THAI BOYS KEEP SPIRITS UP INSIDE CAVE

THAILAND» Their MAE SAI, skinny faces illuminated by a flashlight, the Thai soccer teammates stranded for nearly two weeks in a partly flooded cave said in a video Wednesday that they were healthy, as heavy rains forecast for this week threatened to complicate plans to extract the boys. The 12 boys and their coach are seen in the video sitting with Thai navy SEALs in the dark cave. The boys, many wrapped in foil warming blankets, take turns introducing themselves, pressing their hands together in a traditional Thai greeting and saying their names and that they are healthy.

Ex-soldiers convicted of killing Chilean singer Victor Jara.

SANTIAGO,

CHILE» Eight retired soldiers have been sentenced to 18 years in prison for one of the most emblematic murders of Chile’s military dictatorship: the murder of folk singer Victor Jara and a government official.

The office of the court system announced the ruling Tuesday, and it said a ninth veteran was sentenced to five years for the cover-up.

Jara, a popular singer and university professor, was a fervent supporter of Marxist President Salvador Allende and he was seized only hours after Gen. Augusto Pinochet assaulted the presidential palace and overthrew Allende on Sept. 11, 1973.

Jara was taken to a stadium, where thousands of prisoners were being held. His hands and head were beaten, and he was shot with at least 44 bullets as a warning to those who challenged Pinochet.

Islamic State says leader’s son killed in Syria.

The Islamic State says the son of its top leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed fighting Syrian government forces.

The announcement of the death of the al-Baghdadi’s young son appeared on the group’s social media accounts late Tuesday. It included a picture of a young boy carrying a rifle and identified him as Huthaifa al-Badri.

The statement, dated this month, said he was an elite fighter, known as an “inghimasi,” who was killed while fighting Syrian and Russian troops at a power station in Homs. It did not specify when he was killed.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitoring group, said the most recent Islamic State operations in the area were in the first two weeks of June.

Guatemala raises number of missing to 332 in volcano eruption.

CITY» Authorities GUATEMALA on Wednesday raised by more than 130 the number of people officially missing from last month’s deadly eruption of the Volcano of Fire.

Guatemala’s disaster agency, known as Conred, said the new figure of 332, up from 197 previously, came after a review of nearly 200,000 records and verifying lists of people living in shelters.

The disaster agency has confirmed at least 113 deaths from the June 3 eruption, which sent superheated flows raging through small villages. Eighty-five of those bodies have been identified.

But an independent group known as Antigua to the Rescue, after the nearby city of the same name, said at a news conference that the death toll could be high as 2,900.

— Denver Post wire services