Gondolas gather for Venice mock funeral

While the largely symbolic threshold is considered by some to signal the end of the city's viability, Venetian officials say reports of Venice's demise are premature, and even yesterday's somber funeral ended with a surprise, bright hope for rebirth.

In fact, while native Venetians have been fleeing the expensive lagoon city for cheaper and easier living on the mainland, the population of the historic center was officially 60,025 as of Thursday, up from the 59,992 it had fallen to in recent weeks.

"They will have the funeral in a living village, not yet dead. And it won't die, even if it goes to 59,999," Mara Rumiz, the city official in charge of demographics, said in a phone interview Friday. - AP

Shooting-range blaze kills 10 in S. Korea

An official at the National Emergency Management Agency said authorities were struggling to identify the dead due to their burns. Nine Japanese tourists and their South Korean guide were inside the facility in the southeastern port city of Busan when the fire broke out on the second floor of a five-story building, police official Han Jong-seok said.

The emergency official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the fire raged for about 40 minutes before being put out. Police and fire officials were trying to determine its cause. - AP

Sweden gives back 22 Hawaiian skulls

The symbolic ceremony - attended by guests from Hawaii and the Nordic countries' own indigenous Sami population - was part of Sweden's increased efforts to return indigenous remains collected by scientists across the world in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The Hawaiian skulls had been returned privately earlier yesterday so that the Hawaiian delegates could perform a ritual according to traditional customs. "We know that they were collected; although by today's standards, they were looted," museum director Lars Amreus said. - AP

Elsewhere:

A North Korean cargo ship entered South Korean waters yesterday - a sign that trade has been unaffected by a naval clash off their western coasts, an official said. The ship dropped anchor west of Seoul just one day after North Korea's military threatened to "take merciless military measures to defend" itself and warned that South Korea would be forced to pay a heavy price for the recent firefight over their disputed maritime border.

A speeding train derailed in western India yesterday, killing at least nine people and injuring 80. Fifteen cars of the New Delhi-bound train flew off the tracks and rolled onto their sides when the driver suddenly applied the brakes because of poor visibility, said Vipin Kumar Pande, superintendent of police.