Church, state refuse funeral for Nazi

Church, state refuse funeral for Nazi

ROME

What to do with the body of a Nazi war criminal no one wants?

Rome’s mayor, police chief and the pope’s right-hand man have all refused to grant former SS captain Erich Priebke a church funeral in the city where he participated in one of the worst massacres in German-occupied Italy. Now there’s the added question of where to bury him, since Rome, his adopted homeland of Argentina, and his hometown in Germany won’t take him.

Priebke spent nearly 50 years as a fugitive before being extradited to Italy from Argentina in 1995 to stand trial for the 1944 massacre at the Ardeatine Caves outside Rome, in which 335 civilians were killed. He died Friday at age 100 in the Rome home of his lawyer, Paolo Giachini, where he had been serving his life term under house arrest.

Philippines quake

MANILA, Philippines

A magnitude-7.2 earthquake struck in the central Philippines this morning, collapsing roofs and buildings, cracking walls and roads and killing at least four people.

The quake was centered 35 miles deep below Carmen town on Bohol Island and was felt across the region.

Radio station DZMM quoted civil-defense officials as saying that four people died when part of a fish port collapsed in nearby Cebu city, across the strait from Bohol.

The roof of a market in Mandaue in Cebu province also collapsed, injuring 19 people, according to TV reports.

Gunmen in Syria release 4 aid workers

BEIRUT

Gunmen in Syria released three Red Cross staffers and a Red Crescent volunteer who had been kidnapped in rebel-held territory, the international agency said Monday.

The fate of three other Red Cross workers who were also seized Sunday in the northwestern Idlib province remained unclear, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

Syrian opposition activists said the seven aid workers were taken at a rebel checkpoint outside the town of Saraqeb, manned by an al-Qaida-affiliate, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. There was no claim of responsibility.

Myanmar blast injures 1 American

YANGON, Myanmar

An explosion struck one of the most prestigious hotels in Myanmar’s main city just before midnight Monday, ripping apart a guest’s room and wounding one American — the latest in a series of unexplained blasts to hit the Southeast Asian country.

It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion in the 22-story Trader’s Hotel. But the incident came after unidentified assailants planted three homemade bombs in and around Yangon in recent days, reportedly killing two people and injuring three others.

Study: Bedtimes affect behavior

LOS ANGELES

Struggling with a difficult kid? You might want to take a hard, honest look at how often he or she actually gets to bed on time.

Researchers have found a clear link between the lack of a regular bedtime and behavioral difficulties in children, and it is just what moms and dads know intuitively: Irregular bedtimes often lead to bad behavior in kids.

In a study published in the journal Pediatrics, the researchers also found that, on average, children’s behavior got worse as the number of nights they did not get to bed on time increased.

Combined dispatches