Shootings prompt school lockdowns

Shootings prompt school lockdowns

WIXOM, Mich.

Kids were kept off school playgrounds Monday and some commuters changed their routes as police searched for a suspect in more than 20 random shootings that have mostly damaged vehicles on busy roads across four Michigan counties.

No one has been hurt, and no shootings have occurred since Thursday. But police on Monday added to their list two more incidents from the small city of Perry, off U.S. 69, stretching the investigation to four counties, Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe said.

Tipsters told police the gunman appears to be a man in his 30s, and authorities on Sunday released a drawing of a possible suspect with close-cropped hair and stubble on his cheeks and chin. While the incidents appear to be random, police are investigating them as a pack and have formed a task force to chase down tips.

La. woman says 3 men set her on fire

NEW ORLEANS

A 20-year-old black woman told police she was set on fire by three men who wrote the initials KKK and a racial slur on her car in northeastern Louisiana.

Louisiana State Police spokeswoman Lt. Julie Lewis says Sharmeka Moffitt was found with burns on more than half of her body when police responded to her 911 call Sunday night.

Moffitt was in critical condition Monday at a hospital. Lewis said the FBI is investigating the attack as a possible hate crime, but no arrests had been made as of late Monday.

Moffitt told police the men doused her in a flammable liquid and set her on fire in a town park. Lewis said she extinguished the fire by using water from a spigot before a police officer arrived.

Steroid pharmacy passed inspection

BOSTON

The Massachusetts pharmacy linked to a meningitis outbreak that has claimed 23 lives around the country was cleared by state regulators after an inspection last year.

The May 24, 2011, inspection wasn’t the result of any complaint against New England Compounding Center. It was required because the company was planning to update its facilities and move into new space within its facility in Framingham.

The inspection was performed before the move to the new space.

The inspection report, released to The Associated Press after a public-records request, shows the company received a satisfactory grade. The inspector, William Frisch, toured the facility and reviewed security, controlled substance management, sterile and nonsterile processing areas and refrigeration.

The outbreak tied to contaminated steroid shots has sickened nearly 300 people.

Activists float leaflets into N. Korea

SEOUL, South Korea

South Korean activists floated balloons carrying tens of thousands of anti-Pyongyang leaflets into North Korea, eluding police who had disrupted an earlier launch attempt due to threats from North Korea.

North Korea’s military warned last week that it would strike if the South Korean activists carried through with their plan, and South Korea pledged to retaliate if it was attacked.

South Korean police, citing security concerns, had sent hundreds of officers Monday to seal off roads and prevent the activists and other people from gathering at an announced launch site near the border. Residents in the area also were asked to evacuate to underground facilities, according to local official Kim Jin-a.

Associated Press