England: Police threatened
LONDON — British police say they were forced to break off their pursuit of the gunman who killed a dozen people across a rural area in northern England last week because he turned the weapon on unarmed officers.
Police said Monday that they weren't in a position to halt Derrick Bird's deadly rampage.
One officer commandeered a cab to follow Bird but abandoned the chase to help two of his victims. A police van then took up the chase, but Bird shook them off by pointing his gun at them, forcing the officers to duck for cover.
Twelve people were killed and another 11 people were seriously wounded during Bird's rampage Wednesday across the northern county of Cumbria. Police have said Bird was being investigated by tax officials and might also have feuded with his family and colleagues.
Mexico: 55 bodies in mine
TAXCO — At least 55 bodies have been recovered from an abandoned silver mine that became a dumping ground for apparent victims of Mexico's drug violence, authorities said Monday.
The search for more victims ended over the weekend at the mine on the outskirts of Taxco, a colonial-era tourist town famous for its silver jewelry, said Albertico Guinto, attorney general for the state of Guerrero.
Guinto said the overall toll could still rise, however, as forensic examiners try to determine whether other human remains, clothing and shoes found in the nearly 500-foot-deep shaft correspond to victims already included in the tally.
Poland: Crash site thefts
WARSAW — Polish authorities said Monday that someone stole a credit card from the wreckage of the plane crash that killed President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others in Russia, and the card was then used to withdraw cash.
Russian news services reported late Monday that three soldiers have been arrested on suspicion of having stolen personal belongings of a crash victim.
An unnamed source told the Itar-Tass news agency that the three conscripts were attached to the airport in the Russian city of Smolensk, where the plane was supposed to land.
The source was quoted as saying investigators have evidence against the suspects.
Argentina: DNA dispute
BUENOS AIRES — Scientists began court-ordered DNA tests Monday to determine whether the adopted children of Argentina's leading newspaper publisher were born to victims of the dictatorship.
Marcela and Felipe Noble Herrera — whose mother, Ernestina Herrera de Noble, owns Grupo Clarin — object to the tests, saying they do not want to know who their biological families are and fear the National Genetics Bank doesn't have appropriate safeguards.
Both told The Associated Press in an interview last week that as adults — now 34 — their identity is something they alone can determine, not the government or human rights organizations such as the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo. But the courts have overruled them, saying the grandmother group's right to know also has weight, and the Noble Herreras' motion to unseat the judge failed to stop the process Monday.
Canada: Mistake of a lake?
TORONTO — Canada's Conservative government is coming under heavy criticism from opposition parties for spending nearly $2 million for a fake lake inside the media center for this month's G-8 and G-20 summits.
Organizers are building the artificial lake to showcase the real G-8 site in Huntsville, Ontario, on June 25-26. The lake is part of a $1.9-million Canadian display called The Canadian Corridor that will include canoes, trees, deck chairs and a fake dock.
Only a small pool of about 150 reporters will be allowed to cover the G-8 summit in Huntsville because of the small venue size, so many will cover it from Toronto — the site of the G-20 summit that same weekend.
Opposition lawmaker Mark Holland ridiculed the government on Monday for the expense. Opposition parties have already decried the nearly $1 billion cost for security.