World briefs

SOUTH KOREA: Leaders criticize China

A top South Korean official dismisses China's nuclear negotiator as "incompetent." A Chinese envoy mocks North Korea as a "spoiled child." After a major escalation of sporadic skirmishes between the rival Koreas, an international effort is trying to rein in rising tensions. But U.S. diplomatic memos leaked this week call into question whether regional powers - most notably China - have any insight into or influence over enigmatic and defiant North Korea. China is pressing for an emergency meeting in the coming days to discuss the attack by North Korea last week and ways to defuse tensions.

MEXICO: Beaches taking a hit

Cancun's eroding white sand beaches are providing a note of urgency to the climate talks being held just south of this seaside resort famed for its postcard-perfect vistas. Rising sea levels and a series of unusually powerful hurricanes have aggravated the folly of building a tourist destination atop shifting sand dunes on a narrow peninsula. After the big storms hit, the bad ideas were laid bare: Much of Cancun's glittering hotel strip is now without a beach. Hotels built too tall, too heavy and too close to the shore, as well as beaches stripped of native vegetation to make them more tourist-friendly, have contributed to the massive erosion.

ENGLAND: Dozens of student arrests

British police made 153 arrests during student demonstrations in London Monday against proposed university tuition hikes, officials said. Police reported the arrests following a day of cat-and-mouse between demonstrators and riot officers that culminated in a violent standoff in the capital's Trafalgar Square. Students are furious over the coalition government's decision to allow schools to triple the cap imposed on tuition fees, allowing the best universities to charge up to $14,000 per year in a bid to reduce the burden on Britain's debt-laden public sector. British students currently pay up to $4,675.