■ United States
Woman has own grandkids
A 55-year-old woman acting as a surrogate for her daughter gave birth to triplets on Tuesday. The two boys and one girl were delivered a month and a half prematurely by Caesarean section. Surrogate mother Tina Cade experienced "mild complications," which the hospital said is not uncommon for such surgery. Cade carried her own grandchildren for her oldest daughter, Camille Hammond, who suffers from endome-triosis, a condition that affects the lining of the uterus and makes it difficult to become pregnant. Hammond and her husband, Jason, both doctors at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, had tried for four years to become pregnant.
■ United States
Officer sues after sex change
A police officer who had surgery to become a woman in 2002 has filed a lawsuit charging the Oklahoma City Police Department with sexual harassment, her lawyers said on Tuesday. Paula Schonauer, 38, said she has been the subject of constant harassment, which has only gotten worse since she completed surgery to change her sex. Schonauer, who stands 191cm tall and weighs 91kg, said the harassment interferes with her ability to do her job. Schonauer joined the Oklahoma City Police Department in 1992 as a male named Paul after serving in the US Army. Schonauer said she just wants to be treated normally and professionally by her colleagues.
■ Macedonia
Men get `hotel detention'
An investigative judge in western Macedonian town of Tetovo placed two Albanians arrested during Saturday's shootout with police into "hotel detention," in a move so far unseen in the troubled country's judiciary system, local media reported. Valon Azemi and Florent Sahiti, alleged members of Albanian underground group which clashed with the police on Saturday, were captured after the shooting and sent to local prison. Police action was aimed against a rebel group which held a village in Skopje suburbs under a siege for almost a month, threatening to attack government institutions in the capital and US embassy.
■ Mexico
Freezing temperatures kill
A deep freeze in northern Mexico has caused more than 40 deaths, most commonly from carbon-monoxide poising as a result of faulty heating devices, authorities said on Tuesday. The onset of wintery temperatures in the region has been earlier and more severe than usual, according to press reports. The hardest hit Mexican provinces have been mountainous Chihuahua and Zacatecas, where temperatures at higher elevations have dropped as low as minus 14 degrees centigrade.
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