World/nation briefs

On eve of key vote, premier defends plan Warning of a "catastrophe" that would leave Greeks subsisting on food stamps and the country wallowing in bankruptcy, Greek leaders urged lawmakers to pass more painful spending cuts on the eve of a crucial vote to qualify for a massive bailout. In a televised address, Prime Minister Lucas Papademos defended the austerity measures, which would earn the country a $171.6 billion bailout deal and stave off bankruptcy. Several dissident lawmakers were unconvinced. At least 13 conservative deputies and seven socialists declared they would not vote and two more socialist deputies resigned, bringing the total to three.

5 Murdock employees among 8 arrested British authorities arrested eight people, including five employees of Rupert Murdoch's tabloid the Sun, as part of an investigation into bribery of public officials by journalists, said Scotland Yard and the newspaper's parent company. A person with knowledge of the investigation said the arrested employees were a deputy editor, Geoff Webster; the chief reporter, John Kay; the chief foreign correspondent, Nick Parker; a picture editor, John Edwards; and a reporter, John Sturgis.

President to propose legalizing drugs Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina said he will propose legalizing drugs and decriminalizing the transportation of drugs in Central America in a meeting Monday with the region's leaders. He said the war on drugs and all the money and technology received from the U.S. has not diminished drug trafficking in the area.

Dissidents create new opposition party A group of Iraqi political dissidents created an opposition party to act as a check on the country's government. Activists said the Union of Patriotic Figures was a secular political group of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds from about 27 mostly minor parties. The group is forming as Iraq grapples with a crisis over an arrest warrant issued against the Sunni vice president by the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

South Korean tourists freed by tribesmen Three South Korean women were freed a day after they were kidnapped by armed tribesmen in Egypt's Sinai peninsula when clan elders negotiated their release, a security official said. It was the latest in a series of kidnappings in Sinai. Two American women were kidnapped and freed this month by tribesmen wanting to pressure authorities to release their detained relatives.

Authorities use killer's map to find bodies Human remains uncovered 60 miles south of Sacramento with the help of a convicted serial killer have been preliminarily identified as one of his victims, and authorities continued to search for the remains of as many as 10 people. Death row inmate Wesley Shermantine recently agreed to disclose the locations of bodies in return for a bounty hunter's offer of $33,000.

Occupy planning spring protests Occupy Wall Street groups around the country say they are preparing for a new phase of larger marches and strikes this spring. Groups in 34 cities have agreed to "a day of nonviolent direct action" on Feb. 29 against corporations accused of working against the public interest. Then on May 1, they will try to persuade thousands of Americans to skip work and school, in what they are calling "a day without the 99 percent."