INTERNATIONAL
Dutch hold service to mourn 6 shopping mall shooting victims
AMSTERDAM (AP) — Thousands of people, including the Dutch prime minister, gathered Sunday evening to lay flowers and mourn at a candlelit memorial service outside a mall in a quiet Amsterdam suburb where a mentally troubled young man shot and killed six people a day earlier.
Investigators are still puzzling over the gunman’s motive and trying to understand how he was able to obtain and legally own five firearms in the Netherlands, where gun control laws are considered strict, despite prior run-ins with the law and a stay at a psychiatric institution.
Free beer off the menu if Swiss government has its way
GENEVA (AP) — Free beer will reportedly be verboten soon in Switzerland, if the government has its way Swiss weekly Sonntag says the Cabinet has drafted a plan to ban restaurateurs from offering any free drinks to customers.
It cited the director of the Swiss Alcohol Board on Sunday as saying an existing ban on promotions involving other alcoholic beverages would be extended to include beer.
US citizen among dozens of bus passengers abducted in Mexico
MEXICO CITY (AP) — At least one U.S. citizen was among dozens of men reportedly forced off passenger buses by armed attackers in the northeastern border state of Tamaulipas, where 72 bodies were found in mass graves last week, U.S. officials said Sunday.
The man has yet to be located, said a warden’s message posted on the website of the consulate, which is located in the Tamaulipas city of Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas.
 
NATIONAL
 
US gas prices jump 19 cents a gallon over past 3 weeks
CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) — The average U.S. price of a gallon of gasoline has jumped 19 cents over the past three weeks.
The Lundberg Survey of fuel prices now puts the average price for a gallon of regular at $3.76.
Analyst Trilby Lundberg said Sunday that price is 91 cents higher than it was this time last year.
The national average for a gallon of mid-grade is $3.90. For premium, it’s $4.01 a gallon.
Lundberg says diesel prices rose 11 cents a gallon over the past three weeks, to $4.09.
Large tornado destroys homes, buildings in Iowa town
Mapleton, Iowa (AP) — A large tornado flattened a grain elevator and destroyed homes and buildings on its weekend rampage through the small western Iowa town of Mapleton. Authorities reported no serious injuries.
“It was huge, just huge,” said Thomas Mohrhauser, an attorney in the town of about 1,200 people. “It just kept getting bigger and bigger.”
Mohrhauser said the tornado appeared to be about a quarter-mile wide.
 
STATE/LOCAL
 
Redistricting special session enters final stretch
(AP) — Not a single map is complete and passed as lawmakers return to the Capitol on Monday for the final three days of a special session to redesign political boundary lines.
While the state House and state Senate district remaps are expected to be wrapped up before the deadline, legislators are unsure if they’ll finish a congressional revamp or end in stalemate amid partisan disputes, regional splits and charges of minority voter suppression.
Gov. Bobby Jindal and five of the state’s congressmen are asking for the congressional map to be scrapped for now as the haggling has grown increasingly angry, but it’s unclear if legislative leaders will acquiesce or continue trying to reach a compromise.
“It becomes iffy to get the bill through,” said Sen. Neil Riser, R-Columbia, of the last-minute negotiating. Riser has one of the two congressional bills still alive in the process.
The session must end Wednesday by 6 p.m.
Lawmakers are reshaping the districts to account for population shifts as shown in census data.
 
 
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