Thousands in Mexico City mark ’68 student massacre
Mexico City – Several thousand students and union activists marched through downtown Mexico City on Sunday to mark the 37th anniversary of the 1968 killing of student protesters known as the Tlatelolco Massacre, after the city square where it occurred.
This year’s commemorative march came just weeks after a judge refused to issue arrest warrants for former President Luis Echeverria and other former officials, ruling in September that the statute of limitations had run out on the crimes.
But in one mark of the changes since the massacre, the mayor of Mexico City, Alejandro Encinas, held a ceremony in Tlatelolco Plaza to honor the dead and express hope that the crime would not remain unsolved.
“We must create a climate of vengeance, but we must find out the truth,” Encinas said.
City Interior Secretary Ricardo Ruiz Suarez called Tlatelolco “the absurd and stupid massacre of youths, men and women who were only demanding liberty and democracy.”
Flags were flown at half-staff in some Mexico City boroughs.
Dozens of students and other civilians died Oct. 2, 1968, when police and military officials opened fire on them during a government protest. Officials estimated that about 25 people died, while activists contend that as many as 350 were killed.
GRANTVILLE, Kan.
Foot of rain sends residents fleeing flood
A storm dumped up to a foot of rain over parts of northeast Kansas on Sunday, sparking flash flooding that left people stranded in homes and cars, emergency officials said.
No serious injuries were reported, but emergency crews used airboats to navigate fast- moving floodwaters that damaged many homes.
About a foot of rain fell overnight in Jefferson County, and up to 10 inches was reported in Jackson County. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius declared an emergency in four counties.
Reports from several officials indicated there were at least 24 people rescued. A voluntary evacuation order was issued for Rossville, a town of 1,070 people in Shawnee County.
“The water in the creeks came up, and the homes are surrounded,” said Don Haynes, Jefferson County’s director of emergency services. “Who plans for this kind of rain?”
LOS ANGELES
Hot winds could cost firefighters gains
Firefighters gained ground Sunday against three wildfires burning across Southern California but worried about a forecast for hot winds.
A 1,045-acre fire in Burbank was 67 percent contained after firefighters were aided by cooler, overnight breezes, said Capt. Ron Bell of the Burbank Fire Department.
Residents returned to about 70 evacuated homes in Sunset Canyon.
But firefighters were concerned about a forecast for warmer winds that could bring 50-mph gusts and reignite what appeared to be a “cold mountain,” Bell said.
WASHINGTON
Suspicious package turns race into fun run
A 10-mile race that had attracted about 20,000 runners grew by a mile Sunday when a suspicious package under a bridge prompted organizers to change their route.
The Army’s annual “Ten-Miler” road race from Arlington, Va., to Washington and back became an unofficial “fun run” when a Washington police harbor unit found the package under the 14th Street Bridge, a part of the route.
Before runners reached the bridge, race organizers changed the route, said a spokeswoman for the Military District of Washington.
Police examined the package and said it was harmless.
SAN CARLOS, Mexico
Storm Otis dwindles as Stan heads for gulf
Otis weakened to tropical- storm status Sunday as it moved north on a track that could brush an unpopulated stretch of the Baja California peninsula, while Tropical Storm Stan crossed the Yucatan peninsula, heading for the Gulf of Mexico.
No immediate reports of damages or injuries were received in connection with either storm, officials in the states of Baja California Sur and Quintana Roo said.
Otis, once a Category 1 hurricane, weakened to windspeeds of about 45 mph by Sunday.
Officials in Baja California Sur state said about 500 people were at shelters around Los Cabos as a precaution while the storm passed but that many had returned to their homes.
MINSK, Belarus
U.S.-trained physicist to run for president
The fragmented political opposition in Belarus chose a U.S.-educated physicist Sunday to challenge President Alexander Lukashenko, dubbed “Europe’s last dictator,” in next year’s presidential election.
Inspired by the ouster of unpopular governments in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, about 800 representatives of Belarus’ opposition parties and movements named Alexander Milinkevich as their candidate at a congress in the capital, Minsk.
“We believe that Belarus will be next after Georgia and Ukraine,” Milinkevich said.
Milinkevich, 58, studied at the University of California and also attended the German-U.S. George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Germany.
LISBON, Portugal
Rimmed eclipse to dim skies of Europe, Africa
A rare and spectacular eclipse will dim the morning sky today across a strip of southwestern Europe and eight African countries.
During the event, called an annular eclipse, the moon will mask the sun like a black plate, leaving a bright, fiery rim.
The moon will be too small to blot out the sun completely, as in a total eclipse, because its elliptical orbit has taken it too far from Earth.
