INTERNATIONAL

Attackers with rocket launchers kill two Turkish soldiers

Associated Press

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Two Turkish soldiers were killed in ambush in eastern Turkey, the Anatolia news agency reported yesterday. The attackers used rocket launchers to ambush security forces near the eastern town of Tokat, Anatolia reported. One soldier died at the scene and the other died en route to a hospital, the agency said. Officials said they could not confirm the report or say who carried out the attack. Kurdish rebels and outlawed leftist groups are active in the region. Sporadic fighting continues in Turkey's predominantly Kurdish southeast, despite a cease-fire ordered by the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. Turkey rejected the cease-fire, saying all the rebels must surrender or be killed. The PKK had fought for autonomy for 15 years. Some 37,000 people have died as a result of the fighting. Leftist groups have also attacked Turkish security forces in the past. Last month, a suicide bomber from a banned leftist group killed two policemen and a tourist in Istanbul.

STATES

Man guilty in mail-order bride case

Associated Press

EVERETT, Wash. - A man who led authorities to the remains of a mail-order bride from the former Soviet Union pleaded guilty yesterday to a reduced charge of second-degree murder. Daniel Kristopher Larson, 21, was charged with first-degree murder in the strangling death of Anastasia Solovieva King, 20, who vanished in September 2000 after returning from a visit to her parents in Kyrgyzstan. She had told friends and family she wanted a divorce from her

estranged husband, Indle Gifford King Jr., 40. Larson told detectives he strangled her with a necktie while she was pinned beneath her 280-pound husband, according to court documents. King has pleaded innocent to first-degree murder and is scheduled for trial in January. As part of a plea agreement, Larson is to testify against King and will not be sentenced until after King's trial is over. Larson lived in King's house at the time Anastasia King vanished. Noting King's frequent jailhouse visits to Larson, a registered sex offender who had been arrested on an unrelated charge of indecent liberties, police questioned the younger man about the disappearance. In December, Larson led them to the woman's remains in a wooded area on the Tulalip Indian Reservation.

LOCAL

Man arrested in prank that causes Post Office scare

Associated Press

LAKE HAVASU CITY - The Lake Havasu City post office was closed yesterday morning, and a man was arrested as the result of what police said was a practical joke gone awry.

The man brought a package leaking a white powdery substance into the post office. Concerned about recent anthrax exposures, officials called in a hazardous materials team.

Investigators believe the material was baking powder, Lake Havasu City spokesman Charlie Cassens said.

During questioning, the man admitted that he was trying to play a practical joke on a friend he was mailing the package to, Cassens said.

The man, who was not immediately identified, was taken to jail. The post office reopened later yesterday afternoon.