Players try to stay dry as opponents stalk

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Young killers lured by easy cash

When he was finally caught, Rosalio Reta told detectives here that he had felt a thrill each time he killed. It was like being Superman or James Bond, he said.

"I like what I do," he told the police in a videotaped confession. "I don't deny it."

Reta was 13 when he was recruited by the Zetas, the infamous assassins of the Gulf Cartel, law enforcement officials say. He was one of a group of American teenagers from the impoverished streets of Laredo who was lured into the drug wars across the river in Mexico with promises of high pay, fancy cars and sexy women.

Insurgency reawakens as U.S. pulls back

As the American military prepares to withdraw from Iraqi cities, Iraqi and American security officials say that jihadi and Baath militants are rejoining the fight in areas that are largely quiet now, regrouping as a smaller but still lethal insurgency.

There is much debate as to whether any new insurgency, at a time of relative calm in most of Iraq, could ever produce the levels of violence that existed at the height of the war. A recent series of attacks, however, suggests the danger, all the more perilous now because the American troops who helped to pacify Iraq are leaving.

Several well-planned bombings, one on a street recently reopened because it was thought to be safe, have killed 123 people, most of them in and around Baghdad. Three were suicide bombings, signatures of al-Qaida in Iraq, a homegrown Sunni extremist group with some foreign leadership.

They've got next

Two boys raced up the stairs on N.C. State's Centennial Campus during the Computer Game Development Showcase last month. Snagging chairs in front of two computers, the 11-year olds were the first to play the latest video games.

"Yes!" they replied when one of the anxious N.C. State University students who developed "Blackbeard's Escape" and "Spectral Assault" asked if they liked the pirate-themed games.

The thumbs-up came 11 hours after programming and design students submitted educational games to computer science professor Michael Young and industrial design instructor Timothy Buie.

'02 zeal to save water dried up

After Raleigh voters elected Charles Meeker as mayor in 2001, he outlined a 34-point agenda. Nowhere on his to-do list: Conserve the city's water.

That changed the next year, when a creeping drought intensified, culminating in severe water shortages and usage restrictions throughout the Triangle.

Falls Lake, Raleigh's only water source, dropped to one-third of its water-supply allocation before unusually heavy rains that October replenished it. Even after Raleigh lifted restrictions, Meeker urged continued conservation, and Raleigh set up a Water Conservation Task Force.

Peters ready to 'fill shoes'

The Eagles introduced their new $60 million man Sunday, completing a major upgrade of the offensive line.

Coach Andy Reid believes Jason Peters, the Pro Bowl left tackle Philadelphia acquired in a trade with Buffalo on Friday, can fill the hole left by the departure of free agent and four-time Pro Bowl selection Tra Thomas to Jacksonville.

"Of course Tra Thomas is a great tackle," Peters said at news conference on Sunday. "He left big shoes to fill, and I'm ready to try to fill those shoes."