Ireland deploys armed task force in gang war

DUBLIN — Ireland's police force deployed military-style road checkpoints Tuesday as the government announced toughened measures to try to prevent a gang war in Dublin from claiming more lives.

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald said a 55-member armed police unit would be created for Dublin in hopes of suppressing what she called an “evil and sinister cycle of gangland violence.”

The move is significant in a country where police typically patrol unarmed. It was announced at an emergency meeting with police chiefs following Monday night's killing of a brother of Gerry “The Monk” Hutch, a gang chieftain credited with directing many of Ireland's most famous bank heists.

Taxi driver Eddie Hutch, 59, was shot several times in the hallway of his home. He was targeted in apparent retaliation for Friday's gun attack on a boxing weigh-in being attended by senior figures from a rival gang led by Irish fugitive Christy Kinahan.

In Friday's attack, five gunmen allegedly from the Hutch camp targeted Kinahan loyalists arriving at the hotel for the boxing event. The gunmen, including three armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles and disguised as an elite police unit and one man dressed as a woman, shot three men, killing one, in front of scores of civilians including young children.

The violence focuses on the international drug trafficking business of Kinahan, a Dubliner who after prison sentences in Ireland and the Netherlands runs his empire from a villa in Spain's Costa del Sol.

U.N. urges Turk officials to admit thousands at border

Turkey must grant entry to the tens of thousands of Syrians massed at the border, the U.N. demanded Tuesday, as an aid group said tents on the Syrian side are overcrowded and food is in short supply.

Turkey, already home to 2.5 million Syrian refugees, insists it has an open-door policy toward Syrians escaping conflict but has still kept the key Bab al-Salameh border crossing closed for days. Officials say Turkey will provide assistance to displaced Syrians within their own borders “as much as possible” and would allow them in “when necessary.”

NATO to mull mission to police Syria refugees

NATO will weigh calls for a naval mission in the eastern Mediterranean Sea to police refugee streams as a fresh exodus from Syria adds to European leaders' desperation.

Such a mission would thrust the 28-nation alliance into the humanitarian trauma aggravated by an offensive by Syrian troops that drove thousands toward Turkey.

NATO is confronted with Russian intervention in the Middle East, including airspace violations over Turkey.

Indian soldier buried

in avalanche found alive

SRINAGAR, India — An Indian soldier buried by an avalanche for six days in the Himalayan region of Kashmir has been found alive but unconscious and pulled from under about 25 feet of snow, along with the bodies of nine other soldiers, officials said Tuesday.

The enormous avalanche slammed into an Indian army post Feb. 3 and trapped the 10 soldiers on the northern end of Siachen Glacier, the highest point along the heavily militarized line of control between India and Pakistan.

Iraqi forces regain full control of Ramadi

BAGHDAD — Iraqi security forces and the U.S.-led coalition say the government has regained full control of Ramadi after pushing Islamic State fighters out of the city's outskirts.

The Ministry of Interior said in a statement Tuesday that a road linking Ramadi to the capital, Baghdad, is also back under government control.

Col. Steve Warren, a spokesman for the coalition, said Iraqi security forces have control of the whole city but the threat of militant attacks remained high.

The Newsmaker

Ex-Tyco CEO named Fortune Society chair

Former Tyco International CEO L. Dennis Kozlowski has been elected board chairman of the Fortune Society, which helps ex-prisoners re-enter society. Kozlowski and another executive were convicted in 2005 of looting Tyco of $600 million.

Taiwan seeks detention of building's developers

TAINAN, Taiwan — Prosecutors have requested the detention of the developers of a high-rise apartment building in southern Taiwan that collapsed over the weekend following a strong earthquake, killing dozens of people, official media said Tuesday.

The Tainan District Prosecutors Office said Lin Ming-hui and two other former executives, Chang Kui-an and Cheng Chin-kui, were suspected of professional negligence resulting in death, Taiwan's official Central News Agency reported.

Shkreli sued over art use in Wu-Tang Clan album

A Long Island, N.Y., artist sued ex-pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli and others Tuesday over the use of his art in a Wu-Tang Clan album, saying he never expected portraits he posted on a fan blog two years ago to be used without his permission.

Artist Jason Koza said in the Manhattan federal court copyright infringement lawsuit that his portraits of members of the New York-based hip-hop group were used without authorization on an album Shkreli bought for $2 million.

GM recalling trucks, SUVs over brake pedal

General Motors is recalling more than 473,000 trucks and SUVs in the U.S. and Canada because the brake pedals can come loose and fail to work properly.

The recall covers certain 2015 and 2016 Chevrolet Silverado HD, GMC Sierra HD and Chevrolet Tahoe police vehicles.

GM says a nut on the brake pedal pivot mechanism can come loose, causing the pedal to loosen and possibly become inoperative.

The company says it has no reports of crashes or injuries due to the problem.