At least 10 people were killed on Sunday when a fire broke out at a prison outside Santiago, said the director of the security force that oversees prisons. Three people were also seriously injured in the blaze, which was ignited during a fight between rival gangs of inmates, said Alejandro Jimenez, head of the Gendarmes. Local radio reported that all the dead were inmates. Jimenez said one group of prisoners threw fuel into the communal cell where rival inmates were holed up. The fuel likely came from small, portable stoves the inmates are allowed to have, he said.
■IRAN
Jailed journalist ‘very weak’
An American journalist jailed for allegedly spying for the US is vowing to remain on a hunger strike until she is freed even though she is “very weak,” her father said yesterday. Roxana Saberi, who was been on a hunger strike for a week, was sentenced to eight years in prison after a one-day trial behind closed doors. Her parents said they brought her flowers on Sunday — her birthday — and were able to visit her again yesterday. “Roxana is very weak and pale. She has been on a hunger strike for a week now,” her father, Reza Saberi, said. He said he tried to persuade his daughter to end her hunger strike but she refused.
■COLOMBIA
Kidnapping report issued
Eighty-seven people have been abducted since the beginning of the year, although only 10 remain hostages, Bogota’s official anti-kidnap agency said. The 10 are included in the 125 still being held, mostly by Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels, the Fondelibertad agency said in a report. Fifty of those taken hostage this year have been released through the intervention of security forces, four had been killed by their captors, 14 were released in exchange for ransoms and nine had escaped, Fondelibertad director Hernan Henao said. He said 63 of the kidnappings were carried out as part of “regular” crimes, 16 people were abducted by FARC, five by “criminal gangs” and three by the National Liberation Army.
■UNITED STATES
Ex-student shoots two
A former Hampton University student armed with three guns followed a pizza delivery man into the student’s former dorm on Sunday, shot the delivery man and a dorm monitor, then turned the gun on himself, officials at the Virginia university said. All three survived. Both victims and the alleged shooter were expected to recover. Officials could offer no motive for the shooting. The 18-year-old former student apparently parked his car off campus to avoid a vehicle checkpoint, then followed the delivery man on foot and inside a freshman dormitory. Once inside, he shot the pizza man and entered the monitor’s office and fired three shots at him, then shot himself, Hampton University Police Chief Leroy Crosby said.
■UNITED STATES
Nuclear plant shut down
The operator of the country’s oldest nuclear power plant has manually shut down its reactor after equipment failed on one of its two transformers. Officials at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in New Jersey say Saturday night’s shutdown occurred without incident. But they won’t say how long it’s expected to last or when repairs will be completed at the facility in Lacey Township. Plant spokesman David Benson says the shutdown caused no risk to the public.
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