In brief: S. Korea holds naval firing drills

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korean troops pushed ahead with naval firing drills today, a day after North Korea warned such exercises would aggravate already high tensions between the rivals following the North’s deadly shelling last month of a front-line South Korean island.

South Korea’s army began firing artillery into the waters off the divided Korean peninsula as part of weeklong drills set to continue through Sunday, South Korean army and Joint Chiefs of Staff officers said.

The officers, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing office rules, said the drills were to take place at nearly 30 sites, but none of today’s exercises were near the disputed western sea border between the Koreas where last month’s attack took place. The navy said warships were to join the drills later this week.

Mediator arrives in Ivory Coast

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast – International mediators tried to intervene Sunday in Ivory Coast’s growing political crisis after both candidates in the disputed election said they were now president, raising fears the country could again be divided in two.

In the northern opposition stronghold of Bouake, several hundred people marched down a main boulevard Sunday afternoon, calling for incumbent Laurent Gbagbo to stand down. Villagers wielding machetes also created their own checkpoint in protest along one major road in the region.

“It’s important not to have violence, not to return to war – to find a peaceful solution,” former South African President Thabo Mbeki said Sunday after arriving in Abidjan to try and mediate at the behest of the African Union.

The international community has recognized opposition leader Alassane Ouattara as the winner of the presidential runoff vote held one week ago in Ivory Coast, the world’s largest cocoa producer.

Russian rocket falls into ocean

MOSCOW – A rocket and its payload of three communications satellites fell into the Pacific Ocean after failing to reach orbit, Russian news reports said Sunday, the latest setback to that country’s attempts to develop a system to rival the U.S. Global Positioning System.

The state news agency RIA Novosti cited an unidentified aerospace industry source as saying the rocket and satellites went into the sea Sunday about 900 miles northwest of Honolulu, Hawaii.

Attackers beat, kill 23 fur seals

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Attackers clubbed 23 fur seals to death, including newborn pups, at a New Zealand breeding colony re-established two decades ago after the species was nearly wiped out by hunting.

Some of the eight bludgeoned pups were just days old, Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson said. She appealed for assistance from the public to help track down the attackers.

The Ohau Point seal colony on northern South Island is a popular tourism spot north of the town of Kaikoura, which is an international whale-watching center.

The colony stretches about 1.2 miles along the coast and is at the bottom of a steep, 100-foot cliff with no easy access.