MEXICO CITY – Assailants gunned down three police officers within 24 hours around the northern industrial city of Monterrey, the latest in a wave of killings of law enforcement officials across Mexico.
Commander Fidel Reyna and agent René Reyes were ambushed with a spray of automatic rifle fire as they drove their patrol car through the suburb of Santa Catarina late Saturday, media reported. Hours earlier, Commander Mario Sánchez, 47, was shot dead in San Nicolas de los Garza, one of Mexico's most affluent municipalities.
– Associated Press
N. Korean vessel arrives in S. Korea
SEOUL, South Korea – A North Korean cargo ship arrived in South Korean waters for the first time in more than 50 years yesterday as commercial shipping services began to open up between the divided countries, officials said.
The 1,850-ton Kang Song Ho is the first North Korean cargo vessel to arrive in South Korea for commercial business since the 1950-53 Korean War.
–Associated Press
Six in Peru killed in backpack blast
LIMA, Peru – A backpack containing dynamite and nails exploded during a celebration Friday in the Andean city of Juliaca, killing six people and wounding 48, police Col. Romeo Delgado said yesterday. He said police have not ruled out a terrorist attack.
Last week marked 27 years since the Maoist Shining Path movement's first armed attack.
–Associated Press
Endangered stork egg hatches in wild
TOKYO – An endangered white stork egg laid in the wild has hatched naturally in western Japan for the first time in more than 40 years. The new chick's parents were born through artificial breeding at a public farm and were released into the wild in September.
Oriental white storks disappeared from Japan in the 1980s.
–Associated Press
Anne Frank House defaced by taggers
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – Police arrested two teens early yesterday for spraying graffiti tags on the Anne Frank House and several other houses, a spokesman said.
“There was nothing racist or anti-Semitic, they were tags – kids leaving their calling cards,” said police spokesman Leo Dortland.
Two boys, aged 16 and 17, were caught red-handed and arrested, police said.
They allegedly tagged a photo exhibition and nine houses including the canalside house where Anne Frank and her family hid from Nazis for 25 months in a secret annex during Germany's brutal World War II occupation of the Netherlands.
– Associated Press
