SEOUL, South Korea

Fishing boat sinks, leaving four sailors dead, 18 missing

A South Korean fishing boat sank today in the Antarctic Ocean, leaving four sailors dead and 18 missing, officials said. Twenty sailors were rescued.

The 614-ton boat with 42 sailors aboard sank around 4:30 a.m. South Korean time, about 1,400 miles south of New Zealand, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry and coast guard said.

Nearby fishing boats rescued 20 of the sailors, the Foreign Ministry said.

South Korea asked New Zealand to help rescue the missing sailors, the ministry said in a statement. There were no immediate details about that rescue effort.

On board the boat were eight South Koreans, eight Chinese, 11 Indonesians, 11 Vietnamese, three Filipinos and one Russian, the statement said.

The dead included two Indonesians, one South Korean and one Vietnamese, a Foreign Ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of office rules.

MORELIA, Mexico

Peace march turns to rally in honor of slain drug lord

A peace march called by local authorities in western Mexico turned into a show of support for a slain drug lord Sunday, with adults and children carrying signs lauding the capo known for handing out Bibles to the poor.

Hundreds of people turned out for the march in Apatzingan, the birthplace of La Familia cartel leader Nazario Moreno, who reputedly indoctrinated his gang members in pseudo-Christian ideology.

The government said that Moreno was killed in Apatzingan on Thursday in a shootout with federal police. The hunt for Moreno and other La Familia leaders set off two days of battles in Michoacan state. At least 11 other people were killed, including a baby and a teenage girl.

The Apatzingan government convoked the march to call for peace and demand that federal troops and police leave the city. But local officials quickly distanced themselves from the event after people showed up with the pro-Moreno signs.

One man held up a sign that said: “Nazario will always live in our hearts.” A boy in a checkered shirt held another saying: “Mr. Nazario, for students your ideals live on.”

The city government issued a statement saying it decided not to participate in the march “after determining the right conditions were not in place.” It didn’t mention the signs.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti

Palin visits aid projects, urges Americans to help

Sarah Palin urged Americans on Sunday not to forget Haiti as she wrapped up a weekend visit to an aid group’s sites in this country vexed by a cholera epidemic, earthquake reconstruction and political crisis.

Accompanied by a Fox News crew and the Rev. Franklin Graham, who runs the aid group that hosted her, the former Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential candidate arrived in Haiti during a respite from the violence that has followed the nation’s dysfunctional Nov. 28 election.

“I do urge Americans not to forget Haiti,” she said at a Sunday afternoon news conference.

Noting that severe problems afflicted Haiti even before last January’s devastating quake, she said her fellow citizens should “get out of your comfort zone and volunteer to help.”

Palin visited Samaritan’s Purse projects including cholera clinics where people are being treated for extreme dehydration. More than 2,000 people have died of the disease.

Palin’s trip was largely closed to the press, and she declined to take questions at the news conference.

She created some confusion when she referred to a potential drawdown of U.S. assistance to Haiti.

“There’s been some discussion of U.S. aid perhaps being lifted from this area,” she said. “Again — not to get political — but if some of the politicians would come here and see the conditions, perhaps they would see a need for, say, a military airlift to come bring supplies.”

It was not clear what she was referring to, and a Palin spokeswoman declined to elaborate.

Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who heads a U.S. Senate subcommittee that oversees appropriations for Haiti, recently called for the suspension of direct budget support to the Haitian government until a solution is found to an electoral crisis that has sparked riots in recent days.

But his spokesman said Sunday that he was not referring to humanitarian aid or reconstruction money.