■ UNITED STATES
Fire destroys synagogue
A fire destroyed the synagogue and residence of a senior rabbi of an anti-Zionist Jewish group whose members attended an Iran-sponsored conference late last year that debated the occurrence of the Holocaust. The Ramapo police and fire investigators said the blaze in Monsey, New York, on Sunday night was considered suspicious because the ultra-Orthodox Jewish group, Neturei Karta, has been the target of threats, the Journal News reported on its Web site. Police would not confirm that the blaze was considered suspicious. A crime scene was established at the synagogue and arson investigators were looking into the cause, Monsey Fire Chief Douglas Perry said. Weiss said that the group suspects arson because of previous threats.
■ UNITED STATES
Mother tries to solicit child
A 33-year-old Taylor, Michigan, woman was arraigned on Sunday on charges alleging she offered to let an undercover investigator take pornographic photos of her seven-year-old daughter and have sex with the girl, authorities said. The woman was arrested on Friday after taking the girl to a hotel in Romulus, near Detroit Metropolitan Airport, where she had agreed to meet the investigator, the Wayne County sheriff's department said. A not guilty plea was entered on behalf of the woman, who was not represented by a lawyer at the arraignment, department spokesman John Roach said. She was held in lieu of US$1 million, and an examination was scheduled for April 12.
■ UNITED KINGdOM
Falklands statement issued
The British government said it regretted the deaths on both sides in the 1982 Falklands war, and invited relatives of fallen Argentine soldiers to hold a private memorial service on the islands. Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett released a statement ahead of yesterday's 25th anniversary of the Argentine invasion of the Falklands, a British South Atlantic colony about 600km off the South American mainland. The invasion on April 2, 1982, sparked a 10-week war in which some 650 Argentine troops, more than 250 British personnel and three islanders were killed.
■ UNITED KINGdOM
Entire kitchen stolen
A British holidaymaker returned to his home in central England to find that thieves had stolen everything in his kitchen, quite literally stealing the sink, his home insurance company said yesterday. Burglars had broken into James Elstub's Dewsbury home while he was vacationing in Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and the US, and stripped his kitchen, taking his oven, all the wall units, and the sink. "I can't believe I returned home from my holiday to find burglars had stolen my kitchen sink," Elstub said, adding that he had to endure two weeks of microwave meals.
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