World in brief: Gunmen kill 13 near Bagdad

BAGHDAD – Gunmen in Iraqi army uniforms abducted and killed 13 people whose bodies were found Monday with gunshot wounds to the head, including a local leader of Iraq’s largest Sunni party, which once helped fight al-Qaida.

Police played down the incident as tribal violence in an attempt to defuse sectarian tension, but the political connection suggests the killings could also have been the work of insurgents or rival Sunnis vying for power before January elections.

South Korea plans to cut emissions

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea announced its first greenhouse gas reduction target today, pledging to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases by 4 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.

The voluntary target-setting could put pressure on developed nations to act more aggressively to fight global warming.

Doctors separate conjoined twins

MELBOURNE, Australia – Twin Bangladeshi girls who were joined at the top of their heads and shared blood vessels and brain tissue were successfully separated today after 25 hours of delicate surgery, hospital officials said.

It is too early to know whether the 2-year-old girls, Trishna and Krishna, suffered any brain damage during the marathon operation – an outcome doctors said had a 50-50 chance. The girls will remain in an induced coma for monitoring for several days after the completion of the surgery.

A team of 16 surgeons and nurses participated in the operation.