The Ecuadorean police discovered Mr. Sander's body wrapped in a sheet that bore the spray-painted message: "I am a gringo.

The Mexican police have taken this spray-painted message as a reference to Los Zetas, which often leaves messages signed "Z" at crime scenes to intimidate both authorities and rivals.

"Hitler would be proud of you," said one spray-painted message, along with "Lily is waiting for you," a reference to Mr. Sharon's wife, who died five years ago.

As the cops enter the building, Scherzinger is warned by a man who's on look out and they all escape, only to leave the cops discovering a spray-painted message of "Wet".

The spray-painted message may be the most effective tool yet in the fight against AIDS, which Government officials here say has reached dire proportions.

When the image came into focus the detectives in the SIO's room inched a little closer, trying to read the spray-painted message.

On a stub of a ruin amid the new houses here, a fading spray-painted message reads: "Sunday 26 December 2004 in the morning: the world is crying for Aceh."

The spray-painted messages were discovered early this morning by a maintenance worker at Malcolm X House, a combined dormitory and faculty office building on the edge of campus.

On other houses down the street, spray-painted messages on an exterior wall declared the house "property of the P.U.K.," a reference to the Kurdish party.