A round-up of other world stories in brief...
Six killed in US nursing home rampage
WILMINGTON – Six people were killed and five injured in a shooting yesterday at a nursing home in the southeastern US state of North Carolina, police and local TV said.
The incident occurred at the Pinelake Health and Rehab Center in Carthage, a small town about 15 miles (25km) north of Fort Bragg, home of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division.
“There are six people that have been confirmed dead and there are five others injured,” an officer at the Moore County Sheriffs office said, although he gave no more details and referred calls to the Carthage police.
North Carolinas WRAL TV station quoted Carthage police as saying that a gunman walked into the 90-bed nursing home, which offers care for Alzheimer’s sufferers, and shot dead six people. – (Reuters)
Madonna flies in for new adoption
LILONGWE – US pop singer Madonna arrived in Malawi yesterday ahead of a court examination this week of her bid to adopt a second Malawian child, a girl called Mercy James, officials said.
The four-year-old would be a sister for Madonna’s three children including David Banda, whose adoption in 2006 sparked controversy, and who comes from the same orphanage in Malawi.
Court clerks confirmed the name of the child last week and said Madonna or her associates were expected to appear in court today for the adoption proceedings. – (Reuters)
Palestinians shut down orchestra
JENIN – Palestinian officials in the occupied West Bank have shut down a youth orchestra because it performed before Holocaust survivors at a concert in Israel.
Adnan Hindi, an official in the Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin, said yesterday the band’s director had broken rules against holding “political” performances by taking the 18 boys and girls to a concert last week near the Israeli city of Tel Aviv attended by about 10 Holocaust survivors. – (Reuters)
Mayotte votes to join France
PARIS – Voters on Mayotte, a tiny island in the Indian Ocean, chose by referendum yesterday to become a fully fledged part of France – a change of status that will end local traditions such as polygamy and Islamic courts.
Authorities said 95.2 per cent of those who voted opted to turn Mayotte into a “departement”, strengthening ties with Paris and requiring the island to align itself with French law. Only 4.8 per cent voted no. – (Reuters)
Man decapitates sister (5) at party
MILTON – A man went on the rampage with a knife at his five-year-old sister’s birthday party, decapitating her and stabbing to death another teenager sister.
Kerby Revelus was shot dead by police as he tried to attack his nine-year-old sister amid what officers described as “a killing field”.
There is no clear motive yet for the events that unfolded yesterday in Milton, Massachusetts, near Boston. – (Reuters)
Iraqi forces arrest Sunnis
BAGHDAD - Iraqi security forces swept through an area of Baghdad yesterday and detained several people after Sunni patrolmen angry at their leader’s arrest clashed with police and troops in a battle that killed three people.
The shootout on Saturday between government forces and the guards, many of them former insurgents who switched sides and joined the US military to fight al-Qaeda, took place in the central Baghdad district of al-Fadhil after the arrest of Adil al-Mashhadani. – (Reuters)