Graham Hughes / The Canadian Press via AP

Police vehicles block a road just outside the town of Chertsey, Quebec, on Sunday, during a search for escaped prisoners.

Two Quebec inmates climbed up a rope into a hovering helicopter to make a daring daylight escape Sunday from a jail northwest of Montreal, authorities said.

Quebec provincial police said later that they had arrested three people about 30 miles north of the Saint-Jerome jail from which the inmates escaped. One of those arrested was 36-year-old inmate Benjamin Hudon-Barbeau. Authorities late Sunday located the second inmate and said a security perimeter had been set up around the area where 33-year-old Danny Provencal has been found.

Earlier on Sunday, police received a call from the staff at the Saint-Jerome jail, reporting the escape around 2:20 p.m., said Quebec provincial police Sgt. Benoit Richard.

The jail's warden told police that Hudon-Barbeau and Provencal had grabbed a rope dropped from the helicopter to make their getaway, Richard said.

Quebec provincial police tracked down the helicopter used in the escape on Sunday afternoon to Mont-Tremblant, about 53 miles (85 kilometers) away from the jail but only the chopper's pilot was still at the scene. He was taken to a local hospital, Richard said.

"He's going to be questioned later on by investigators, within the next couple of hours," Richard said, adding that it's too early to say what the pilot's role was in the escape.

A Montreal radio station, 98.5 FM, said it received a call Sunday from a man claiming to be Hudon-Barbeau, who said he was "ready to die" as he tried to evade police.

Yves Galarneau, the correctional services manager who oversees the Saint-Jerome jail said he'd never seen anything like the dramatic escape in more than three decades on the job.

Galarneau said there are no security measures in place at the jail to prevent a helicopter from swooping down from above.

"As far as I know, it's a first in Quebec," he told reporters at the scene. "It's exceptional."

The Saint-Jerome jail, located about 37 miles northwest of Montreal, experienced a mini-riot by about a dozen prisoners a little over a month ago.

In that incident, police were called in to secure the outside of the jail, which holds about 480 inmates, and the jail's staff used pepper spray to disperse the mob.

Sometimes regular meals and the companionship of scores of other penguins just aren't enough. Penguin Number 337 seems to have decided something was missing from life at a Tokyo aquarium and took off.

The one-year-old Humboldt penguin scaled a rock wall and squeezed through a fence during a daring bid for freedom some time in the past week, sparking a penguin hunt that included a city-wide call for information on the tubby fugitive.

Tokyo Sea Life Park, on the shores of Tokyo Bay, was alerted to the escape of the bird, known only by its number, after receiving a photograph on Sunday that supposedly showed it swimming in the bay.

'Yearning for adventure'
Kazuhiro Sakamoto, the park's deputy director, thinks it may have been a case of happy feet.

"The penguin hatched last year on January 27, so it is still a very young penguin," Sakamoto said.

"We think that because of its young age, it might have escaped due to its curiosity and yearning for adventure."

The bird, still too young for keepers to determine whether it was male or female, shared life at a rocky outdoor enclosure with a view of the sea with 135 other Humboldts and a number of penguins of other breeds. Humboldts grow to 22-28 inches long and can weigh up to 13 pounds.

Animal Tracks: Penguin on the loose

But getting out would have been far from simple.

"There's a man-made rock wall that varies between 4 to 13 feet high. After somehow climbing over it and getting out, it appears the penguin managed to squeeze through a gap in the outer fence," Sakamoto said.

Worries over dirty sea water
Worried that the penguin might have strayed out to sea, keepers issued a Tokyo-wide call for tips on the feathered fugitive and are making regular patrols along the shoreline in front of the aquarium, staring out to sea with binoculars.

Visitors said they were worried about the bird. The area around the aquarium, which sits where the Edo River empties into the bay, consists of high-rise apartment buildings and concrete, with a highway looping overhead.

"The sea water around here is very dirty, so unless the penguin is returned to safety quickly it may die," said Hiroki Kasai, a university student.

Others felt it may have gone in search of more salubrious living quarters, noting that the penguin enclosure was much more cramped than its natural habitat.

Sakamoto said the waters of the bay were full of fish so the penguin was unlikely to starve -- but that it was also unlikely to head for Peru or Chile, the ancestral home of Humboldts.

"It's a type of penguin that tends to stay close to shore, but I also think it would not be able to cross all of that wide ocean."

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Three North Koreans were shot dead by their own country's troops as they tried to cross the border into China, an activist in South Korea told a news agency Tuesday.

The men, who were in their 40s, were crossing the Yalu river near the city of Hyesan, Do Hee-Youn told the AFP news agency.

"People waiting at the Chinese side across the river to help the three defect saw the scene. The guards took with them the bodies which were lying on the ice," Do told AFP.

Do added that it was "very rare" for guards to open fire immediately on seeing people trying to flee and linked this to increased security following Kim Jung-il's death and the transfer of power to his son Kim Jong-un.

"I'm afraid it will become much harder for North Koreans to defect for a while," he told AFP."They are trying to let people know that those trying to flee will be shot dead right away."

Repression, hunger
AFP said about 23,000 North Koreans have fled repression or hunger since the 1950-1953 war with South Korea.

Earlier, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak called on Kim Jong-un to seize the opportunity and return to dialogue, saying he was prepared to offer help to revive the North's shattered economy if it suspends its nuclear activities.

"We have left the window of opportunity open," Lee said in a New Year address broadcast from South Korea's presidential Blue House. "If North Korea comes forward with sincerity, we will be able to open a new era for the Korean peninsula together.

"As soon as North Korea suspends nuclear activities in progress, six party talks should be able to resume. Through a six-party agreement, we are prepared to ease the North's security concern and provide necessary resources to revive its economy," he added.

Experts who study the North said it was unlikely it would take a dramatically different path under its new ruler, who at around 27 is believed to lack the experience or political support to initiate his own line of policy.

Reuters contributed to this report.

AP

Kevin Lunsman, a kidnapped American teenager, talks to Filipino soldiers inside the Philippine military compound in the southern Philippines following his escape from suspected al-Qaida-linked militants over the weekend.

The father of an American teenager who escaped his kidnappers in the southern Philippine jungle over the weekend called his son a "hero" on Sunday.

"I'm so proud of my son, he's a hero, he wandered two days through the jungle," Heiko Lunsmann told ABC affiliate WSET in Lynchburg, Va., on Sunday.

Kevin Lunsmann, 14, escaped from suspected al-Qaida-linked militants and wandered without shoes for two days in the jungle before villagers found him, ending his five-month captivity, officials said Sunday.

"That was a tough time, it was tough five months," Heiko Lunsmann said in the first interview since his 14-year-old Kevin was taken. "I only know he is a hero and I'm so happy he escaped."

Initial reports indicated that Kevin Lunsmann had been released, but the teen told Philippine officials and his family that he evaded his four armed captors by telling them that he would take a bath in a stream and then dashing for freedom on Friday.

He followed a river down a mountain until villagers found him late the next day, local officials said according to The Associated Press.  Exhausted, hungry and still stunned, the boy initially fled from the villagers, local officials told The Associated Press.

"He was in fear so there was a bit of a chase before the villagers convinced him that they were friends," Senior Supt. Edwin de Ocampo said told The Associated Press. He said the boy was fine, but was exhausted and had bruises on his arms and feet.

City Mayor Celso Lobregat said he has been flown to Manila and turned over to U.S. officials there. U.S. Ambassador Harry Thomas said the boy would be reunited with his family soon.

• 2 kidnapped Americans allowed to talk to family

Lobregat said the boy has talked by phone with his Filipino-American mother, Gerfa Yeatts Lunsmann, who was in the United States. He, his mother and a Filipino cousin were vacationing with relatives on an island near Zamboanga City when they were snatched July 12 and taken by boat to nearby Basilan.

The captors then called the family in Campbell County, Virginia, to demand a ransom, officials said.

The mother was freed two months ago after she was dropped off by boat at a wharf on Basilan. The boy's Filipino cousin escaped from their captors last month when Filipino army forces managed to get near an Abu Sayyaf camp in the mountains of Basilan, about 550 miles south of Manila.

Army Col. Ricardo Visaya said the kidnappers were believed led by Abu Sayyaf militant Puruji Indama, who is notorious for ransom kidnappings and beheadings. Troops were hunting down the militants and clashed with one group in Akbar town, near Lamitan, which may have distracted the kidnappers and gave Lunsmann a chance to flee, he said.

When Visaya asked the boy if he was freed, which would indicate that ransom was paid, or escaped, Lunsmann replied that he fled from his captors.

"No, I really did it myself," he quoted Lunsmann as telling him. Visaya said he later handed the boy to American troops based in Basilan.

Msnbc.com staff and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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