Gunmen in Mexico kill 17 at party

Gunmen in Mexico kill 17 at party

PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico

Gunmen stormed a party in northern Mexico on Sunday and massacred 17 people, authorities said.

The assailants arrived at the gathering in the city of Torreon in several cars and opened fire without saying a word, the Coahuila state Attorney General’s Office said in statement. At least 18 people were wounded.

Investigators had no suspects or information on a possible motive.

Strong aftershocks in Alaska islands

ANCHORAGE, Alaska

A series of strong aftershocks in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands region Sunday followed a powerful earthquake that shook the remote area, but officials said there were no immediate reports of damage or injury.

There also was no threat of a tsunami from any of the quakes.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the initial 6.7- magnitude temblor struck at 9:56 p.m. Saturday and was centered in the Bering Sea about 155 miles southwest of Dutch Harbor. The quake hit about 21 miles beneath the seabed.

Study: Treating HIV prevents its spread

Provocative new research shows that treating people with the AIDS virus can provide a powerful bonus: It cuts the risk that they will infect others.

New infections plummeted in parts of Canada as more people went on AIDS drugs, which lowered the amount of virus they had and the chances they would spread it, the study found.

For every 100 people with HIV who started taking AIDS drugs, new infections dropped by 3 percent in British Columbia, where the study was done. The number of new infections there has been cut in half since 1996, matching a rise in treatment.

The U.S. government helped pay for the study. Results were published online Sunday by the British medical journal Lancet and were being presented at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna.

Spanish lawmakers to debate veil ban

MADRID

Spanish lawmakers will debate barring burqas in public, joining other European countries considering similar moves on the grounds that the body-covering garments are degrading to women, the leading opposition party said Sunday.

Top officials of the ruling Socialist Party have indicated they will support the proposal by the opposition Popular Party, making a ban likely unless the country’s highest court rules it unconstitutional.

Blagojevich likely to testify this week

CHICAGO

After promising for a year and a half to take the witness stand, Rod Blagojevich is likely to testify in his own defense at his federal corruption trial this week in a long-awaited duel of wits and wills with federal prosecutors.

Unlike in his TV interviews, Blagojevich is going to be under oath. And the grilling he gets from government attorneys about charges that he sought to sell or trade President Barack Obama’s former Senate seat is guaranteed to be tougher than anything he faced on the talk-show circuit.

Police: 38 killed in India train crash

CALCUTTA, India

A speeding express train collided with a passenger train at a station in eastern India early today, mangling the carriages and killing at least 38 people, railway police said.

The crash happened when the Uttarbanga Express slammed into the stationary Bananchal Express as it was leaving the platform at Sainthia station, about 125 miles north of Calcutta.

Associated Press