Spring break revelers under close watch

CANCUN — Tens of thousands of U.S. college students are f looding into this city, where officials have stepped up patrols of marines, soldiers and special tourist police in zones packed with hotels and bars.

City officials said Friday that they expected thousands more visitors than the 25,000 who came to the Caribbean coast resort last year. They said at least part of that increase might be due to people avoiding Pacific Coast resorts such as Acapulco, which have been hit by high-profile incidents of criminal violence in recent years.

Cancun tourism director Maximo Garcia Rocha said some major tourist agencies were expecting as many as 43,000 spring breakers, but the major influx was only beginning Friday.

SNAPSHOTS

Lockerbie probe: Scotland’s top legal officer says Scottish police and the FBI visited Libya this week as part of their investigation of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people. Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland said Friday that a four-person team of Scottish police and prosecutors, along with an FBI delegation, met senior Libyan officials in Tripoli Monday.

Reporter slain: Pakistani police say gunmen on a motorcycle shot and killed a reporter, Mahmood Ahmed Afridi, Friday as he walked to a press club in the town of Kalat, in southwest Pakistan.

Bodies retrieved: Divers worked through the night and into Friday in murky waters to recover bodies from a partially sunken f loating restaurant in Baghdad after an accident killed nine people attending a party for the local Caterpillar distributor. Authorities said there were no signs a militant attack was to blame. Investigators believe the boat may have been overloaded on Thursday evening.

‘Naked rambler’: Stephen Gough, who has spent most of the past decade naked — and in jail — was back behind bars Friday after defying an order to cover up. Known as the “Naked Rambler,” Gough, 54, was arrested Thursday as he left a court in Southampton, southern England, wearing only boots, socks and a knapsack.