United States: Six boys at a small Alaskan middle school were arrested at the weekend on suspicion of planning to carry out a Columbine-style massacre.
Police in the town of North Pole said the arrests were made after a concerned parent raised the alarm. Officers say the boys - all around the age of 13 - intended to bring guns and knives to the school to kill their classmates and teachers. They also allegedly aimed to cut the school's electricity and telephone lines to give them time to flee.
The arrests came two days after five teenagers in Kansas were arrested on suspicion of planning a similar massacre at their school last Thursday - the seventh anniversary of the Columbine high school killings in Colorado, when two armed teenagers killed 12 pupils and a teacher before shooting themselves.
The North Pole youngsters, in the seventh grade, face charges of first-degree conspiracy to commit murder, say police. Officers speculated that the boys were motivated by revenge because they had been picked on at the 500-pupil school - or that they simply did not like their classmates and teachers.
North Pole, with a population of only 1,650, was described by one local teacher as religious, generous and more conservative than the nearby city of Fairbanks. "There was a relaxed atmosphere - more so than I've seen at larger schools, whether in Anchorage or Fairbanks," the teacher, Conrad Gonzalez, said. "It was very low-key, friendly."
Actually 2,720km (1,690 miles) south of the real North Pole, the town is famed for its postmark. Each year, thousands of children write to North Pole requesting a letter from Santa Claus with a North Pole postmark.
The Santa industry dominates the town. Its official slogan is "Where the Spirit of Christmas Lives Year Round". The most notable building in the town is Santa Claus House, outside which stands a giant fibre-glass Santa statue.
- (Guardian service)