Around the world
STORM: A typhoon clobbered eastern China's Zhejiang Province for two days, leaving more than 450 people dead and 1.7 million stranded, the China News Service reported Tuesday. Power supplies were severed, the airport was closed and 64,245 acres of farmland were destroyed during the 43 hours of torrential rains and gale-force brought on by Typhoon Fred Sunday and Monday.PERSUASION: Lesotho's King Letsie III, who allied himself with the army last week to remove Lesotho's elected government, sent representatives Tuesday to plead his case before southern African leaders. Presidents Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Quett Masire of Botswana were meeting in Bostswana to consider taking joint action to restore democracy. Last week, Mandela and Mugabe appeared to rule out military intervention.
Across the nation
SLAYING: Two 12-year-olds shot and killed a drifter who threw rocks at them because they were making too much noise, police in Wenatchee, Wash., say. The boys were being held for investigation of murder. Prosecutors said they would seek to try them as adults. Detective John Matney said the boys were shooting at logs Saturday along the Columbia River, where transients frequently camp. The victim yelled at the boys because they were disturbing him. When they ignored him and kept shooting, he threw rocks, Matney said.
ANOTHER OPENIN': This time, they say they really mean it. The Denver City Council set a Feb. 28 deadline to open the Denver International Airport - with or without its recalcitrant, luggage-chewing automated baggage system. If its conventional baggage system is up and running by the deadline, the $3.7 billion airport will open whether or not the high-tech system is ready, Briggs Gamblin, spokesman for Mayor Wellington Webb, said Monday.
In Washington
GRANTS: The National Endowment for the Humanities announced $29.7 million in grants for projects ranging from summer seminars for teachers to a documentary film series on the emancipation and reconstruction period in America.