WORLD IN BRIEF

asia

· SRINAGAR, India -- Ten people, including seven policemen and two fighters, were killed in a 26-hour gun battle as forces fought gunmen holed up in a hotel in the heart of Kashmir's main city, police said.

the americas

· SANTIAGO, Chile -- Mexican President-elect Felipe Calderón warned that a U.S. plan to build new border fences, intended to stop illegal immigrants from entering, could lead to more deaths as people try to cross a frontier of remote deserts and treacherous rivers.

· SAO PAULO, Brazil -- The two American pilots of an executive jet involved in a deadly high-altitude collision with a Boeing 737 have denied turning off the transponder that signaled their location, authorities said, a day after Brazilian officials suggested that the pilots may have turned off the device.

· MEXICO CITY -- Police officers who beat, sexually abused and raped women arrested after riots in a rebellious town near Mexico City have not been punished and authorities hid what happened, Amnesty International said.

africa

· PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria -- Troops launched a search-and-rescue mission for Nigerian soldiers missing after fighters ambushed a military-escorted supply convoy in the oil-rich south. President Olusegun Obasanjo called an emergency meeting with security chiefs after days of attacks across the Niger Delta, where much of the crude in Africa's largest producer is pumped.

-- From News Services