Five found shot to death at Calif. homeless camp

Five found shot to death at Calif. homeless camp

LOS ANGELES — Five people were found shot to death Sunday in a homeless encampment obscured by heavy brush in the shadow of a Long Beach freeway, police said.

Officers received an anonymous call Sunday morning and went to an area between several commercial buildings and freeway ramps off Interstate 405. They found two women and three men, all gunshot victims, Long Beach Deputy Police Chief Robert Luna said.

Detectives have not determined a motive or identified a suspect. Coroner’s investigators were sent to the scene to identify the victims and determine how long they had been dead, Luna said.

Suicide bombings kill 8

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan — A suicide car bomber killed at least eight Pakistani paramilitary troops Sunday in a region near the Afghan border that has been a target in a surge of suspected U.S. missile strikes.

The bomber rammed his vehicle into a checkpoint near the main gate of the Zalai Fort, exploding it as Frontier Corps troops gathered nearby, said Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, the Pakistan army’s top spokesman. Four people were wounded, he said.

The fort is 12 miles outside Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, a tribal region considered a hub for al-Qaida and Taliban fighters involved in attacks on U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.

China landslide kills 20

BEIJING — A landslide in southwestern China has left at least 20 people dead and 42 others missing, state media said Monday.

The deadly torrent of mud and rocks hit Chuxiong city in Yunnan province on Sunday, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The area has been pounded by heavy rains in recent days.

More than 1,000 houses collapsed or were damaged in the disaster, the report said. Casualties were still being assessed, it said.

Tents, quilts and clothes were being sent to the affected areas, Xinhua said. It gave no other details.

Good grief! New online ‘Peanuts’ videos released

NEW YORK — Barack Obama, John McCain ... or Linus?

In a batch of 20 new webisodes, Charlie Brown and the gang have been brought back to animated life, much in the style of their classic holiday TV specials. But Lucy, Snoopy and others have been remade for the Web in 3- to 4-minute videos taken directly from classic 1964 comic strips.

In one of them, Linus runs for class president, only to be bedeviled by a controversial skeleton from his past: his strident belief in his Halloween hero, the Great Pumpkin.

Linus pleads: “In my administration, children will be children and adults will be adults!”

The videos are all new, made with Flash animation and new voices for the characters. But even though it’s new technology, attention has been paid to maintaining the integrity of both the strip and its beloved animation specials.

“You’re not trying to change it,” said Jeannie Schulz, widow of Peanuts creator Charles Schulz. “You’re trying to keep it the same and freshen it.”

In AIDS-ravaged nation, circumcision takes hold

MBABANE, Swaziland (AP) — Nelson Mdlovu strides out of the small clinic with a spring in his step and a smile on his lips just minutes after being circumcised.

Mdlovu swallowed his fears to line up with nine other equally nervous men for the 30-minute operation. They joined the ranks of hundreds of Swazi men who have opted for circumcision, after the U.N. said last year that it could cut the risk of contracting the HIV virus by as much as 60 percent.

Associated Press

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