A round-up of today's other world news in brief
Five killed in clashes over evictions
GUATEMALA CITY - At least five people were fatally shot or slashed to death with machetes in Guatemala when peasant farmers tried to invade a large estate they had been evicted from, police said yesterday.
About 200 families attempted to invade a property, called Finca Mocca, in the central department of Alta Verapaz on Saturday but clashed with armed peasants on the land, said police spokeswoman Myrna Morales.
The human rights ombudsman's office said the armed peasants were current employees of the farm, something that the owner denied.
Tension is high in parts of Guatemala's countryside as President Oscar Berger's government evicts groups of landless farmers from farmland they took over in a wave of invasions under his predecessor. - (Reuters)
Relative held after four shot dead
NEWCASTLE - Police were last night holding a mentally ill ex-serviceman after four members of his family were shot dead with a silenced pistol at their home.
An elderly married couple and two of their sons were found murdered yesterday after David Bradley (40) walked into a Newcastle police station and told officers about the bodies.
He was carrying a bag containing a handgun fitted with a silencer, a pump-action shotgun and ammunition, police said.
Shocked families in Benwell Grove, Newcastle, where the killings took place, named the dead couple as retired builder Peter Purcell and his wife Josephine, both in their 70s.
The couple had six children but neighbours said only two sons, Glen (42) and Keith (44), were living with them. - (PA)
Kenyan police officers missing
MARSABIT - Kenyan military helicopters yesterday searched for six police officers missing after four days of clashes with suspected Ethiopian raiders that killed 19 people in a violent border area.
Two helicopters were helping the search for the six who disappeared after an attack on a village in Kenya's northeastern Marsabit district on Wednesday. - (Reuters)