Nation briefs 10/31/05

New Orleans trumpeter is star of Halloween event

NEW YORK -- The leader of New York's annual Halloween parade will be a little trumpeter from New Orleans -- 10-year-old Glenn Haul III, whose house and horn were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. In New York, he got a new trumpet that he will play today in what is billed as the country's biggest public Halloween event. Glenn's role as grand marshal is part of a New Orleans theme at today's parade, which takes place in New York's Greenwich Village. The parade's symbol -- as it was in 2001 after Sept. 11 -- is a phoenix rising from its ashes.

Police arrest hundreds in Halloween crowds in Wis.

MADISON, Wis. -- Police used repeated bursts of pepper spray early Sunday to break up a crowd of Halloween celebrants, part of a weekend of revelry in which more than 400 people were arrested. No serious injuries or property damage were reported. Police declared an unlawful assembly and used officers on horseback to move chanting and beverage-tossing revelers off State Street. Most arrests were for alcohol-related offenses, said Lt. Pat Malloy.

Cathedral reopens after destruction during WWII

DRESDEN, Germany -- Some 60,000 people celebrated the reopening of Dresden's restored baroque cathedral Sunday -- 60 years after Allied bombs destroyed the 18th-century church and its famed bell-shaped dome during World War II. German President Horst Koehler, Britain's Duke of Kent and the ambassadors of the United States and France were among 1,800 guests at the dedication ceremony in the Frauenkirche cathedral. Dresden residents had known the Frauenkirche, or Church of Our Lady, as a 43-foot high mound of rubble flanked by two jagged walls. That was all that remained after British and U.S. planes strafed the city with firebombs on the night of Feb. 13 and 14, 1945.

Hurricane Beta hits Nicaragua's east coast

MANAGUA, Nicaragua -- Hurricane Beta roared ashore along Nicaragua's Caribbean coastline Sunday, ripping off roofs, provoking floods and causing rivers to overflow in neighboring Honduras before weakening to a tropical storm. No deaths were immediately reported, but 10 people were reported missing after their boat disappeared and several others were injured. Beta was expected to continue losing strength as it moved farther inland during the day, and it was forecast to weaken to a tropical depression overnight.

-- From wire reports