Mass killing in Azerbaijan

Mass killing in Azerbaijan

MOSCOW — A young man opened fire in a bustling building in a prestigious Azerbaijan university Thursday, killing 12 people before turning the gun on himself.

The gunman was identified as Farda Gadyrov, a citizen of neighboring Georgia. He entered a building at Azerbaijan State Oil Academy in Baju about 9:30 a.m. and began climbing the stairs, shooting indiscriminately as he ascended, Azerbaijani officials said.

More than a dozen people were wounded in the attack before the gunman shot himself dead as police closed in.

No new accusations

BOSTON — An ad placed on Craigslist by prosecutors has not turned up any new accusations against the Boston University medical student charged with killing one masseuse and robbing a second one.

A law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Thursday that police have not been contacted by any other potential victims since Philip Markoff’s arrest last week.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case.

Markoff is charged with murder in the April 14 killing of Julissa Brisman, a 25-year-old masseuse from New York City whom he purportedly met at a posh Boston hotel through Craigslist. He’s also accused of robbing another masseuse he met at another Boston hotel, also through Craigslist.

Markoff is also being investigated in an attempted robbery of a woman at a Rhode Island hotel.

Woman, 2 kids found dead

NELSONVILLE, Wis. — A woman and her two young children found dead Thursday in a gasoline-soaked house appeared to be victims of a violent death, and a man treated for inhaling fumes at the home has been taken into custody, authorities said.

Portage County Sheriff John Charewicz said the woman, her 2-year-old son and a 3-year-old daughter appeared to have suffered a “violent death,” but a cause had not yet been determined. A 36-year-old man and a 6-month-old girl who were found alive were treated for inhaling fumes.

The man, who lives at the home but wasn’t married to the woman, was being held as a “person of interest” in the deaths, the sheriff said.

FEC fines Sharpton

NEW YORK — The Rev. Al Sharpton said he feels a weight has lifted, now that his long-running battles with the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Election Commission are finally resolved.

“This is the first time in years that nothing is hanging over our heads,” he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Thursday.

The Federal Election Commission announced earlier in the day that his campaign and his civil rights group would pay combined fines of $285,000 for breaking a variety of election finance rules during his 2004 presidential campaign.

The FEC’s findings included that Sharpton’s National Action Network had improperly subsidized his political campaign by paying for about $181,115 in expenses that should have been covered by his election committee.

Wax figures up for auction

LOS ANGELES — Harrison Ford, Elizabeth Taylor and Leonardo DiCaprio are hanging around a Newbury Park warehouse today, waiting for the hammer to drop on their careers as a Hollywood attraction.

They are among more than 200 hand-sculpted figures that will be auctioned off this evening by the Hollywood Wax Museum as part of a celebrity look-alike shake-up.

Some of the life-size replicas made of oil-painted wax are being permanently removed from the Hollywood Boulevard tourist attraction. Others are being replaced with updated figures that visitors can touch and pose with for snapshots, said museum partner Tej Sundher.

The figures are expected to fetch about $3,000 each, said Joseph Maddalena, president of the Profiles in History auction company. Bids can be telephoned in or made on the Internet, he said.

Reports: Souter to retire

WASHINGTON — News media reports say Justice David Souter plans to retire from the Supreme Court at the end of the court’s term in June.

Speculation that the 69-year-old justice will be stepping down has been fueled by his failure to appoint law clerks from the fall term.

National Public Radio is reporting that Souter has informed the White House of his intentions and will remain on the bench until a successor is confirmed.

The Supreme Court declined to comment on the report.

Combined dispatches