Kansas City, Mo. – A man driving a dead woman’s car shot a police officer, then opened fire in a parking lot and a mall Sunday, killing two, authorities said.
Police shot the gunman to death inside Ward Parkway Center in Kansas City, police spokesman Tony Sanders said.
On Sunday afternoon, police went to a home to check on an elderly woman relatives hadn’t seen for days. She was found dead and her car missing, Sanders said. The car was spotted later at a gas station by an officer, who pulled the driver over and was shot in the arm, police said. He returned fire and shattered the window of the car. The car took off and soon reports began arriving of shots fired at the shopping center. The man pulled into a parking space and fired at the cars on either side of him, killing two people, authorities said. He fired more shots, wounding at least two people, then went inside the mall, Sanders said, where police confronted him, then shot and killed him.
Police did not say how the elderly woman died, or if the gunman was a suspect in her death. But they did say they believed the events were connected.
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More nation world briefs
SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, Hawaii
Army chief wants bigger force sooner
The Army’s new chief of staff said Saturday he wants to accelerate by two years a plan to increase the nation’s active-duty soldiers by 65,000.
The Army has set 2012 as its target date for a force expansion to 547,000 troops, but Gen. George Casey said he told his staff to have the soldiers ready earlier.
“I said that’s too long. Go back and tell me what it would take to get it done faster,” he said during a stop in Hawaii.
Casey said his staff has submitted a proposal for the accelerated timeline but that he has yet to approve the plan.
WASHINGTON
Wolfowitz to argue panel knew about link
Embattled World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz plans to argue that the institution’s ethics committee knew of his involvement in securing a promotion and pay raise for his girlfriend, his lawyer said Sunday.
Wolfowitz will cite a February 28, 2006, letter from the chairman of the bank’s ethics committee, Ad Melkert, which said “a matter which had been previously considered by the committee did not contain new information warranting any further review.”
The letter didn’t specifically mention Wolfowitz or his girlfriend, Shaha Riza, by name. However, Wolfowitz’s attorney, Robert Bennett, said the letter is proof that Melkert was aware of Wolfowitz’ role in securing the compensation package.
Wolfowitz is scheduled to appear today before a special bank panel probing whether he violated bank rules in his handling of the 2005 promotion.
WAYCROSS, Ga.
2-week-old wildfire 70 percent contained
Firefighters have managed to contain about 70 percent of the largest wildfire in Georgia history, which had charred 100 square miles of forest and swampland, officials said Sunday.
A few families remained evacuated from their homes on the opposite side of U.S. 1 from the main blaze, in an area where smaller spot fires started during the weekend, said Georgia Forestry Commission spokeswoman Susan Reisch.
Winds blowing 15 mph and extreme drought with no rain forecast mean the fire, which started April 16, will continue to rage for at least another week, Reisch said.
JERUSALEM
Firestorm to rage over Lebanon report
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will face fierce criticism when a government commission releases its first findings today on last year’s inconclusive war in Lebanon, officials said, raising pressure on the Israeli leader to step down.
Leaked sections of findings prompted a new round of resignation calls Sunday from both the opposition and members of Olmert’s governing coalition.
Among the findings are that both Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz made hasty and ill-judged decisions at the outset of the war, and these errors were compounded by their lack of experience and unfamiliarity with defense issues.
MEXICO CITY
Photographer expects new record for nudes
American photographer Spencer Tunick said Sunday he was hoping to draw his largest crowd of nude people for a shoot next month in Mexico City’s enormous Zocalo plaza.
Tunick, famous for photographing crowds of nude people around the world, said the May 6 shoot could be bigger than one he did in 2003 with 7,000 volunteer models in Barcelona, Spain.
The historic Zocalo plaza measures about 21,000 square yards – the size of about five football fields – and can fit up to 85,000 people standing.
Tunick said last month that 3,700 participants had registered for the shoot.
