7 killed in mosque attack in Kenya’s east

Updated 26 February 2013
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7 killed in mosque attack in Kenya’s east

NAIROBI: A Kenyan official says gunmen have opened fire at a mosque in Kenya’s east, killing seven people.
Maalim Mohammed, the county commissioner of Kenya’s Garissa county, said Thursday that about eight gunmen armed with AK-47 rifles shot at a mosque in the village of Malele near the Kenyan-Somali border.
Mohamed says the motive of the attack is not clear. The region has been a hotspot of attacks blamed on Al-Qaeda-linked militants from Somalia. Somalia’s Al-Shabab militants have vowed to carry out attacks on Kenyan soil in retaliation for Kenya’s military push into Somalia in late 2011.
Thursday’s attack comes less than two weeks before Kenya holds nationwide elections. There are fears Al-Shabab-affiliated militants may try to disrupt the election with attacks.


British serial killer ‘Suffolk Strangler’ pleads guilty to 1999 murder

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British serial killer ‘Suffolk Strangler’ pleads guilty to 1999 murder

LONDON: A British serial killer dubbed the “Suffolk Strangler” by the media after he killed five young women two ​decades ago pleaded guilty on Monday to another murder from 27 years ago.
Steve Wright, who is already serving a life sentence with no prospect of parole for killing the women in 2006, appeared at London’s Old Bailey ‌court and ‌admitted kidnapping and murdering 17-year-old ‌Victoria ⁠Hall ​in ‌1999.
Wright, 67, also pleaded guilty to the attempted kidnap of a 22-year-old woman the day before Hall’s murder. He will be sentenced on Friday.
“Justice has finally been achieved for Victoria Hall after 26 years,” ⁠Samantha Woolley from the Crown Prosecution Service said ‌in a statement.
Wright was convicted ‍in 2008 of ‍the murder of five women ‍who worked as prostitutes in the town of Ipswich, northeast of London in Suffolk. Wright left two of the bodies in a ​crucifix position with arms outstretched.
He was give a whole-life order, meaning he ⁠could never be released from prison, for what the sentencing judge described as “a targeted campaign of murder.”
Wright had consistently denied the allegations even though his DNA was found on three of the victims and bloodstains from two of them were found on his jacket at his home. His victims’ bodies were found in ‌the space of just 10 days around Ipswich.