■ United Kingdom
Teen arrested in ax killing
North of England police on Sunday arrested a 17-year-old in the Liverpool suburb of Huyton in connection with a racist attack in which a black student was bludgeoned to death with an axe, they announced early yesterday. The 18-year-old student, Anthony Walker, was left with the ax embedded in his skull in the "vicious and unprovoked" assault near his home in Liverpool on Friday night, in a shocking case in multi-cultural Britain. "Merseyside police has arrested a 17-year-old man from Huyton in connection with the death of Anthony Walker. He has been taken in a Merseyside police station where he will be questioned," the announcement said.
■ France
Two firefighters killed
The pilot and co-pilot of a fire-fighting plane were killed yesterday when the aircraft crashed while battling a blaze on the island of Corsica, the island's police said. The plane crashed in an uninhabited area near the city of Calvi, where it had been trying to contain a fire that has destroyed some 100 hectares of brush since it broke out on Sunday. The fire had been contained late Sunday, but broke out again yesterday because of the hot weather and rising winds.
■ Germany
Carousel kills child
Owners of an amusement park in Germany faced charges of negligent homicide yesterday after a 3-year-old boy was trampled to death under the hooves of horses on a children's carousel. The tot eluded his parents and hopped onto the moving carousel in the Rhine Valley town of Schoenborn Sunday evening. Losing his balance, he fell and became pinned under the mechanical horses. Eyewitnesses said there was a delay in stopping the carousel because the master switch was located in the cashiers booth, which was locked and unstaffed.
■ France
European banker dies
Wim Duisenberg, the former European Central Bank chief who helped create the euro currency, was found dead in his swimming pool in southeastern France, officials said. He was 70. An autopsy showed Duisenberg had drowned after an unspecified cardiac problem, a regional prosecutor said. He was found unconscious on Sunday in the swimming pool at his home in the town of Faucon and could not be resuscitated, police said. Duisenberg "died a natural death, due to drowning, after a cardiac problem," said Jean-Francois Sanpieri, a state prosecutor in the nearby town of Carpentras. He did not give further details about the autopsy. Prairie, and two adult sons from a previous marriage.
■ United States
More abuse at juvenile jails
Sexual assaults and other illicit incidents of sexual contact are reported at juvenile prisons at 10 times the rate than at adult lockups, a US government study finds. The research found 10 reported incidents for every 2,000 youths at state-run juvenile facilities. At state-run adult prisons, it was one reported incident for every 2,000 inmates, according to the study by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics released Sunday. The numbers are based on substantiated reports to corrections officials last year. Better reporting is one factor contributing to the higher rate at the juvenile corrections centers, said study co-author Allen Beck. State laws require staff to report sex allegations involving minors, he said.
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