In brief: Gunmen slay Mexican mayor

MEXICO CITY – The office of Mexican President Felipe Calderon says the mayor of a town in the violence-plagued border state of Tamaulipas has been assassinated, the second killing of a mayor in the area in two weeks.

The daughter of Mayor Marco Antonio Leal Garcia was wounded in the attack by gunmen that killed her father.

Leal Garcia’s town of Hidalgo is located in the border state of Tamaulipas, where gunmen believed to belong to a drug gang massacred 72 migrants last week.

The township of Hidalgo borders on Nuevo Leon state, where the mayor of another small town was found murdered on Aug. 18.

SYDNEY, Australia – A French skyscraper climber nicknamed “Spiderman” was arrested today after scaling a 57-story building in Sydney with his bare hands.

Alain Robert, known for climbing some of the world’s tallest and best-known buildings without ropes or other equipment, was arrested at the top of the Lumiere building downtown.

He climbed the building in about 20 minutes, as dozens of people watched from below.

He has not yet been charged. Last year, Robert was fined $676 for climbing the 41-story Royal Bank of Scotland building in Sydney. Many of his climbs have resulted in arrests and fines.

The 48-year-old has climbed more than 70 skyscrapers around the world, including the Empire State Building and the Sears Tower, according to his website.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Worshippers who arrived to pray at a mosque in a remote area of central Saudi Arabia this week discovered they were locked out by the disgruntled imam because he had not been paid.

Al-Yaum newspaper reported Sunday that the imam, a Sudanese national, had been told a philanthropist would pay for his services as spiritual leader of the small mosque in Najd region. But the benefactor withdrew the funding after local religious authorities failed to confirm the cleric as the official imam.

The worshippers, angry at being prevented from Friday prayers during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, have failed to persuade the imam to reopen the mosque.

CHANGCHUN, China – North Korean leader Kim Jong Il left China’s northeastern city of Harbin today in the latest leg of a secretive trip believed aimed at drumming up support for a succession plan involving his youngest son, news reports said.

Kim rarely leaves North Korea and when he does travels by special train.

Kim, 68, was reportedly accompanied by his youngest son, Kim Jong Un. Many North Korea watchers predict the son will be appointed to a key party position at a ruling Workers’ Party meeting early next month – the first such gathering in decades – as part of a succession process.

To pull off the event with sufficient fanfare, North Korea will need Chinese aid, particularly following the devastating floods that battered the country’s northwest this month, analysts said.