■ Brazil
Colonel murdered
Authorities said on Tuesday they believed the killing of Colonel Ubiratan Guimaraes -- the police commander who led Brazil's bloodiest-ever prison massacre -- was a crime of passion and not the work of professional hit men. Guimaraes was found dead on Sunday at his home in Sao Paulo. He had bled to death from a gunshot wound in the abdomen. Elected to the Sao Paulo state legislature after retiring from the police force, Guimaraes had frequently received death threats, his aides said. To protect himself, he drove an armored car and always carried a gun. Police authorities said Guimaraes appeared to have been killed by an acquaintance, as no evidence of forced entry or robbery was found.
■ United States
No death penalty
US military prosecutors said on Tuesday that they will not pursue the death penalty against Marine Lance Corporal Jerry Shumate Jr, 21, who along with six other Marines and a salior was charged in the April shooting to death of an Iraqi man in Hamdania. The men's senior commander, Lieutenant General James Mattis, will eventually decide whether any of them should face any punishment or charges at a general court-martial. Under military law, the most serious charge of premeditated murder could carry a sentence of death.
■ United Kingdom
A sensitive promotion
A senior police officer involved in the fatal shooting of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Tube station last year has been selected for promotion to one of the top policing jobs in the city. Cressida Dick was in charge of the operation that led to de Menezes, 27, being shot seven times in the head on a Tube train after he was mistaken for a suspected suicide bomber. The Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), which oversees the London force, said on Tuesday she had been provisionally selected to be promoted to Deputy Assistant Commissioner. The de Menezes family reacted by calling the promotion a "slap in the face."
■ Egypt
Ship accident kills two
An Egyptian dredger sank in the Suez Canal yesterday, killing two of the 45 crew and prompting a brief closure of the busy international waterway as rescuers searched for two others, officials said. The two missing crew were feared dead, Suez Canal Authority sources said. The other 41 had been rescued, including six who were injured in the accident near the town of Ismailia. A Canal Authority official said a technical fault was the apparent cause of the sinking in the waterway -- an important international trade route and the fastest shipping link between Europe and Asia.
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