LONDON

Police launch new probe into girl’s disappearance

British police say they have launched a full investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, and want to trace 38 “persons of interest” in the case.

Detectives say it’s possible that Madeleine, who vanished from a Portuguese holiday resort six years ago, is still alive.

Scotland Yard said Thursday that 12 of the individuals of interest are British, and the rest from a variety of European countries. The force said it is working with governments across the continent to find out more.

McCann vanished from a vacation home in Portugal’s Algarve region on May 3, 2007, days before her 4th birthday. The case has generated intense media interest.

Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood said police “continue to believe that there is a possibility that Madeleine is alive.”

JOHANNESBURG

Mandela on life support, court documents show

Nelson Mandela is being kept alive by a breathing machine and faces “impending death,” court documents show, as his family gravesite was restored Thursday.

Mandela is being kept on life support, according to documents filed in the court case that resulted in the remains of the former president’s three deceased children being reburied Thursday in their original graves.

The reburial took place in Qunu, where Mandela grew up and where the he has said he wants to be buried.

Grandson Mandla Mandela moved the bodies to his village of Mvezo — Nelson Mandela’s birthplace — in 2011. Fifteen Mandela family members pursued court action last week to force the grandson to move the bodies back to their original burial site.

BLUFFDALE, Utah

Utah National Guard drives protesters from NSA center

Security guards forced about 150 people away from a National Security Agency data center in a Salt Lake City suburb, part of a nationwide Fourth of July protest over NSA surveillance.

The Utah demonstrators said they were drawing attention to the scheduled fall opening of the NSA data center in Bluffdale for intercepted telecommunications.

The Utah National Guard forced the protesters off a base where Army Corps of Engineers contractors are building the billion-dollar data center, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.

Demonstrators had to retreat to a public cemetery for a “Restore the Fourth” rally — a reference to the 4th Amendment against unlawful search and seizure, not the Fourth of July.

Similar holiday protests took place around the country, according to the website restorethefourth.net.

SEATTLE

Man arrested near campus in truck carrying weapons

Police in Seattle are investigating a Nevada man arrested near the University of Washington in a stolen pickup truck filled with weapons, body armor and suspected explosive devices.

University of Washington Police Chief John Vinson said at a Thursday afternoon news conference that the man was driving a stolen truck out of Montana and had with him a scoped rifle, shotgun and fewer than 10 Molotov cocktails.

The suspect is 21, but Vinson declined to identify him.

“We have no idea what his intentions are,” he said.

The man was arrested after campus police recognized the truck stolen from Montana.

SAN FRANCISCO

Summer camp counselor killed by falling oak tree

Staff members at a summer camp near Yosemite National Park were having breakfast outside when they felt what the parent of one counselor described as an earthquake.

About 40 feet of a large, 53-inch diameter black oak tree snapped off and came crashing down, killing Annais Rittenberg, a 21-year-old art counselor, and injuring four others.

Jennifer Rosenberg told the Los Angeles Times her daughter described the tree fall as an earthquake “and then a big dust cloud.”

Two of the injured adults were treated and released. The other two were reported in good condition at hospitals in Modesto on Thursday.

Because of the nearby power lines, authorities said Pacific Gas & Electric Co. was responsible for annual inspections of the oak tree. PG&E officials who looked at the tree’s stump Wednesday said the tree showed no obvious signs of rotting or disease. Weather also did not appear to be a factor.

— From news service reports

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