■UNITED STATES
Rapper Dolla shot dead
Up-and-coming rap artist Dolla, whose legal name is Roderick Anthony Burton II, was shot dead outside a landmark Los Angeles shopping mall on Monday, friends and family of the slain musician were reported as saying. The Atlanta-based musician was gunned down at the entrance to the Beverly Center, a popular shopping haunt for tourists, at around 3pm, the Los Angeles Times quoted Dolla’s publicist as saying. Los Angeles police have refused to confirm the identity of the 21-year-old victim, who died at Cedars Sinai Medical Center after being shot. LAPD officer Karen Rayner said a person of interest had been detained at Los Angeles International Airport later on Monday and was being questioned.
■BRAZIL
Ten arrested over child porn
Authorities arrested 10 people on Monday as part of a broad nationwide crackdown on child pornography on the popular Google-run Orkut social networking Web site. Some 400 federal agents were mobilized in Brasilia and 20 other states across the country seizing hundreds of CDs, DVDs and computers containing pornographic material, police said. Police said they accessed the private data of 3,267 Internet users suspected of possessing or distributing child pornography.
■COLOMBIA
Defense minister resigns
The nation’s defense minister resigned on Monday, saying he will launch a presidential bid if President Alvaro Uribe decides not to seek a third term. Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos, who has received credit for some of the military’s biggest successes against leftist rebels, said he is stepping down on Saturday after nearly three years in the post. Public officials have to step down a year ahead of the election to seek the presidency. Santos said he will support Uribe if the president runs for a third term next May, but if Uribe isn’t on the ballot, Santos said, “I will be a candidate.” Uribe has not said publicly whether he will seek a third term, something that would require a constitutional change.
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