In brief: Greek government backed by vote

ATHENS, Greece – Greece’s new three-party coalition government won a vote of confidence in parliament early today, ending a period of uncertainty that led to two elections in less than two months, though the country has a long way to go to emerge from a deep recession and pay down its huge debt.

There were no surprises in the vote. All 179 deputies of the three parties supporting the government – conservative New Democracy, the socialist PASOK and the moderate leftist Democratic Left – voted in favor. Voting against were the 121 deputies of the Radical Left Coalition (Syriza), the nationalist right Independent Greeks, the extreme right Golden Dawn and the Communist Party.

In his concluding speech just before the vote, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said that, despite their diverse political backgrounds, the three coalition partners have a unity of purpose: to keep the country in the eurozone and out of its deepest and longest recession, now in its fifth year.

DEA agents killed Honduran pilot

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – The pilot of a suspected drug flight killed in an anti-narcotics operation in Honduras earlier this month was shot dead by two U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents after he refused to surrender, an agency spokeswoman said Sunday.

At the time, Honduran police said the twin-engine plane arriving from Colombia with a load of cocaine crashed while being chased by government aircraft. One pilot died in the July 3 incident and a second was badly injured. Officials did not say how the death took place.

DEA spokeswoman Dawn Dearden on Sunday said that when police arrived at the crash scene in eastern Honduras they found the plane’s two pilots. The injured pilot was arrested and the second was shot by the DEA agents after he ignored orders to surrender and made a threatening gesture.

“Both suspects were given first aid and transported via helicopter to a secure location,” Dearden told the Associated Press. “The pilot who resisted arrest died of his injuries.”

Saudis arrest radical Shiite cleric

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi authorities say they have arrested a radical Shiite cleric following a gunfight and car chase in an area of increasing tensions between the government and the country’s Shiite minority.

The official Saudi Press Agency said Sheik Nimr al-Nimr was arrested after he and followers exchanged fire with security forces Sunday and crashed into one of the patrol vehicles. It said al-Nimr, who was wounded in the leg, faces charges of instigating unrest in the oil-rich eastern province.