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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

In brief: Bahraini protesters block premier’s office

MANAMA, Bahrain – Thousands of Shiite opposition supporters blocked the entrance to the Bahraini prime minister’s office but failed to disrupt a government meeting on Sunday as the campaign for reform in the strategic Gulf nation entered its third week.

Bahrain’s Shiite majority has long complained of discrimination and political persecution in the island nation, which is ruled by a Sunni dynasty. The protesters demanded the prime minister step down because of corruption and a deadly crackdown on the opposition in which seven people died.

Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the prime minister and the king’s uncle, has been in power for 40 years.

Khalifa told the state-run Bahrain News Agency that changes are under way and the kingdom’s “reform march will continue.”

“The government’s development policies will continue upbeat as we are determined more than ever to achieve our goal of upgrading the citizens’ standards of living by providing them with the means of decent life,” he said.

Magnitude-6.2 quake shakes northern Chile

SANTIAGO, Chile – A magnitude-6.2 earthquake on Sunday shook a northern region of Chile that has felt several frightening but inconsequential tremors in recent days. No injuries and only minor damage were reported.

The quake was centered in Putre, about 40 miles east of the port of Arica near the border with Peru, and nearly 1,400 miles north of the capital, Santiago, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The quake happened about 9:30 a.m. and had a depth of about 70 miles, the agency said.

Some people ran out of homes and churches into the streets when they felt the shaking, but there were no reports of injuries, Chile’s national emergency agency said.

The agency said later that some adobe homes were damaged in the northern villages of Putre and Belen, and there were rock slides on a road that connects Chile to Bolivia.

Gunmen kill three at Mexican border bar

MEXICO CITY – Gunmen attacked patrons at a bar near the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juarez early Sunday, killing three people in the second deadly club shooting in a week in the violent northern Mexico border city.

Two young men died at the Muro bar during the shooting around 1:30 a.m. and a third victim died after being taken to a hospital, said Julio Castaneda, the spokesman for Chihuahua state prosecutors. Two others were injured, he said.

The victims were between 20 and 25 years old, Castaneda said.

Five men were killed a week earlier at the La Brecha bar.

Ciudad Juarez, which sits across from El Paso, Texas, has seen more than 6,000 people killed in drug violence the past two years.

Also on Sunday, Mexican authorities reported the arrest of a suspected high-ranking figure in the Sinaloa drug cartel.

A general in charge of a military garrison near San Luis Rio Colorado in northern Sonora state said police detained Julio Cesar Aguilar Garcia, known as “El Vaquero,” or “The Cowboy.”