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A father is suspected of having shot dead his five children at a trailer park in Washington state, then himself, after hearing his wife was leaving him.
Police were called to the mobile home on Saturday after a visiting relative found nobody answered the door and saw a child's body through a window.
Reports say the mother walked out during a row with her husband hours before the shooting.
The youngest of the three girls and two boys was aged seven, and the eldest 16.
Barack Obama has outlined his vision of a world free of nuclear weapons in a major speech in Europe.
The US president called for a global summit on nuclear security and the forging of new partnerships to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.
He said he hoped to negotiate a new treaty to end the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons.
North Korea's "provocative" rocket launch earlier in the day underscored the need for action, he said.
The top administrator in the Khyber region, Tariq Hayat, said he feared the death toll could rise to 70.
Officials say the attack was a suicide bombing and the mosque has collapsed.
North-west Pakistan has witnessed a number of suicide attacks linked to the Taleban insurgency and also to the Shia-Sunni sectarian divide.Copyright © 2009 Asnycnow15 News/English
30 Percent of Iraqis who report feeling satisfied with the mission of the U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq, still a bleak view of the United States.
Iraq, embroiled for the past six years in clashing factions and sectarian violence, may finally be making a turnaround, according to an opinion poll published yesterday.
The latest ABC News/BBC/NHK poll of Iraqi citizens reveals a startling optimism as death tolls dip and the country returns to a more solid economic footing.
The survey, ABC’s sixth since 2004, is based on random, in-person interviews with Iraqi adults.
The gains represent a sharp contrast from the dark days of a few years prior, as 84 percent of polled Iraqis report a positive review of their own security, nearly double that of 2007 levels. Three times as many Iraqis feel safe moving about from place to place.
A report on ABC.com yesterday said: “While deep difficulties remain, the advances are remarkable. Eighty-four percent of Iraqis now rate security in their own area positively, nearly double its August 2007 level. Seventy-eight percent say their protection from crime is good, more than double its low. Three-quarters say they can go where they want safely — triple what it’s been.”
By Henry MortonI had my first taste of the increased security measures as I was leaving the plane on my arrival in Chengdu. I had overheard one of the flight attendants telling the Chinese passenger next to me that there would be a delay because of checks to make sure foreigners weren’t trying to fly to Tibet’s capital Lhasa, and when I got to the front of the plane, a young, slightly nervous-looking government official flicked through my passport, checked my name against a list, and then handed it back to me with a smile and a xiexie, Mandarin for thank you.
My colleagues and I then headed to a monastery, some 60 kilometres outside of Chengdu, with the hope of gaining our first interview. However, an hour’s drive and a 25-minute walk uphill later, the abbot said he could not allow us to film any of the monks or give an interview without permission from the local government, something that would not be given quickly.
Driving back through Chengdu, nothing seemed out of the ordinary – shops were open, traffic proceeded as usual, people were going about their daily business. However, when we reached the Tibetan quarter, we found armed police at every entry point and uniformed as well as plain-clothed officers swarming the streets.
We were stopped as soon as we got out of the car, asked for our passports and accreditation and told we could go no further because it was too dangerous, but it was OK to enter during the day.
We returned this morning and, sure enough, were allowed to wander freely through the area. Our producer found a Tibetan businessman, who reluctantly agreed to be interviewed, and we went into his restaurant.
We chatted for about 10 minutes as I set up the camera, but just as we were about to begin, there was a knock at the door and a man in broken English asked what we were doing. Turning around, we found around 15 to 20 policeman and officials standing in the adjoining room, motioning for us to come out. They asked for our passports and journalist cards, and started making notes of our details.
Handing them back, we asked if we were under arrest, and they said no. We asked if we could leave, and they asked if we could please wait for a bit, while making it perfectly clear that we could not leave.
For the next 45 minutes there was a flurry of phone calls and people running in and out, as we sat there waiting. Eventually we were asked to go down to the police station, not under arrest, but to give more information. Despite our protests that we had done nothing wrong, we were escorted to the street, where we waited through another 20 minutes of frantic phone calls, after which it was decided that we should head back into the restaurant to wait again.
We had met one of the policemen the previous night, and after asking us again what we were doing there, we exchanged pleasantries for another half an hour or so, before his less than pleasant superior finally arrived. Having told us all rather gruffly to stop using our mobile phones he again took our passports and journalist cards, and after telling us for about the fourth time that we were not allowed to film or conduct interviews in any Tibetan areas, we were finally allowed to leave.
The hope was then to drive to a Tibetan area outside Chengdu, and make a report there. However our driver was told that if he was caught trying to take us through a checkpoint, into a Tibetan area, he would have his car impounded and have to pay a fine of up to 2,000 Euros, a considerable amount of money for people here.
We are therefore forced to cover the story from afar, with few sources. A victory of sorts for the Chinese government, which wants to make sure news of any trouble stays firmly out of the public domain.
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