Briefly

Pakistan

Mob burns vehicles before victim’s funeral

Hundreds of Shiite Muslim protesters threw bricks at restaurants, burned cars and damaged two gas stations Saturday in southern Pakistan before the funeral for a member of the minority group killed in a bus attack.

Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd of about 600 who also set fire to a police checkpoint and an oil tanker in the port city of Karachi.

No injuries were reported, and no arrests were made.

The crowd threw bricks and stones at a KFC and a McDonald’s, but the fast food restaurants were not damaged because of increased police security, said Tariq Jamil, Karachi’s police chief.

The violence erupted a day after two youths on a motorcycle opened fire on a bus carrying Shiite Muslims, killing six and wounding several others. No one has claimed responsibility.

Mexico

Gulf coast braces for tropical storms

Mexico rushed relief supplies to the coast and put thousands of relief personnel on alert Saturday as Tropical Storm Larry churned toward land, Nora became a hurricane in the Pacific, and Tropical Storm Olaf gathered force south of Acapulco.

With Mexico facing three storms in the coming days, by far the greatest danger was posed by Larry. Mexico extended tropical storm warnings and a hurricane watch for the Gulf coast from Tuxpan to Campeche as residents braced for high tides, punishing rains and heavy floods.

Larry’s center was slowly moving toward the coast Saturday and was forecast to make landfall today.

Larry was 75 miles northwest of Ciudad del Carmen on Saturday morning. It was drifting southeast at 2 mph.

New York

Police remove tiger from housing project

A 400-pound tiger that mauled its animal-loving owner was lugged out of a Harlem housing project Saturday after a commando-style operation.

“I saw him eye to eye, to say the least,” said Emergency Service Unit officer Martin Duffy, who rappelled down the side of the building with a tranquilizer gun and shot the animal.

A half-hour later, the slumbering cat was carried out in a cage from the Drew Hamilton public housing complex. It was held in a city animal shelter overnight, and officials said it would be taken to a Cleveland wildlife preserve today.

A 3-foot cayman alligator, swaddled in a white sheet, also was taken from the apartment.

The animals’ owner, Antoine Yates, 37, was tracked down at a hospital in suburban Philadelphia and taken into custody, officials said. Charges were pending.