USS New York in service

USS New York in service

NEW YORK — The USS New York, built with steel from the rubble of the World Trade Center, was put into service Saturday both as a symbol of healing and strength.

“No matter how many times you attack us, we always come back,” Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus said at the amphibious assault ship’s commissioning. “America always comes back. That’s what this ship represents.”

He spoke on a Manhattan pier where hundreds of Navy officers and sailors joined first responders and families of Sept. 11 victims for the ceremony.

“I hereby place the USS New York in commission,” Mabus announced.

And with a long drum roll, the ship’s crew was sent on its first watch, obeying the order, as traditionally worded: “Man our ship and bring her to life!”

Tropical Storm Ida builds

CANCUN, Mexico — Officials readied storm shelters along Mexico’s Caribbean coast Saturday and told fishermen and tour operators to pull in their boats amid warnings that Tropical Storm Ida could become a hurricane as it neared the resort city of Cancun.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Ida’s winds strengthened to near 70 mph, just short of a Category 1 hurricane. A tentative forecast track predicted Ida could brush the U.S. Gulf Coast next week as a tropical storm.

Strike talks break off

PHILADELPHIA — Negotiations aimed at ending a transit strike in Philadelphia broke off Saturday night with Pennsylvania’s governor calling on the union to let its members vote on the transit authority’s offer.

“In my 32 years in government, I have never been more disappointed by a negotiation than I am right now tonight,” Gov. Ed Rendell told reporters Saturday evening.

Union president Willie Brown said the union has agreed only on proposed wages in a contract presented by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. Brown said the union wants an independent audit to assure the security of its pension funds.

Israeli leader urges Palestinian: Don’t give up

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s president on Saturday called on Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to rescind his decision to stand down, invoking the memory of Yitzhak Rabin at a public commemoration for the assassinated Israeli premier.

Shimon Peres spoke to a crowd of thousands at the square where Rabin was gunned down by a Jewish extremist who opposed his peace policies Nov. 4, 1995.

Peres recalled that along with Rabin, he and Abbas were among signatories to the 1993 Oslo peace accord, and he appealed to Abbas by name not to quit.

“We both signed the Oslo agreement,” Peres said. “I turn to you as a colleague; don’t let go.”

Abbas announced Thursday that he would not run for another term in an election scheduled for January, citing deadlocked efforts to revive peace talks.

Opium shipment seized

MORELIA, Mexico — The Mexican army said Saturday it has seized a shipment of almost a quarter-ton of opium in the country’s northern mountains, one of the largest such seizures made in Mexico.

The 448 pounds of opium paste was found Thursday hidden in nine plastic containers in the township of Guadalupe y Calvo, in the border state of Chihuahua, the Defense Department said in a statement.

Seven rifles, three pistols and nearly 10,000 rounds of ammunition were found along with the opium, which can be refined to make heroin.

Marking wall’s opening

BERLIN — Massive colorful dominoes painted by German students were placed Saturday along the former path of the Berlin Wall to mark the 20th anniversary of the opening of the barrier that divided the city for nearly three decades.

Many of the upright 7.5-foot-high plastic-foam dominoes carried messages, including “We are one people.” The approximately 1,000 dominoes stretching for 1 mile will be toppled Monday as part of wider celebrations of the wall’s fall.

Former Polish leader Lech Walesa, whose pro-democracy movement Solidarity played a key role in ending communism in Eastern Europe, is to tip the first domino Monday as the artistic display comes toppling down.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy also are expected to be on hand Monday for the formal commemorations of the wall’s opening Nov. 9, 1989.

Associated Press