In brief: Houston shooting survivor, 15, says she’s recovering

Houston – A 15-year-old suburban Houston girl who survived an attack in which her parents and four younger siblings were killed says she’s on the road to recovery.

Cassidy Stay thanked first responders Saturday while speaking to a crowd at an elementary school in her hometown of Spring, the Houston Chronicle reported. It was her first public appearance since the shootings.

“Happiness can be found even in darkest of times, if one remembers to turn on the light,” Stay said, paraphrasing a quote by Albus Dumbledore, the beloved headmaster of the Hogwarts school of wizards from the Harry Potter books.

Stay was released from a hospital Friday, two days after the attack in which her skull was fractured by a bullet graze.

Authorities say her aunt’s ex-husband, Ronald Lee Haskell, stormed into the family’s home Wednesday and fatally shot her parents and four siblings, who ranged in age from 4 to 13 years old. They say Stay survived by playing dead and called police to warn that Haskell intended to go to her grandparents’ house next.

Gunmen kill 30, including 28 women, in Baghdad rampage

Baghdad, Iraq – Gunmen stormed a residential complex in an upscale Baghdad neighborhood Saturday, killing at least 30 people, including 28 women, according to Iraqi media.

An unidentified group of armed men raided a building in the eastern Baghdad neighborhood of Zayouna, breaking into “a number of apartments and opening fire on the residents,” reported Sumariya television, a private, pro-government channel.

Police cordoned off the area. Initial investigations yielded no evidence about the identity of the killers, or the motive for the attack, Iraqi media reported.

It appears to be one of the worst attacks in the capital since Sunni Arab insurgents seized vast swaths of the country last month. The killings recalled the carnage of the sectarian civil war of 2006-07, when death squads roamed the streets, killing thousands. Many victims were dragged from their homes and slain; others were killed in their homes.

Officials fear a repeat of that bloodletting as the Shiite-led government fights Sunni insurgents north and west of the capital. The fighting has raised sectarian tension in the capital and elsewhere.

Former Church of England head supports assisted euthanasia

London – A former head of the Church of England says he no longer opposes assisted dying and says the church risks “promoting anguish and pain” by objecting to moves to make it legal.

George Carey, a former archbishop of Canterbury, said medical advances have created an “ethical turning point.”

In an article published Saturday, Carey said he would back proposed legislation to allow doctors to prescribe a lethal dose to terminally ill patients judged to have less than six months to live. The House of Lords will debate the bill Friday.

Carey’s position is at odds with the official position of the Church of England, which has consistently argued against a change in the law.

North Korea launches two missiles in series of test drills

Seoul, South Korea – North Korea launched two projectiles presumed to be ballistic missiles into the sea today, South Korea said, the latest in a series of test-firings seen as expressions of anger over its failure to win talks on receiving outside aid, and over ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills.

The projectiles were fired from the North Korean city of Kaesong near the border with the South and had a range of about 300 miles, said a South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff official.

North Korea regularly conducts test-firings, but this year has seen an unusually large number of launches. South Korean officials have confirmed about 90 test-firings of missiles, artillery and rockets by North Korea since Feb. 21. More than 10 of them have been ballistic launches.