USA
A man armed with a handgun opened fire during an evangelical church service at a Brookfield, Wis., hotel in suburban Milwaukee, killing seven people Saturday before taking his own life, police said. Four other people were hospitalized in serious condition. The suspect, Terry Ratzmann, was affiliated with the Living Church of God, a group based in Charlotte, N.C., that has met at the hotel for four or five years. No motive has been established. The gunman lived with his mother and sister at their New Berlin, Wis., home, about two miles away.
Brian Nichols, a suspect in the deadly courthouse shootings of an Atlanta judge and two other people, surrendered Saturday without a struggle as law enforcement officials surrounded him, just hours after he led authorities on a massive manhunt. Before relenting, however, police said he killed an immigration agent and held a woman hostage for hours in her own apartment. At his rape trial on Friday, Nichols allegedly overpowered a court deputy, took her gun, and fatally shot the judge, a court stenographer, and, on his dash from the courthouse, a sheriff's deputy. He then carjacked several vehicles, according to police and witness reports. The woman he held hostage either escaped or was allowed to leave, whereupon she called 911. Nichols could appear in court Monday.
Unreleased US Army reports detailing the deaths of two Afghan men who were beaten to death by American soldiers show that military prison abuses began in Afghanistan in 2002 and were part of a systematic pattern of mistreatment, a researcher for the Human Rights Watch, based in New York, said Saturday. As documented by the Army's Criminal Investigation Command, the men died a year before the photographed horrors at the Abu Ghraib. A Pentagon spokesman said the cases were "thoroughly investigated and the people were punished appropriately." According to the Human Rights Watch, the Army has recommended that 28 people be prosecuted, but only two have been charged so far.
Karen Hughes, a former White House aide to President Bush, will be nominated for a key State Department post as early as Monday, according to the Associated Press, which cited an unnamed official as its source. The official says Hughes will be selected undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs. If confirmed by the Senate, Hughes would spearhead the administration's campaign to promote democracy in the Middle East. Hughes left the White House in 2002 to move her family back to Texas.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has no ambition to pursue the Republican nomination for president in 2008, she said Sunday on ABC's "This Week" program. Supporters believe she would attract women and minority voters to the party and be a good candidate to take on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who is considered a possible Democratic candidate in 2008.
