■ COLOMBIA
FARC blamed for deaths
Gunmen raided a southern farm and killed nine people, including four children, in an attack which authorities blamed on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Colonel Harold Martin Lara, chief of police in Putumayo state, told Caracol Radio on Sunday that the assailants belong to FARC. He said the owner of the farm where the two families had lived "received threats for refusing to pay bribes to the guerrillas." The farmers were killed after attending a church service near the town of Puerto Asis. A 13-year-old girl who was asleep at the time survived, Lara said.
■ UNITED STATES
`Designer estrogen' created
Researchers have designed a form of estrogen that can protect the brain against degeneration without increasing a woman's risk for breast or uterine cancer, according to a study released yesterday. The scientists suggest this "designer estrogen" could be used to treat brain deterioration in several conditions including Alzheimer's, Lou Gehrig's disease, multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injury. The experimental estrogen has only been tested on mice so far, but in those studies it halted the progress of the disease in mice infected with the animal version of the autoimmune disease MS. The animals also recovered their ability to walk again. The study was published in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
■ UNITED STATES
Student hugs 765 people
Kneeling for children and stretching to embrace taller people, college student Jordan Pearce believes she has hugged her way into the record books. Pearce, 18, said she hugged 765 people in less than an hour on Saturday and plans to send the results to Guinness World Records to be confirmed. "I feel like I'm on cloud nine," Pearce said after the last hug Saturday in Provo, Utah. To help certify the event, District Judge Lynn Davis and state Senator Curt Bramble counted the hugs, which required arms and hands wrapped around the person. One man spilled a drink on Pearce. A little girl refused to let go of her blue sucker, and a little boy kicked and screamed, not wanting to hug a stranger, the Daily Herald of Provo said.
■ UNITED STATES
Mine search continues
Federal and mine company officials said on Sunday that a seventh borehole was being punched into the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah and that a special robotic camera was being lowered into a hole drilled during previous efforts to find six miners trapped by an Aug. 6 cave-in. The camera is similar to one used to search within the wreckage of the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11 attacks. "The families are thrilled to hear this," said Colin King, a lawyer for the miners' families.
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