In brief: Large bomb explodes in Cairo, officials say

CAIRO – A large bomb exploded early Thursday near a national security building in a residential neighborhood in Cairo, wounding at least six people including at least one police officer, Egyptian security officials said.

There were no immediate reports of deaths from the explosion, which tore the facade off of the government building. For blocks around the blast site in the popular Shubra el-Kheima neighborhood, glass from blown-out windows could be seen on the street.

Defense questions accuser in rape case

CONCORD, N.H. – A lawyer for a recent graduate of an elite New Hampshire prep school accused of rape has begun cross-examining the accuser, asking whether she told her close friend in graphic details which sex acts she was prepared to engage in.

Owen Labrie, 19, of Tunbridge, Vermont, is charged with raping the then-15-year-old freshman at St. Paul’s School two days before he graduated last year.

The girl responded Wednesday she had no recollection of saying that.

Defense attorney J.W. Carney had been reading from a Concord police affidavit detailing the friend’s interview.

Labrie is accused of participating in a practice at the school known as Senior Salute, in which seniors attempt to romance or have intercourse with underclassmen. The accuser testified earlier she was prepared for kissing, at most.

Labrie denies they had intercourse.

‘Anti-Muslim’ guard misfires weapon

TULSA, Okla. – A man guarding a small-town Oklahoma gun range that declared itself a “Muslim-free” business dropped his gun and accidentally shot himself.

Authorities said a bullet struck the unidentified man in his arm after he dropped the weapon Tuesday. He was among several armed residents guarding the Save Yourself Survival and Tactical Gear store in Oktaha, about 65 miles southeast of Tulsa.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations said the Oklahoma business and ones in several other states have declared themselves “Muslim-free,” and the organization has asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate some for possible civil rights violations.

The armed locals said they began guarding the Oklahoma shop after owners claimed they received death threats over the sign. “The way they were holding their weapons, with the fingers on the triggers, you can tell a couple of these gentlemen have no idea about weapons safety. It’s like the Clampetts have come to town,” Muskogee County Sheriff Charles Pearson told the online news outlet muskogeenow.com, comparing the armed men to the family in the TV series “The Beverly Hillbillies.”

U.N. peacekeepers accused of rapes

UNITED NATIONS – Three young females, including a minor, have accused United Nations peacekeepers of raping them in the Central African Republic, the U.N. announced Wednesday, just a week after the world body’s chief removed the head of the peacekeeping mission there over the handling of a series of similar allegations.

The U.N. said the alleged rapes occurred in the city of Bambari, where peacekeepers from the Congo are stationed.

Congo’s U.N. ambassador, Ignace Gata Mavita wa Lufuta, told the Associated Press three members of Congo’s military have been accused and that he had just met with U.N. peacekeeping officials about looking into the allegations. He didn’t address the allegations but said it’s “not normal” that vulnerable people would be victims of those meant to protect them.

A spokeswoman for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Vannina Maestracci, told reporters that families of the three young females made the allegations Aug. 12 and the alleged rapes occurred in “recent weeks.”

A statement from the peacekeeping mission, issued Wednesday, said U.N. headquarters was “immediately informed” of the allegations and that it was collecting “all available evidence.”

Congo’s troops serve in no other U.N. peacekeeping missions, and its nearly 900 troops were accepted into the mission in Central African Republic at a time when few countries were volunteering people to serve in the chaotic country, which has been ripped by unprecedented violence between Christians and Muslims.