Mexico: Man suspected in slayings decapitated / Gulf of Aden: U.S. cruise ship outruns pirates / Gaza Strip: 2 Palestinians die in Israeli airstrike / Russia: Skinheads guilty in migrant deaths

A gunman suspected of wounding his mother and killing three police officers called to the scene was found beheaded in southern Mexico, authorities said. After Fabian Ramirez's arrest, four armed men wearing letters that identified them as agents of the Federal Investigative Agency took him away, police officers said.

Ramirez's head was found in Iguala, southwest of Mexico City, according to the Guerrero state department of public safety. A message nearby said: "This is what happens to all those who kill a police officer or a soldier."

GULF OF ADEN

U.S. cruise ship outruns pirates

Pirates chased and shot at a U.S. cruise ship with more than 1,000 people aboard but failed to hijack the vessel in a corridor patrolled by international warships, officials said.

The captain of the Nautica ordered passengers inside and gunned the engine, outrunning the pirates' speedboats Sunday in the Gulf of Aden between the Horn of Africa and the Arabian peninsula, a company spokesman said.

No passengers were injured, and no damage was reported.

GAZA STRIP

2 Palestinians die in Israeli airstrike

An Israeli airstrike killed two Palestinians in the southern Gaza Strip. The army said it attacked militants who fired mortar shells at Israeli troops. Palestinian medical officials said the dead were civilian youths ages 16 and 17.

Meanwhile, an Israeli military court convicted the Palestinian parliament speaker, Aziz Dweik, of membership in Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza.

His sentencing is set for Dec. 18.

RUSSIA

Skinheads guilty in migrant deaths

A Moscow court convicted seven teenage skinheads of killing 20 migrant workers, Interfax news agency reported.

The court also said the gang had tried to kill 12 other migrants between August 2006 and October 2007.

From January through October of this year, racist attacks killed 113 migrants and wounded 340, the nongovernmental Moscow Human Rights Bureau said.

-- times wire reports