Woman (98) indicted for murder
MASSACHUSETTS – A 98-year-old woman has been indicted in the US on a second-degree murder charge that accuses her of strangling her 100-year-old roommate in a nursing home.
A judge sent Laura Lundquist to a state mental hospital for a competency evaluation. Her roommate Elizabeth Barrow was found dead with a plastic bag over her head at the Brandon Woods Nursing Home on September 24th.
Ms Barrow’s son said Ms Lundquist made threatening remarks to his mother about the number of visitors she received and said she would outlive Barrow. – (AP)
Baghdad bombs kill six and wound 21
BAGHDAD – Six people were killed and 21 wounded when two bombs exploded south of Baghdad yesterday, Iraqi police said.
One bomb was planted in a shop in the town of Yusufiya, 20km (12 miles) south of Baghdad. When police rushed to the scene, a second bomb planted in a car detonated. Two of the dead were police officers.
Located in what used to be one of the most violent areas of Iraq – the so-called “Triangle of Death” Yusufiya is regularly the target of bombings.
Yesterday’s blasts occurred as Iraq’s oil ministry in Baghdad staged its second auction of oilfield contracts since the invasion. – (Reuters)
'Angel of Death' on trial in Argentina
BUENOS AIRES – A former navy captain known as the “blond angel of death” went on trial yesterday with 16 other former police and military officers charged with crimes against humanity during Argentina’s 1976-1983 “dirty war” against leftists.
Alfredo Astiz (57), whose nickname came from his cherubic looks when in the 1970s he infiltrated human rights groups whose members were later kidnapped, is charged in the killings of two French nuns, the disappearance of an Argentinian journalist and other crimes. Mr Astiz sat motionless as a judge read the charges against him. Dozens of people, among them relatives of people who disappeared, waved pictures of the victims.
– (Reuters)