JOHANNESBURG

Mandela’s family, tribal leaders gather for meeting

Members of Nelson Mandela’s family and tribal elders gathered Tuesday at the former president’s rural hometown in eastern South Africa, as concern grew for the 94-year-old leader who spent a third day in critical condition in a hospital, local media reported. The office of President Jacob Zuma said Mandela’s condition remained unchanged after reporting late Sunday that his health had deteriorated to critical, alarming many South Africans as well as people around the world who regard the former president as a symbol of sacrifice and reconciliation.

Mandela’s family members held a meeting at his home in Qunu village in the Eastern Cape province, 600 miles south of Johannesburg, where the anti-apartheid leader grew up. No details on what was discussed in the meeting were announced.

MILLBURN, N.J.

Nanny cam shows attack on woman by robber

A hulking robber forced his way into a home and attacked a woman watching cartoons with her 3-year-old daughter, punching and kicking her in a series of assaults recorded by a home surveillance camera before throwing her down the basement stairs and nonchalantly walking out the front door, police said.

Portions of the nanny cam footage were aired on television Tuesday as police sought the public’s help in identifying the man responsible for the attack, which occurred Friday morning in Millburn, a suburb of about 20,000 residents just west of New York. The burglar made three trips upstairs to rifle through the family’s belongings, police said, assaulting the woman on the trips back to the first floor, kicking her, punching her and yanking her by the hair.

“It really takes a sick person to be able to do that,” Palardy said.

NEW YORK

$1.2 million reported missing from plane’s cargo

FBI agents were investigating a report that about $1.2 million disappeared from a shipment of cash flown from Switzerland to New York City as part of a banking transaction, authorities said. The U.S. currency, all $100 bills, was reported missing on Monday after a count of the money at the Federal Reserve came up short.

The shipment had arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Saturday afternoon aboard a Swiss International Air Lines flight, said FBI spokesman J. Peter Donald. The FBI is investigating whether the cash disappeared from a cargo hold in Zurich, where Flight 17 originated, or sometime after it landed.

BOSTON

Democrat Markey elected to seat held by John Kerry

Longtime Democratic U.S. Rep. Edward Markey defeated Republican political newcomer Gabriel Gomez in a special election on Tuesday for the state’s U.S. Senate seat long held by John Kerry, a race that failed to draw the attention that the state’s 2010 special Senate election did.

Markey, 66, won the early backing of Kerry and much of the state’s Democratic political establishment, which was set on avoiding a repeat of the stunning loss it suffered three years ago, when Republican state Sen. Scott Brown upset Democratic state Attorney General Martha Coakley in the election to replace the late Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy.

 

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