TOLUCA, Mexico (AP) — Authorities say a mob in central Mexico has beaten three suspected kidnappers to death.

Mexico State prosecutor Alfredo Castillo says the mob also set two of the men on fire during the Friday night attack.

Castillo said Saturday that 23 people in the village of San Mateo Hitzilzingo have been detained.

He says about 300 angry people took the three men out of the town's police station and began beating them after a woman screamed that they were kidnappers.

Local media reported that the men had tried to kidnap a teenage boy but Castillo wouldn't confirm that.

He said authorities are trying to determine why police kept the men at the police station instead of turning over to state investigators.

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TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — An Iranian news agency reports that more than 30 million people in the country have lost access to foreign email services such as Gmail, Yahoo mail and Hotmail.

The Saturday report by the semiofficial Mehr agency says that the authorities in the national telecommunications company declined to comment on the outage that began Thursday, saying that it had no connection to them.

Iran has occasionally restricted the Internet since the turmoil that followed the 2009 elections and blocked websites including Facebook, Twitter, Voice of America and the BBC Farsi service.

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ATHENS, Greece (AP) — In a televised address, Greece's prime minister has defended austerity measures that include painful wage and pension cuts but would ensure the country receives a $170 billion bailout deal and stave off bankruptcy.

Lucas Papademos says the alternative is catastrophic bankruptcy, echoing comments made earlier Saturday by the leaders of parties backing Greece's coalition government — socialist George Papandreou and conservative Antonis Samaras.

Papademos says "the deal will ensure our country's future inside the euro ... A bankruptcy would lead to uncontrollable economic chaos and social explosion." He added that under bankruptcy Greeks would lose their savings, the state would be unable to pay for salaries and pensions and there would be import shortages.

CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian security official says that authorities have arrested an Australian journalist and an American student accused of trying to bribe people to join a strike demanding a faster transition to civilian rule called for the anniversary of former President Hosni Mubarak's ouster.

He says the foreigners and their Egyptian guide were detained in the city of Mahalla al-Kobra on Saturday after residents told police the three were handing out money to encourage people to participate in the strike.

The northern industrial city has seen violent worker strikes in the past.

The security official says they will be referred to the state prosecutor's office. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

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BEIRUT (AP) — Violence across Syria has left at least 17 people dead today.

Regime troops have been pushing into rebel-held neighborhoods in the central city of Homs. They've also seized parts of a mountain town (Zabadani) north of Damascus.

Meanwhile, gunmen assassinated an army general in Damascus today in the first killing of a high-ranking military officer in the capital since the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime began in March. Syria's state-run news agency says three men opened fire as the general left his Damascus home this morning. There's been no claim of responsibility.

And Syria's violence is spilling into neighboring Lebanon. Security officials say pro- and anti-Syria gunmen have been trading fire in the northern city of Tripoli, killing at least two people and wounding a dozen more.

Lebanese factions have been deeply divided over the Syrian crisis, and tensions have intensified with the regime's siege of Homs this week.

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TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Libya has asked Niger to hand over one of Moammar Gadhafi's sons living under house arrest in the neighboring African nation after he warned his homeland was facing a new uprising.

Mohammed Hareizi, spokesman for the ruling National Transitional Council, said Saturday that Niger must comply with the request to extradite al-Saadi Gadhafi and other officials to "preserve its relationship and interests" in Libya.

Gadhafi made the comments Friday in a telephone interview with Al-Arabiya TV. He says he remains in touch with many supporters in Libya.

Gadhafi is not wanted by the International Criminal Court but is the subject of U.N. sanctions. He fled to Niger after the Libyan capital Tripoli fell to rebels.

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JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa's president says new bank notes will bear Nelson Mandela's image.

President Jacob Zuma made the announcement at the central bank offices Saturday, on the 22nd anniversary of Mandela's release after 27 years in prison for fighting apartheid. Zuma says Mandela's release "marked the beginning of a new era of hope."

Zuma did not say when the new notes would appear.

Local media had reported that speculation about Saturday's government press conference put pressure on the rand, but it revived following reassurance from bank officials that the announcement would not be about interest rates or central bank staff changes.

Mandela, the 93-year-old Nobel Peace prize winner, became South Africa's first black president in 1994. Known affectionately by his clan name, Madiba, he has retired from public life.

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MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's Foreign Ministry is asking the government to suspend adoptions of Russian children by U.S. nationals following an "incessant string of crimes" allegedly committed by American adoptive parents.

Russian authorities say that at least 17 Russian children have died in domestic violence incidents in their American families.

The Ministry said Saturday that the adoptions should resume only after Moscow and Washington sign an accord that allows Russian monitors to visit the homes of adopted children.

A Pennsylvanian couple was convicted in November of the involuntary manslaughter of their son adopted from Russia.

In 2010, a Tennessee woman sent her allegedly violent adopted son on a plane back to Russia — unaccompanied by an adult.

U.S. citizens have adopted nearly 50,000 Russian children since the early 1990's.

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MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Authorities say two explosions, including a car bomb, struck a northeast Nigerian city, wounding two soldiers.

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Hassan Ifijeh Mohammed said in a statement that the attacks took place Friday in Maiduguri, the spiritual home for the radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram.

Mohammed said only two soldiers were wounded in the explosions, while four suspected Boko Haram militants died.

The blasts come after Boko Haram claimed responsibility for multiple bomb attacks Tuesday in Maiduguri, which saw shops in a major market burn.

Boko Haram is waging an increasingly violent campaign against Nigeria's weak central government in its quest to enact strict Shariah law, free its detained members and avenge Muslim deaths in the nation.

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PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP) — Authorities say the heaviest snow in 63 years has sealed off hundreds of villages, shut roads and closed the main airport in the tiny Balkan state of Montenegro.

State rail company officials said Saturday a local train was stopped near the mountain town of Kolasin by an avalanche that landed on the tracks. Another train was being sent to rescue the 50 passengers, who will have to walk around the blockage.

The snow has virtually sealed off the capital Podgorica, closing its airport and hampering rail and road traffic.

The cold snap in Europe, which began in late January, has killed hundreds of people — most of them homeless people.

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