■ UNITED STATES
Boys accused of rape
Three boys aged eight and nine were being held on Monday in a detention center on charges of raping an 11-year-old girl in the woods near a suburban Atlanta, Georgia, apartment complex, officials said. The alleged attack happened on Thursday and the girl's mother reported it to authorities on Sunday, Acworth police Captain Wayne Dennard said. "The juvenile victim stated that an eight-year-old boy and two nine-year-old boys that she had been playing with earlier pulled her into a wooded area, where one of the boys raped her," Dennard said. The three boys were charged with rape, kidnapping, false imprisonment and sexual assault.
■ UNITED STATES
Hate crime on the rise
Hate crime incidents rose last year by almost 8 percent, the FBI reported on Monday, as racial prejudice continued to account for more than half of the reported instances. Police reported 7,722 criminal incidents last year targeting victims or property as a result of prejudice against a particular race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnic or national origin or physical or mental disability. That was up 7.8 percent from the 7,163 incidents reported in 2005. Only 12,600 of the nation's more than 17,000 local, county, state and federal police agencies participated in the hate crime reporting program.
■ COLOMBIA
Makeshift submarine found
Marines seized a makeshift submarine capable of smuggling up to 12 tonnes of cocaine through the Pacific to Central America, making it one of the largest such craft found, authorities said on Friday. The nearly completed fiberglass submarine, found in a rural area in south Narino province, had space for four crew members, the Navy said in a statement. The country's Pacific coast has become a key transport route for traffickers looking to access commercial sea lanes north to Mexico and the US. Guerrillas, paramilitaries and traffickers often fight to control Pacific drug routes.
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