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FLINT
Even a nation as inured to violent crime as the U.S.was stunned by the Michigan shooting of a 6-year-old girl by a gun-wielding classmate, also aged six. The boy who killed Kayla Rolland the day after a reported playground squabble apparently found the gun in the dilapidated house where he and his eight-year-old brother had been staying. The boy's father is in jail and his mother was not living in the house, where crack cocaine was reportedly sold. Prosecutors have decided that the boy is too young to have formed the intent necessary to commit a crime, and have charged one of the men who lived in the house with involuntary manslaughter, for creating "an atmosphere of reckless circumstances." Less than 24 hours after the school shooting, a gunman went on a rampage in two fast food restaurants outside Pittsburgh, killing one person and wounding four.
HAVANA
A Cuban diplomat expelled from the United States for alleged espionage returned to Cuba after a diplomatic incident in which he holed up in the Cuban Embassy in Ottawa for four days. Washington accused José Imperatori of aiding a U.S. official charged with spying, but Imperatori said he was the victim of a campaign to discredit those fighting for the return to Cuba of Elián Gonzélez, a six-year-old at the center of an international custody battle that has strained U.S.-Cuba relations. Canada granted Imperatori a 48-hour transit visa to facilitate his return to Cuba since there are no scheduled flights from the U.S. to Havana. But when he arrived in Montreal, he traveled to Ottawa and began a hunger strike, vowing to continue until he was allowed to return to the U.S. to clear his name. A deal was reached that the Cuban government says will allow Imperatori to return to the U.S. to take part in legal proceedings.
SANTIAGO
Former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte was welcomed by cheering crowds and senior military officials when he returned home last week after 16 months of detention in Britain. Pinochet was released when British Home Secretary Jack Straw decided not to extradite him to Spain to face torture charges under a Spanish arrest warrant. Straw cited the general's medical condition as the reason for his decision, saying that he believed a trial, "however desirable, was simply no longer possible." Pinochet was believed to be in extremely frail health, but surprised observers at the Santiago airport with his unexpectedly robust appearance as he stood and hugged members of the welcome party. The Chilean government criticized the festive nature of the welcome ceremony, and in a nationally televised address on the eve of Pinochet's arrival, President Eduardo Frei reminded listeners that "no Chilean citizen is above the law."