Around the world
ELECTIONS: Campaigning officially began Saturday in El Salvador for next year's national elections. The vote - for everything from president to congressional spots to city council seats - is the first since the 1992 settlement of the country's bloody 12-year civil war and is popularly referred to as the "elections of the century."OCCUPATION? Some areas of Rome may soon be occupied by troops - at the city's request. Rome's police chief was quoted Saturday as saying a "technical agreement" has been reached to send in about 500 soldiers to guard embassies, airports, homes of prominent figures and other places deemed to be in high risk of bomb attacks. Two bombings in Rome earlier this year left dozens of people injured.
GUNFIGHT: A gunman fired shots into Winnie Mandela's car in Johanesburg, South Africa, Saturday night. She was not hit, but both her bodyguard and the assailant were killed in the ensuing gunfight, police said. Winnie Mandela, the estranged wife of African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela, was being treated for shock, the independent SAPA news agency reported. Police said they did not think the gunman was trying to kill Winnie Mandela, but they offered no other motive for the attack.
Across the nation
ACID ATTACK: A New York girl trying to splash a high school rival with an acidlike liquid missed her intended victim but hit 18 others in a crowded corridor, including an assistant principal and the school nurse. Joseph Charles, the assistant principal, suffered severe burns Friday at Springfield High School and remained hospitalized in stable condition Saturday. Andrea Henry, 17, was charged with assault, said police Sgt. Anthony Barlanti. Henry also was burned.
PILOT FOUND: The pilot of a medevac helicopter that crashed in chilly Atlantic waters after dark was found alive after drifting for four hours off the coast of Maine. Two crew members and a burn patient remained missing Saturday.
RAID: A 13-year-old girl addicted to crack cocaine was one of seven people arrested for selling drugs to undercover narcotics officers in Anaheim, Calif., police said Saturday. The 13-year-old girl arrested during the Friday raid on Guinida Lane had been addicted to crack cocaine for two years, said Sgt. Joe Vargas.