedly cursing at and threatening dispatchers in Spanish.

The man mentioned a Border Patrol agent on the ninth and final call.

In a voice recording released by La Joya police, a man’s voice is heard speaking in Spanish, saying he has a Border Patrol agent.

Hernandez said he believes the man’s claimed affiliation with a cartel, which authorities are not identifying, is legitimate, but Border Patrol officials say they are still trying to authenticate the kidnapping claim.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan

Forces kill Taliban leader linked to school massacre

Security forces on Friday killed an alleged organizer of last week’s school massacre, the latest sign that the government and military are stepping up their assault on the Pakistani Taliban and other Islamist militant groups.

The slaying of the Taliban commander, known as Saddam, comes as Pakistani leaders are vowing to forcefully respond to the attack on the school. With the country still mourning the deaths of 149 students and teachers, security forces are taking their battle deep into Pakistani cities while the country’s air force pounds militants’ havens along the border with Afghanistan.

MEXICO CITY

Kidnapped priest shot dead despite increased security

A priest was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head, his diocese said Friday, marking the latest in series of abductions, attacks and highway robberies against Roman Catholic clerics in an area of southern Guerrero state dominated by drug cartels.

The Rev. Gregorio Lopez Gorostieta is the third Catholic priest to have been killed in the region this year, and the first to die since the federal government launched a special, stepped-up security operation in the area following the disappearance of 43 teachers’ college students three months ago.

Lopez Gorostieta was apparently kidnapped by a gang early Monday from a seminary on the outskirts of Ciudad Altamirano; his truck was found abandoned two days later.

– From news service reports