Around the world
BORDER BEEF: North Korea has beefed up its forces along the border with South Korea and tripled the number of military flight drills, Japanese media said Tuesday. The national Yomiuri newspaper, quoting sources in Japan's Defense Agency, said North Korea's military buildup began early this year. A similar Washington-datelined report in the Mainichi newspaper's Monday evening edition said the information came from analyses by the U.S. Pacific Army and the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.BCCI TERM: A judge sentenced a senior BCCI bank official to six years in prison Tuesday for fraud charges involving $750 million, in Britain's first prosecution connected to the multinational bank's spectacular collapse. Syed Ziauddin Ali Akbar, who headed the treasury division at the bank's London headquarters, pleaded guilty to 16 counts of false accounting at the Old Bailey criminal court Monday.
JACKSON CASE: A Philippine man who accused Michael Jackson of fondling young boys at his Neverland Valley ranch said Tuesday he had given detectives evidence that could lead to criminal charges against the singer. Mariano Quindoy also said he planned to file slander and libel suits in the Philippines and the United States against Jackson and his spokesperson, Anthony Pelicano, for allegedly calling him a "failed extortionist" after he made his allegations earlier this month.
BAD AIR: Particulate levels have diminished in Mexico City smog but remain above official standards, and the government has failed to inform the population, the international environmental group Greenpeace said Monday. The group based its affirmations on a recent study from the Federal District Assembly of Representatives, Mexico City's elected advisory council.
Across the nation
EXECUTED: A Texas inmate was executed in Texas by injection early Tuesday for the murder of a college instructor who was clubbed with a brick, raped and then run over with her own car. Antonio Bonham, 33, went to his death after asking the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Gov. Ann Richards to commute his sentence to life without parole. He had no final statement. He was convicted in the 1981 murder of 62-year-old Marie McGowen.
BOWS OUT: MURDOCH BOWS OUT! POST ON THE BRINK - AGAIN! A strike by reporters, editors and business employees at the New York Post led Rupert Murdoch to announce Tuesday he was dropping his bid to buy the money-losing tabloid. The move would land the Post back in bankruptcy court and could spell the end for the 192-year-old newspaper known for its screaming headlines ("HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR").
BUSJACK: A 14-year-old girl pulled a gun on a school bus full of students on their way home and ordered the driver to take her to Houston, authorities in Abbeville, La., said. The girl was arrested Monday when she tried to run from the back of the bus, which stopped at a police roadblock, sheriff's spokeswoman Janette Trahan said. No shots were fired. "She said it was a real gun and told me, `I'm going to blow your brains out,' " said the bus driver, Russell P. Hebert. "I told her, `If you need any help, we can help you.' But she said she didn't need help."