Hispanoamerican Queen 2008 Laura Zuniga of Sinaloa, shown after her arrest Monday with suspected drug-gang members and a cache of weapons and money, was stripped of her crown Saturday. Runner-up Vivian Noronha of Brazil replaces her.

Related articles:

Around the world Around the world Around the world Around the world: Tainted meat affects likely to last months Around the world Around the World Around the world Around the world Around the world Around the world

Trades/Construction
RANCHO RESORT
MAINTANANCE POSITION Administrative & Professional
Tucson Urban League
CEO/President Administrative & Professional
Jorgensen Brooks Group
Counselor Finance and Accounting
Charles E. Gillman Company
Accounting Specialist Mechanical
Komatsu Equipment Co
Resident Field Mechanic Sales and Marketing
Everready Glass
Sales Reps

GARHI KHUDA BAKHSH — Wailing and beating their chests, tens of thousands of people paid homage to Benazir Bhutto Saturday on the first anniversary of her assassination — an event that dashed U.S. hopes the moderate Muslim politician would regain power and galvanize the campaign against al-Qaida.

The commemoration came amid heightened tensions with India over the Mumbai terror attacks and a Pakistani troop buildup along their shared border, though Pakistan's leaders used the occasion to call for peace.

India's foreign minister urged Pakistan to focus on fighting homegrown militant violence and avoid "war hysteria."

MORELIA — A gang of about 20 men armed with assault rifles robbed a train in the western state of Michoacan and carted off some of its freight, the state prosecutor's office said Saturday.

A statement by the prosecutor's office did not specify what the gang stole from the train, operated by Kansas City Southern, a subsidiary of the U.S.-based railway company.

But the thieves may have been after drums of pseudoephedrine, a chemical used in the illegal manufacture of methamphetamines, according to an official at the Michoacan state attorney general's office.

CONAKRY — Guinea's coup leader declared a zero-tolerance policy on corruption Saturday, vowing to renegotiate the country's numerous mining contracts and warning that anyone who embezzles state funds will be executed.

Capt. Moussa Camara also extended an apparent concession to Guinea's opposition leaders, telling them they could help choose a prime minister following international criticism that elections are not planned for two more years.

Guinea is the world's largest producer of bauxite, the raw material used to make aluminum, and also produces diamonds and gold. But its mineral wealth was siphoned off to enrich the country's longtime ruling clique.

ACCRA — Ghana's presidential contest heads to a runoff vote today, a race that has become a referendum on whether the West African country's stunning growth of the past eight years has trickled down to ordinary people.

Neither the ruling party nor the opposition secured enough votes Dec. 7 to win the presidential election outright in Ghana, one of the continent's few stable democracies.

Nana Akufo-Addo of the ruling New Patriotic Party received 49.13 percent in the first round. Opposition candidate John Atta Mills campaigned on a platform of change and received 47.92 percent.

LONDON — A woman found bound in the trunk of her own car may have been there for well over a week, police in Scotland said Saturday.

Officers found Magdeline Makola, dehydrated and suffering from hypothermia, on Friday.

Police said the 38-year-old nurse had been restrained so she couldn't escape and was wearing pajamas when two officers discovered her in the Vauxhall Astra in Airdrie, east of Glasgow. The officers had heard cries coming from the car and then broke into the vehicle to access the trunk and free her.

Police said there was no apparent motive for the abduction.

KABUL — A rare rocket attack in the capital Saturday night demolished two rooms of a mud-brick home and killed three teenage sisters, the family and police said.

The attack on the southern end of Kabul landed on a house adjacent to an Afghan police training center.

The attack crushed the mud home and killed the sisters, ages 13, 15 and 16, said Sayed Farah Muz, the girls' uncle.

SAVOGNIN — Swiss rescue officials say they have found two missing skiers after spotting the light from their MP3 music player.

The Swiss air rescue association Rega said it received a distress call from the French tourists late Friday but the skiers' phone battery went dead before they could be reached.

Rega spokesman Gery Baumann said the two men were eventually found after midnight in steep, wooded terrain by a helicopter crew that spotted the light from their digital music player.

STOCKHOLM — A giant Christmas straw goat that has been targeted in a violent Christmas tradition for four decades in Sweden was burned down yet again Saturday, an official said.

Vandals have burned the 43-foot-high goat 23 times since it was first set up in the central Swedish city of Gavle on Dec. 3, 1966, to mark the holiday season.

The traditional yuletide goat has also been smashed several times, run over by a car and had its legs cut off.

The goat is a centuries-old Scandinavian yule symbol that preceded Santa Claus as the bringer of gifts to Swedish homes.