Body of U.S. teen found off Costa Rica

A police search team has found the body of a third U.S. teenager swept out to sea along with a teacher by currents off Costa Rica's Pacific coast, a Red Cross official said Wednesday.

The body of Jessica Pierce, 17, was found 14 miles out to sea Tuesday, said Red Cross spokeswoman Noemy Coto. The students, from a Kansas high school, were in Costa Rica for language study.

The body of Danielle Tongier, 18, was recovered Saturday and the body of Andrew Harpstrite, 17, was found Sunday. The search continues for the teacher, Brett Carlson, 26, Coto said. Two other students were rescued.

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Mine explodes under bus; 62 die

A land mine detonated under a bus packed with commuters and schoolchildren in Sri Lanka today, killing at least 62 people, the army said.

The explosion was the most deadly single act of violence since the government and Tamil Tiger rebels signed a cease-fire in 2002, and renewed fears of a return to war.

S.B. Bothota, a doctor at the hospital where the victims were taken, said 15 children were among the 62 killed. An additional 78 people were reportedly wounded by the blast in Kabithigollewa, a town in the northern Anuradhapura district.

The rebels want to carve out a separate homeland for the country's 3.2 million Tamils, who are largely Hindu. Most Sri Lankans are Sinhalese, most of whom are Buddhists.

Beijing

60-ton coal-tar spill a threat to reservoir

Cleanup crews in northern China scrambled today to absorb 60 tons of coal tar accidentally dumped in a river before it reaches a reservoir serving a city of 10 million, state media said.

The spill occurred Monday when a truck carrying 60 tons of coal tar fell into the Dasha river in Shanxi province, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Cotton batting, sponge, straw and activated carbon were being used to try to absorb the coal tar before it reaches the Wangkuai Reservoir of Baoding, a city of about 10 million people, Xinhua said.

Oaxaca, Mexico

Shots heard as police clash with strikers

Thousands of Mexican police firing tear gas battled striking teachers Wednesday in the main square in Oaxaca where they had camped for three weeks demanding higher wages.

Witnesses and media reports said shots were fired during clashes in the streets. One policeman was shot in the leg before the teachers retook the square, popular with tourists.

State Gov. Ulises Ruiz denied a report by the teachers union that police had killed three or four people.

Bombings ravage Muslim south

At least two people were killed and 10 wounded by a rash of small bombs in Thailand's Muslim south today, police said.

At least 41 bombs exploded almost simultaneously at police stations, checkpoints and government offices in Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, southernmost provinces where more than 1,300 people have been killed in two years of separatist insurgency.

The government of overwhelmingly Buddhist Thailand has tried many ways to end the violence and win over the 1.8 million people in the south.

Compiled from The Associated Press and Reuters