Around the world
CAMBODIA: More than 50 Khmer Rouge soldiers have defected to the government in a southern province where the guerrillas are holding three Westerners hostage, Cambodian officials said Saturday. Australian David Wilson, 29, Briton Mark Slater, 28, and Frenchman Jean Michel Braquet, 27, were kidnapped July 26 when Khmer Rouge guerrillas ambushed the train they were riding on. Thirteen passengers were killed and 20 wounded.MAFIA: Italian authorities captured a reputed Mafia boss Saturday accused in hundreds of murders, including the bombing death of one of Italy's top anti-mob prosecutors. Lorenzo Tinnirello, dubbed one of the "super fugitive" Mafia leaders, was surrounded as he left a fish market in Trabia, about 15 miles southeast of Palermo, Sicily. He was not armed and did not resist, police said.
ATTACK: Rockets slammed into Afghanistan's central bank Saturday as government workers collected their salaries. Government radio reported 15 people killed and hospitals said more than 60 were wounded. Fighters loyal to renegade Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar rained rockets on Kabul all morning, firing from positions on the southern and eastern fringes of the city.
DEBT: Western banks have agreed to slash half of Poland's $13 billion commercial debt - a big boost to a thriving economy that craves greater Western investment, the finance minister announced Saturday. The accord will be a big shot in the arm for Europe's fastest-growing economy, whose strength is services and whose industrial base is still dominated by aging, obsolete plants.
CRASH: The pilot of a Korean Air jetliner that skidded off a runway and burst into flames shouldn't have landed because the plane was going too fast, an official report said Saturday. The Airbus A300 burst into flames after running off a runway on southern Cheju Island and hitting a safety barrier Aug. 10. All 152 passengers and eight crew escaped moments before fire destroyed the plane.
Across the nation
ARREST: A man on probation in the 1992 riot beating of Reginald Denny was arrested Friday for investigation of assault with a deadly weapon at a site not far from where the truck driver was attacked. Antoine Miller, 22, was booked and held without bail after police found a semiautomatic handgun during a search of his home Friday. Police were investigating an incident Sunday in which Miller allegedly fired at people in a car after an argument, Deputy Police Chief Mark Kroeker said.
WINNER: A horse seized by the IRS earned the government $77,000 on Saturday by crossing the finish line second in a race in Trenton, N.J. The horse, Devil His Due, was entered into the $350,000 race on Thursday after the Internal Revenue Service posted a tax lien against the horse's owner, Lion Crest Stables of Mahwah, N.J. A slightly faster sprint could have dumped the top prize of $210,000 into federal coffers.