Drug war: 16 killed

ACAPULCO: A military official says 15 gunmen and a soldier were killed in a two-hour shootout in the heart of Acapulco’s hotel zone. The army colonel who led the battle against the gunmen says the shootout erupted when the military received a tip about the presence of armed men at a house in the hotel zone. He says the gunmen opened fire with assault rifles and about 50 grenades on soldiers who arrived at the house. The soldiers found four Guerrero state police officers inside the house who said they were being held captive by the gunmen.Drug war The gunbattle had started on Saturday. — AP

Green Zone under fire

BAGHDAD: Two mortar bombs struck the heavily fortified Green Zone in the heart of Baghdad on Sunday, the US military and Iraqi officials said. “The IZ (International Zone) took an IDF (indirect fire) this morning,” an army spokesman said via e-mail, without providing any further information. The Iraqi interior ministry could not immediately provide details of the incident when contacted by AFP, but an official from the ministry later said a mortar also hit the Green Zone at around 1200 GMT. There were no immediate reports of casualties. The Green Zone is home to Iraqi government offices and a number of foreign missions including the US embassy.— AFP

3 more bodies found

RECIFE: The Brazilian navy recovered three more bodies from the Air France flight that crashed last week in the Atlantic, raising the total recovered so far to five, a spokesman said Sunday. There were 228 passengers and crew on the ill-fated flight that took off from Rio de Janeiro for Paris last Sunday. — AFP

Support for Brown

LONDON: The embattled British PM’s top cabinet ally warned rebels on Sunday to “stop taking shots” at Gordon Brown as the ruling party awaited European election results that they expect to be terrible. Peter Mandelson, the new first secretary of state, said the campaign against Brown could spark an unwanted

general election. Be that as it may, there has a growing call for a debate on Brown’s leadership. — AFP