October 8, 2007 4:56

Wisconsin Deputy in Mass Shooting

An off-duty sheriff's deputy shot and killed six people, including his ex-girlfriend, at a "pizza and movie" party in northern Wisconsin this weekend before being killed by fellow officers.

The house in Crandon, Wis. where the shooting took place - Mark Was / AP

Temperatures in the high 80s prompted the cancellation mid-race of the Chicago marathon yesterday for the first time in its 30-year history. One man died and over 300 were taken to hospital with heat-related sickness as runners complained of insufficient water for the 35,000 participants.

Here at mile 17 there's a lot more walking than running going on:

Nuclear energy is officially bouncing back. Over the next two years, "the Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects applications to build as many as 32 new nuclear reactors," says the Washington Post.

Who was Christopher Columbus? DNA researchers are intent on finding out.

Politics - Clinton's Iowa Factor

Don't dismiss Iowa. The '08 Presidential primary schedule may increasingly resemble a political concertina but the little caucus still punches above its weight and hence Hillary Clinton will be very happy to be sitting atop of the latest state poll conducted by the Des Moines Register.

Despite Clinton's national standing she has had a hard time putting any distance between herself and Barack Obama or John Edwards in Iowa. So she'll also be glad to have received an endorsement from George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential candidate. He had kind words for both Obama and Edwards but, "We have an old rule of currency in the United States: Ladies first," said McGovern.

Bloggers have been banging on about Blackwater USA CEO Erik Prince's ties to the GOP for weeks now. Now the NYT weighs in describing how "Mr. Prince stands at the nexus between American Special Operations, which has played such a critical role in the war operations, and the nation’s political and business elite".

Erik Prince testifies - Susan Walsh / AP

Hillary Clinton is caught up in the Blackwater furor. Her camp has been put on the back foot after the AP reported that Burson-Marsteller, of which her chief strategist Mark Penn is worldwide President and CEO, had helped prepare Erik Prince's congressional testimony. Burson-Marsteller is no longer representing Blackwater.

Good news for Senator Larry Craig. He's been elected to Idaho's Hall of Fame. Is it in spite of or because of his bathroom incident?

Iraq - Republican Guard Calling Iraq Shots Says U.S.

The U.S. ratcheted up its rhetoric against Tehran yesterday when U.S. commander General David Petraeus accused Iran's ambassador to Iraq of being a member of the Revolutionary Guards' elite Quds force. The U.S. believes the Quds force of supplying anti-American militia forces with roadside bombs.

"I don't think there is something called reconciliation, and there will be no reconciliation as such". Who offered this downbeat assessment of Iraq? A U.S. senator perhaps? No, those are the words of Iraqi deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih.

The Iraqi government is united on one point it seems: the need to prosecute the Blackwater USA guards who killed 17 civilians in a Baghdad shooting. The government also wants Blackwater to pay compensation to the families of those killed.

World - Costa Rica OKs Free Trade

Costa Ricans have narrowly approved joining the Central American Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. according to President Oscar Arias. Costa Rica is the only member of the pact that held a referendum on the issue and opponents are refusing to recognize the 52% yes voter, "which went against most pre-vote polls showing the measure heading for an easy defeat," writes CNN.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is taking the political heat after backing away from calling a snap general election, even after his aides had stoked talk of one. Political opponents have lambasted Brown's political opportunism.

If you think UK politics is getting ugly then take a look at Switzerland where an ultra-right wing party, the SVP, is on the verge of an election triumph after running a campaign that a UN watchdog has labeled "overtly racist". Tensions boiled over in the Swiss capital, Berne, this weekend, as left-wing activists disrupted an SVP rally resulting in dozens of arrests and injuries.

Fight for your far right to party - LUKAS LEHMANN / EPA

What happened to Burma's monks during the recent military crackdown? "Taken from their monasteries in a wave of midnight raids, they have been held in primitive, humiliating conditions designed to break them down physically, emotionally and spiritually," writes the Sydney Morning Herald.

Celebrity - Diana Inquest Heads to Paris

The inquest into the death of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed heads to Paris this week where jurors will "retrace the lovers' fatal path in an attempt to put to rest the dark suspicions surrounding their deaths," writes CNN.

Diana's crash site - Jerome Delay / AP

Were the couple about to announce their engagement and was Diana pregnant? These are some of the questions the jury is being asked to take into account. In advance of their arrival, French authorities opened the heavily-trafficked Pont D'Alma underpass on the bank of the Seine to pedestrians this weekend.

Pamela Anderson got married to new beau Rick Salomon in Vegas this weekend. So how did the romance start? "I paid off a poker debt with sexual favors, and I fell in love," Anderson recalls. Classy.

On the celebrity comeback trail now and news that Lindsey Lohan has left rehab and Owen Wilson turned up at the premiere of his new film The Darjeeling Limited - one of his first public appearances since an alleged suicide attempt.