In Brief

Three dead in L.A. shootings

DOWNEY, Calif. -- Five people were shot and three of them died Wednesday in connected attacks at a business and residence in a Los Angeles suburb, police said.

The shootings occurred after 11 a.m. local time at a family-owned business, United States Fire Protection Services, and at a nearby home, where family members of the owner live, said Downey police Lt. Dean Milligan.

A woman was found dead at the home, and a man and a woman were killed at the business, he said. Two other shooting victims were in critical but stable condition at hospitals.

A motive for the shooting is unknown and police said none of the surviving victims recognized the suspect.

Volunteer killed in church

COLLEGE PARK -- A man suspected in Wednesday's fatal shooting at a Georgia megachurch was once committed to a mental-health facility in Maryland after facing various criminal charges including attempted murder, according to court records.

Police in Georgia said Floyd Palmer, 51, walked into a chapel at World Changers Church International just before a 10 a.m. service and opened fire, killing church volunteer Greg McDowell, 39, while he was leading a prayer.

"He walked in calmly, opened fire, and left as calmly," Fulton County Police Cpl. Kay Lester said

Palmer was a former facilities maintenance employee at the church who resigned in August for "personal reasons," Lester said. Palmer was taken into custody without incident a few hours later.

Tories budge on omnibus bill

OTTAWA -- The Harper government has made another concession to allow greater scrutiny of its massive, omnibus budget implementation bill.

It has agreed to a Liberal proposal to allow nine Commons committees -- not just the finance committee -- to examine different aspects of the 400-plus-page bill, which changes about 60 pieces of legislation.

But Liberal finance critic Scott Brison says the concession is minor and should not be interpreted as respect for parliamentary democracy.

Republican rape comment blasted

NEW ALBANY, Ind. -- Another Republican running for U.S. Senate has angered voters after telling a live television audience that when a woman becomes pregnant during a rape, "that's something God intended." Women voters are key to this year's presidential race, and Republican challenger Mitt Romney has been drawn into this latest issue.

Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock was asked Tuesday whether abortion should be allowed in cases of rape or incest.

"I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize that life is that gift from God. And, I think, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen," Mourdock said.

Mourdock became the second Republican Senate candidate to find himself on the defensive over comments about rape and pregnancy. Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin said in August that women's bodies have ways of preventing pregnancy in cases of what he called "legitimate rape."

Romney distanced himself from Mourdock on Tuesday night, a day after a TV ad featuring him supporting Mourdock began airing in Indiana.

UN backs idea of Syrian truce

BEIRUT -- The UN Security Council gave unanimous backing Wednesday to a four-day truce proposed by the international mediator for Syria to mark a major Muslim holiday after he warned that the failure of yet another ceasefire plan would only worsen the fighting.

Yet even this modest effort -- the international community's only plan for scaling back the violence -- appears doomed.

Previous ceasefire missions have failed, in part because neither Syrian President Bashar Assad nor rebels trying to topple him had an incentive to end their bloody war of attrition. Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN-Arab League envoy to Syria, has proposed that both sides lay down their arms during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which begins Friday.

-- from the news services

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 25, 2012 A9