In brief: Drone strikes hit al-Qaida in Yemen despite turmoil

SANAA, Yemen – A U.S. drone strike targeted al-Qaida in Yemen on Monday, signaling Washington’s determination to keep fighting the militants despite political paralysis brought on by a Shiite power grab.

Yemeni tribal and security officials in the central province of Marib said the missile hit a vehicle carrying three al-Qaida members near the boundary with Shabwa province, an al-Qaida stronghold. The strike killed two Yemeni fighters and a Saudi, an al-Qaida member told the Associated Press.

Mubarak’s sons freed from prison

CAIRO – In a sign of confidence by a tough Egyptian government, Hosni Mubarak’s two sons were freed Monday after almost four years in prison, following a weekend marked by a spate of protester killings by an increasingly heavy-handed police force.

Criticism is mounting over the shooting death of a young mother, which was captured on video and has sparked unflattering comparisons between President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Mubarak, the authoritarian ruler ousted by a popular uprising in 2011.

Activists warned that the death of 32-year-old Shaimaa el-Sabbagh during a peaceful protest on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the uprising could serve as a rallying symbol. Demonstrations to protest police brutality in the wake of the killing were called for later in the week.

The Mubarak brothers – wealthy businessman Alaa and Mubarak’s one-time heir apparent Gamal – are viewed by many Egyptians as key pillars of an autocratic and corrupt administration that struck an alliance with mega-wealthy businessmen at the expense of the nation’s poor and disadvantaged.

10 dead, 21 injured in Greek jet crash

MADRID – A Greek F-16 fighter jet crashed into other aircraft on the ground during NATO training in southeastern Spain Monday, killing at least 10 French and Greek military personnel, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said.

Another 21 people were injured in the incident at the Los Llanos base, the Spanish Defense Ministry said.

The two-seat jet was taking off but lost thrust and crashed into an area of the base where other aircraft involved in the NATO exercise were parked, the Spanish Defense Ministry said.

Fidel Castro takes stance on U.S.

HAVANA, Cuba – Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro ended his long silence over his country’s decision to restore diplomatic ties with the United States, writing that he backs the negotiations even though he distrusts politics in Washington.

The comments were the first by the 88-year-old revolutionary leader on the talks with the U.S. since the historic Dec. 17 declaration that the countries would move to restore ties broken more than a half century ago.

“I don’t trust the policy of the United States, nor have I exchanged a word with them, but this does not mean I reject a pacific solution to the conflicts,” he wrote in a letter to a student federation read at the University of Havana.

“We will always defend cooperation and friendship with all the people of the world, including with our political adversaries,” he wrote.