Mexico: Truck driver plows into crowd, kills 2

A mechanic who had complained that a daily flag ceremony blocked his shop rammed a pickup truck into a crowd of preschoolers Monday, killing two toddlers and injuring more than 20 other people, police said.

An amateur video of the carnage, broadcast on news programs, showed a pickup parked near a group of 100 preschoolers and their teachers holding a ceremony on a quiet street in front of their school in Ecatepec, just outside Mexico City.

Several children in colorful soldier outfits carried a Mexican flag while others banged drums or watched.

In the video, a man can be seen trying to talk to several adults. Suddenly, the man gets into his truck, backs it up and then races it into the crowd, running over several children and teachers and dragging their bodies down the street.

North Korea: Talks with South Korea cancelled at last minute

North Korea said Monday it was canceling economic talks with South Korea that were scheduled to start this week as part of a renewed reconciliation effort, blaming “reckless” remarks by a South Korean official for its decision.

North Korea had agreed to hold the talks and restart other stalled exchanges with South Korea during an icebreaking trip to Pyongyang by a South Korean envoy in early April.

The agreement, one of several recent suggestions that the isolated North was trying to improve ties with the outside world, called for a high-level North Korean economic delegation to visit Seoul for four days of meetings starting today.

But North Korea abruptly called off the talks a day before they were to begin, reiterating its criticism of South Korean Foreign Minister Choi Sung-hong, whom it accused of supporting what it described as Washington’s hard-line policy toward the North.

France: Prime minister chosen

Jean-Pierre Raffarin, an affable but little-known conservative senator, was named France’s prime minister on Monday, a day after President Jacques Chirac won re-election by an overwhelming margin.

Raffarin, 53, is expected to name a new Cabinet this week, possibly as early as today, and begin working on Chirac’s promise to crack down on rising crime and respond to the nation’s discontent.

The stakes are high for Raffarin. Left-leaning parties are eager to stage a comeback after Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin suffered an embarrassing loss to ultra-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen in the first round of voting.

Recruited from the small, center-right Liberal Democracy party, Raffarin is a former marketing executive who favors free trade, putting him at odds with many leftist rivals.