■UNITED STATES
Mother accused of murder
A mother accused of throwing her two children into the Willamette River in Oregon — killing her four-year-old son and injuring his older sister — has a history of domestic violence and recently filed for separation from the children’s father, police said. Amanda Jo Stott-Smith, 31, was taken into custody at a parking garage on Saturday morning. Stott-Smith’s son drowned. Her seven-year-old daughter was hospitalized after surviving a fall of 23m and more than a half-hour in the cold water. Stott-Smith faces aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder charges.
■UNITED STATES
Space shuttle returns safely
Space shuttle Atlantis and its seven astronauts returned safely to Earth on Sunday, detouring from stormy Florida to California to end a 13-day mission that repaired and enhanced the Hubble Space Telescope. Atlantis’ crew had waited since Friday for the go-ahead to land as Mission Control hoped to avoid the time and expense — about US$1.8 million — of diverting to California’s Edwards Air Force Base.
■COLOMBIA
Police seize black cocaine
Police seized a shipment of black cocaine that is almost impossible to detect with traditional methods, regional police chief Fabio Cardona said on Sunday. “It’s the first time we have encountered this type of cocaine,” Cardona said after reporting that 15 packets of the drug had been discovered in the fuel tank of a car heading to the El Dorado airport in Bogota. Black cocaine has no odor, making it difficult to detect, even for well-trained drug-sniffing dogs.
■PARAGUAY
Celibacy vows ‘imperfect’
President Fernando Lugo, who last month admitted fathering a son conceived while he was still a bishop, said celibacy vows taken by Roman Catholic clerics are “imperfect.” Lugo stunned Paraguay last month when he recognized as his son a two-year-old boy born to a former parishioner. Two other women have claimed he is the father of their sons, and Lugo has agreed to take a DNA test in one of the cases. Celibacy “is a personal option of faith required by the Catholic church,” but everything humans do is flawed, the president said in an interview published on Sunday.
■SOMALIA
Islamists claim bombing
A radical Islamic group claimed responsibility yesterday for a suicide bombing that killed seven people over the weekend. The political leader of the radical group al-Shabab, Sheik Husein Ali Fidow, said a teenager carried out the attack on a military base in the Somali capital on Sunday. Six guards and a civilian were killed, the government said. Authorities suspect the bomber was one of some 300 foreigners fighting alongside Islamist insurgents.
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