In brief: Another arrested in soldier’s killing
LONDON – British police arrested a 10th suspect Monday in connection with the vicious street killing of a soldier in London, an apparent Islamic extremist attack that has horrified the country and heightened racial tensions.
The 50-year-old man was detained east of London on suspicion of conspiring to murder 25-year-old soldier Lee Rigby, Scotland Yard said. Police gave no further information about the suspect’s identity.
Rigby was run over by a vehicle and repeatedly attacked with meat cleavers Wednesday afternoon near his barracks in southeast London.
French soldier stabbed in throat
PARIS – A French soldier was stabbed in the throat in a busy commercial district outside Paris on Saturday, and the government said it was trying to determine if there were any links to the brutal killing of a British soldier by suspected Islamic extremists.
French President Francois Hollande said the identity of the attacker, who escaped, was unknown and cautioned against jumping to conclusions about the assault on the uniformed soldier in the La Defense shopping area. The life of the 23-year-old soldier was not in danger, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
British soldier Lee Rigby was viciously stabbed on a London street in a suspected terrorist attack that has raised fears of potential copycat strikes.
Nieto to form group to find the missing
MEXICO CITY – Responding to anguished families and mothers on a hunger strike, the government of President Enrique Pena Nieto on Monday created an investigative task force to search for thousands of missing Mexicans.
The new effort comes as officials attempt to whittle down a list of more than 26,000 people who were reported missing – many seized by drug traffickers or by state security forces – during the previous six-year government of President Felipe Calderon.
Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said last week he is confident that once the cases are better documented, the number of “disappeared” will be substantially fewer than the 26,121 currently listed.
He said many people listed as missing had in fact migrated to the United States or left home after family disputes.
Mali ready to elect a new president
BAMAKO, Mali – Mali’s government announced on Monday that much-anticipated presidential elections will be held July 28.
The ballot would be the first since a coup in March 2012 ousted Mali’s democratically elected president just months before he was due to step down at the end of his final term in office. The coup plunged the country into chaos, creating an opening which allowed extremist groups allied with al-Qaida to seize Mali’s northern half.
Escaped tiger killed woman, police say
LONDON – When zookeeper Sarah McClay was mauled to death by a Sumatran tiger at an animal park in England, its owner suggested she had violated safety procedures and entered the animal’s pen.
But police said that according to witnesses, the tiger escaped from its pen and attacked 24-year-old McClay on Friday as she was working in a staff area at South Lakes Wild Animal Park in northwestern England. She later died of her injuries at a hospital.
Marine suspected in multiple deaths
EDEN, Texas – Officials say a Marine suspected in a string of West Texas shootings that left one person dead and five wounded was sought for questioning in a North Carolina homicide.
Master Sgt. Jonathan Cress at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C., said Monday that the Marine was wanted for questioning in a homicide in nearby Jacksonville, N.C.
The Texas Department of Public Safety identified the man as 23-year-old Esteban J. Smith of Camp Lejeune.
In a statement Monday, DPS spokesman Tom Vinger said Smith later died in a gunfight with an agency trooper and a state game warden. Authorities say the Texas shootings seemed to be random.
Man kills daughter, self, authorities say
OROSI, Calif. – A California man shot his two adult daughters Monday, killing one and critically injuring the other before apparently committing suicide while his three young grandchildren were in the home, authorities said.
An 8-year-old girl called to report gunfire before dawn, and deputies arrived to find 63-year-old Anthony Alvarez dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the Tulare County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.
Jennifer Kimble, 37, was found dead from multiple gunshot wounds. She was the daughter of Alvarez and the mother of the three children in the home – two boys ages 13 and 11, and the 8-year-old girl.
Kimble’s sister Valerie Alvarez, 33, had at least one gunshot wound and was flown to a Fresno hospital in critical condition. She was stabilized and having surgery, sheriff’s spokeswoman Sgt. Chris Douglass said.
No information was released on a possible motive.
The children were unharmed and reunited with their father, who was at work during the shootings, authorities said.