In brief: Militants kidnap vice premier’s wife

JOHANNESBURG – Islamist militants believed to be associated with the Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram kidnapped the wife of a Cameroonian vice prime minister Sunday, in a worrying sign that the violence in northeastern Nigeria is spreading beyond its borders.

Militants mounted an attack on the village of Kolofata and killed three people according to Cameroonian officials, Reuters reported.

The gunmen also abducted a traditional leader and his family in an early morning raid on the community near the Nigerian border, following attacks in recent days that left several Cameroonian soldiers dead.

News agencies reported the gunmen seized the wife of Vice Prime Minister Amadou Ali while Ali managed to flee, Cameroonian officials said.

The attacks occurred just across the border from Gwoza, where extremists have mounted many Nigerian attacks since last year.

The militants have been active in the region for some time, carrying out attacks in Nigeria and sometimes fleeing into Cameroon. Last year, Boko Haram or a related group kidnapped a French family of seven, who were later released.

Aruba releases diplomat U.S. sought

BOGOTA, Colombia – Aruba’s government released a former Venezuelan general who was detained on U.S. drug charges when he arrived to serve as his country’s consul on the Dutch Caribbean island, sending him home Sunday night and defusing a diplomatic fight with its neighbor.

Aruban authorities had argued previously that Hugo Carvajal, a former military intelligence chief, didn’t have immunity from arrest because he had yet to be accredited by the Netherlands, which manages the foreign affairs of its former colony that sits off the coast of Venezuela.

But at a hastily called news conference in Aruba’s capital, the island’s justice minister said Carvajal was being let go because Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans decided Carvajal did have immunity, but also declared him “persona non grata” – a term used by governments to remove foreign diplomats.

Shortly afterward, Venezuela’s government announced that Carvajal had been freed and flew to Caracas with Deputy Foreign Minister Calixto Ortega.

Airliner’s black boxes being sent to France

BAMAKO, Mali – Black boxes from the Air Algerie plane that crashed in northern Mali last week will be transferred to France for analysis, the French Embassy in Mali said Sunday, as officials prepared for the process of identifying the remains of the dead.

The crash killed 118 people, 54 of whom were French.