Around the world
DEADLY RAID: Leftist rebels killed 11 policemen in an overnight raid on the small Colombian town of Chalan in northern Sucre province, authorities said Wednesday in Bogota. They said the police headquarters in the town was destroyed in the pre-dawn attack by a large unit of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels. There was no immediate word on civilian casualties in the attack.PANIC: About 20 people were hurt when a small home-made bomb exploded on Wednesday and triggered a stampede at a cinema in the fifth bomb attack in the southern Philippines in four days, Zamboanga police said. Hundreds of moviegoers fled screaming for the exits when the bomb, contained in a bottle, went off under a balcony seat in the cinema in Zamboanga city, Sgt. Abraham Rojas said. The injured suffered bruises and contusions in the rush for the doors, but no one was hurt in the blast, police said.
GUNFIGHT: Thirty-eight people were killed in a gunbattle between Kenyan police officers and Ethiopian cattle rustlers in northern Kenya, Nairobi's Daily Nation newspaper said Wednesday. It said 25 people, believed to be Amarkoke bandits from Ethiopia, were killed after clashing with Kenyan police late on Saturday near the Ethiopian border. The bandits killed 13 people as they tried to raid cattle, and eight people were wounded.
Across the nation
6-HOUR CRUISE: What was supposed to be a six-hour trip to the Bahamas turned into a weather-whipped, 30-hour odyssey that left passengers shaken, seasick and frazzled. "It was utter chaos for about two hours," said Gray Farland, a University of Virginia student on spring break, adding that he got sick and looked for a life jacket because he "thought the boat was going to tip over." The Viking Princess and its 60 passengers arrived safely in Freeport, Bahamas, Tuesday afternoon, completing a trip that began the previous morning. The ship had left the Port of Palm Beach at 8:30 a.m. Monday and was supposed to arrive at 2 p.m. in Freeport.
ARRESTS: A woman and an ex-convict were arrested in the slayings of three video store workers and an elderly couple who had apparently stumbled onto the crime in Albuquerque, N.M. Esther Beckley, 41, and Shane Harrison, 26, were arrested separately Tuesday within blocks of the Hollywood Video store where three of the victims were shot to death March 3. The suspects were being held Wednesday in the city jail.
Other news . . .
POPE JOHN PAUL II has a temperature, but his condition is not giving cause for concern, the chief Vatican spokesman said in a brief statement on Wednesday. The 75-year old Pontiff had to call off his weekly general audience because of the sudden illness. . . . A SMOKY TIRE fire shut down I-95 in both directions Wednesday morning, forcing thousands of Philadelphia commuters onto narrow city streets and raising fears the elevated highway could be damaged.