NAHUALA, Guatemala (AP) – Torrential rains from a tropical depression caused landslides that have killed at least 38 people in Guatemala — some of them rescuers trying to save people already buried under a wall of mud.

In the village of Nahuala, about 200 rescue workers suspended the search for bodies Sunday afternoon after heavy rain fell in the area, Civil Protection spokesman David de Leon said.

Two slides in the same spot in the town of Nahuala killed at least 20 people along a highway leading northwest of the capital toward Mexico. Another slide closer to Guatemala City killed at least 12 others. “We will return when the rain ceases,” De Leon said. “It is difficult and dangerous to continue with the search.”

 Suagustino Pascual Tuy, a Nahuala police officer, said he and several others rushed to the highway with picks and shovels after hearing radio reports of the fallen earth, which had buried two pickup trucks and a bus at kilometer 171 of the Inter-American highway. Regional fire department Maj. Otto Mazariegos said at least 50 people are believed to be buried.

North Korea to release boat

SEOUL – North Korea said on Monday it was releasing the seven-man crew of a South Korean fishing boat, including three Chinese, after they illegally entered its waters last month.

 State news agency KCNA said the crew would be sent back South Korea ‘’taking into consideration the fact that they admitted the seriousness of their act and gave assurances that they would never repeat such an act’’.

Tensions have mounted on the peninsula this year after the sinking of a South Korean warship -- Seoul says it was sunk by a North Korean torpedo -- and a series of recent military drills by the United States and South Korea.

Shenzhen on 30th year

BEIJING, Sept 6, 2010 (AFP) - Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday hailed as ‘’a miracle’’ the Shenzhen special economic zone that helped set off China’s boom decades ago, as the nation celebrates the city’s 30th anniversary.

 ‘’The Shenzhen special economic zone created a miracle in the world’s history of industrialisation, urbanisation and modernisation and has contributed significantly to China’s opening up and reform,’’ Hu said on a visit to the southern city.

Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong, is a noted laboratory for reform. In 1980, it became the first area in China designated as an SEZ that could accept foreign investment under reforms pioneered by late leader Deng Xiaoping.

It offered lower taxes and less cumbersome bureaucratic procedures in order to attract overseas investors and was held up as a model for China’s manufacturing-based economic growth.

Most Japanese want Kan

TOKYO (AFP) - More than six in ten Japanese want Prime Minister Naoto Kan to win his party leadership battle with powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa, polls showed Monday.

 In a survey conducted at the weekend by the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, 66 percent of voters said Kan would be a better choice than Ozawa, with just 18 percent favoring Ozawa. In a poll by the Asahi Shimbun daily, 65 percent supported Kan, against 17 percent for Ozawa.

The election for president of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) on September 14 is an internal vote but voters’ opinions are likely to be taken into account by lawmakers, local assembly members and others with voting rights. Kan and Ozawa are level-pegging in the race for party president, according to another Yomiuri survey conducted Friday with DPJ lawmakers and others eligible to vote.

The leadership election threatens to divide the ruling party just a year after it took power and comes amid a slowing recovery of the country’s fragile export-led economy, threatened by a strong yen. The rivals represent the two different wings of the party which a year ago ousted the conservatives after more than half a century of almost unbroken rule.