In brief: North Korea launches short-range missiles

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea fired two short-range missiles 300 miles into the sea Monday in the second such launch in less than a week, amid ongoing annual military exercises between Seoul and Washington, South Korean officials said.

The launches appear to be a continuation of North Korea’s protest of the drills it calls a preparation for an attack, and to test the country’s weapons systems. They followed South Korea’s announcement that North Korea last Thursday fired four short-range Scud missiles with a range of more than 125 miles into the North’s eastern waters.

Pistorius neighbor opens murder trial

PRETORIA, South Africa – The murder trial of Oscar Pistorius opened Monday in South Africa with testimony from a neighbor who described the sound of what she said were four gunshots and recalled the “blood-curdling screams” of a woman who prosecutors say was the girlfriend slain by the onetime star athlete in his home.

The 27-year-old double-amputee runner’s stature peaked at the 2012 London Olympics and then plummeted when he shot model and television personality Reeva Steenkamp three times in the predawn hours of Valentine’s Day last year.

Robbers target woman in labor

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – A woman reported to be in labor and her boyfriend were robbed in Annapolis as they headed to a hospital, police said.

The couple were confronted by three men with guns as they left an apartment on Copeland Street early Sunday. When the woman’s boyfriend fled, police spokeswoman Cpl. Amy Miguez said, the suspects tried to get the woman to let them into an apartment, but she didn’t have a key.

That’s when two of the men took off in the woman’s car, Miguez says. After a chase, police arrested 24-year-old Devery Kelley, of Annapolis, and 44-year-old Cornell Robinson, of Washington, and charged them with robbery and assault.