England: Police officer killed in counter-terror raid

At least one suspect fatally stabbed a British policeman and wounded four others Tuesday during a raid in northern England linked to the discovery of the poison ricin, officials said.

Three men were arrested during the Manchester raid, which police described as part of an ongoing operation with Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorist police.

Assistant Chief Constable Alan Green said there was no sign of the deadly poison at the site of the raid, a home in the city’s north.

Mexico City: Giuliani sizes up crime-fighting efforts

Trailed by armed guards and protected by armored vehicles, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani toured some of Mexico City’s roughest neighborhoods Tuesday, his first step in creating a plan to fight the capital’s violence and corruption.

The surprise two-day visit was Giuliani’s first to the city since business leaders collected $4.3 million to hire his consulting firm to help Mexico City put together a plan to clean up the police and crack down on crime.

Giuliani said city police leaders appear dedicated to cleaning up the city, and he was optimistic that the zero tolerance policies he used to reduce crime by 65 percent in New York City would also work in Mexico City.

Still, Giuliani stressed that officials were learning about cultural and legal differences, and that they would tailor any plan to Mexico City’s needs.

Japan: Visit to war shrine draws protests

China and South Korea condemned Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s visit Tuesday to a shrine honoring Japan’s war dead — including its war criminals — saying it glorified Japan’s brutal military occupation of other countries decades ago.

The controversy threatened to set back Japan’s delicate diplomatic campaign to peacefully resolve the nuclear standoff on the Korean Peninsula, one of its former conquests.

Japanese conservatives welcomed the visit. But it enraged officials in Beijing and Seoul, who called on the Japanese leader to halt his annual visits to Yasukuni shrine, a monument to Japan’s indigenous Shinto religion. The government used Shinto before and during World War II to stir nationalism and promote the conquest of Asia.

The shrine, located in Tokyo just outside the Imperial Palace, honors Japan’s 2.5 million war dead, including convicted war criminals such as executed wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo.