NATION IN BRIEF : NEW YORK : Pair, Mistaken for Muggers, Are Beaten

Two Canadians tourists were beaten with bats and pipes by teen-agers who apparently mistook them for muggers when they went to help an elderly woman, police said. The two Quebec men, identified as Eric Plourde, 19, and Patrick Chartrand, 20, had driven from California and had stopped in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn when they saw a woman sprawled on the sidewalk, calling for help. When they got out of their car, they were attacked by 10 to 12 white male teen-agers. The Canadians were treated at a local hospital. Last year, black student Yusuf Hawkins, 16, was shot to death in mostly white Bensonhurst.