400 attend roller rink shooting victims' funeral (AP)

BARLING, Ark. – Four siblings killed in a shooting rampage at a Texas roller rink were remembered Saturday as a part of a tight-knit family, even as the hundreds gathered in an Arkansas church to mourn them tried to make sense of the tragedy.

More than 400 people attended a service for Trini Do, 29, her sisters, Lynn Ta, 16, and Michelle Ta, 28, and her brother, Hien Ta, 21. Trini Do's estranged husband, Tan Do, 35, shot her and her siblings during a birthday party for their 11-year-old son and then killed himself.

Police in Grand Prairie, Texas, have said they believe the shooting was planned and followed years of domestic violence. Trini Do received a protective order in December against her husband, but she had it withdrawn earlier this year against a prosecutor's advice and wanted to give him another chance, an aunt has said.

The fifth victim in the shooting rampage, Thuy Nguyen, 25, was Trini Do's sister-in-law. She will be buried in Vietnam.

Four others were wounded in the rampage, but police said their injuries were not life-threatening.

The siblings' deaths have shaken the immigrant community in western Arkansas, where more than 1,300 Vietnamese live in the Fort Smith area. Trini Do and her siblings moved to Fort Smith from Vietnam in 1994.

Their friends and relatives gathered Saturday in the Sacred Heart of Mary Church in nearby Barling. A choir performed a hymn in Vietnamese entitled "Coming Home" as the caskets were escorted into the auditorium. Children carried framed photos of the dead, and a procession of relatives followed. Many youth tied white strips of cloth around their foreheads as a sign of respect.

The Rev. Peter Quang Le, in a homily delivered primarily in Vietnamese, described how many were still in disbelief after the shootings, even after seeing the bodies of the dead.

"We cannot understand it," he said.

Le asked the audience not to be angry or seek revenge, but to pray for the victims and their family.

"The psychological wounds because of violence in the minds of (the Ta) family will endure all their lives," he said.

Everyone in the auditorium stood, raised their right hand and turned toward Le as he touched the chest of Hoi Ta, the siblings' father, and prayed. Ta stood in silence, his arms crossed and his shirt sleeves rolled.

When the caskets were opened at the end of the service, Hoi Ta led a long line of mourners to the bodies. He leaned into the faces of his children and whispered a few quiet words to each.

Trini Do's aunt, Janice Tran, and other relatives remembered her as a good-natured person who worked two jobs and loved to travel.

"When you talked to her, you know what kind of person (she was)," Tran said.

Relatives remembered Lynn Ta, who attended a Fort Smith high school, for her smile and passion for taking photos with her friends. Michelle Ta loved to shop and cook, they said. Hien Ta was an avid swimmer and basketball player.

The siblings were among about 30 friends and family who attended the private party at the rented roller rink. A DJ at the rink told The Associated Press that guests had just finished singing "Happy Birthday" to the couple's son when Tan Do spoke to him briefly, then pulled out a gun and shot Trini Do and her relatives.

One of Trini Do's four surviving siblings was wounded in the rampage and remains hospitalized, Tran said. Trini and Tran Do's son and his 3-year-old sister were not injured in the shootings and have been in the care of other relatives. Tran said they were at the funeral.

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Accused Ohio serial killer, in video, admits sex with victims (Reuters)

CLEVELAND (Reuters) – Jurors in the capital murder trial of accused Ohio serial killer Anthony Sowell watched on Friday as he admitted in a videotaped interrogation to having sex with six women whose remains were found on his property.

In the video, jurors see a Sowell who is at times talkative and animated when discussing his house or relationship with ex-girlfriend Lori Frazier, but who sometimes appears agitated when the subject turns to the remains found in his home.

Sowell, 51, is on trial accused of murdering 11 women and assaulting four others, and could face the death penalty. The bodies of the women were found in and around his house after police raided his home in 2009 to arrest him for rape and assault.

Sowell, in video shown to jurors, never confesses to hurting or killing any of the women found at his house, although he does discuss meeting women and refers to dreams and fantasies as detectives ask him direct questions.

Sowell appears to concentrate as he tries to remember information about the women he met, what they were wearing, and their height and weight. He is seen rocking in his chair grabbing his head and repeating: "I don't remember."

At one point, two detectives show Sowell a diagram outlining where they found six bodies and asking him repeatedly which body was "his first" and which "the last".

"I don't remember actually killing anyone," Sowell says and tells the detectives he can't distinguish the women he dates from the six bodies that had been found by then by police.

"I was separated ... I see flashes," he says.

Throughout the interview, Sowell is asked if the women he describes meeting were "one of the six". Never does Sowell hint that there were more remains to be found on his property.

Sowell admits to having sex with "the six" women but when Smith says, "If we took DNA from you will we find it on them?" Sowell responds, "I don't want to do that."

Sowell talks about meeting women and bringing them to his house. But he never gives any details about what happened to them or how their remains came to be in his house. "Maybe all I did was strangle ... that's what I did," he says.

He says, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry" over and over again as the interrogation goes on late into the night and the detectives offer to give him time to think.

Sowell agrees with detectives that he should help give the families of the victims closure but appears to have problems distinguishing fact from fantasy.

"I'm telling you the best I can," he says.

At one point, Sowell seems to grasp what is going to happen to him, "My life is over," he tells detectives.

(Editing by James B. Kelleher and Cynthia Johnston)

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Kidnappers call US victims' kin: Philippine police (AFP)

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AFP) – Kidnappers have contacted the family of two US citizens abducted in the Philippines to make an "unbelievable" ransom demand, the Filipino official handling the hostage crisis said Saturday.

The official, Zamboanga city Mayor Celso Lobregat, said the identity of the gunmen and the situation of the hostages, who also included one Filipino relative, was still unknown despite the phonecall.

"Contact has been made to the husband in the United States. And the contact was that that there is a demand," Lobregat told reporters in this southern port, adding that the call was made on Thursday.

"The call was very short and it was cut off (presumably by the kidnappers)," he said, adding there was no word if any deadline was set.

He described the demand made as an "unbelievable amount", without giving further details.

Filipino police said gunmen snatched Gerfa Lunsmann, 50, her 14-year-old son, Kevin, and her Filipino teenage nephew on Tuesday at a nearby island resort.

The woman was born in the area but left in her childhood for adoption in the United States, where she later married a US-based German man, local police have said.

The resort is a mere 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the coast of Basilan island, a known stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, a small Islamic militant group blamed for previous abductions of foreigners, as well as deadly bombings.

Apart from the militants, the near-lawless region is also home to Muslim separatist guerrillas, bandits and pirates.

Kidnapping of locals and foreigners for ransom occurs with alarming frequency in the area.

Lobregat said the information about the ransom demand was relayed by the US government to Filipino police who are searching for the kidnappers and their hostages.

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US kidnap victim's book tops Amazon bestsellers (AFP)

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – A California woman's account of being kidnapped as a schoolgirl and repeatedly raped over 18 years in captivity went straight to the top of the Amazon bestseller list, the day it was published.

In "A Stolen Life" Jaycee Dugard, who was 11 when she was seized and kept in a back yard compound by Phillip and Nancy Garrido in 1991, describes how she gave birth to two daughters of her own -- and how that helped her survive.

The book pulls few punches, including chapters on the first "run," as she came to describe the times she was raped by Garrido, a convicted sex offender who was on parole at the time he and his wife seized Dugard.

Giving birth, alone in a backyard and aged 14, was the most painful experience of her life, she said ahead of the book's publication, describing her thoughts about when she first saw her baby daughter.

"She was beautiful. I felt like I wasn't alone anymore. (I) had somebody else who was mine... and I know I could never let anything happen to her. I didn't know how I was going to do that, but I did," she told ABC news.

Phillip Garrido was given a prison sentence of 431 years in June, while his wife was jailed for 36 years to life, after the pair agreed a plea bargain over the crimes which shocked America and the world.

Dugard, 31, describes the moment she was kidnapped, while walking to school from her home in South Lake Tahoe, California on June 10, 1991 as "like the most horrible moment of your life times ten."

She recalled her rescue in August 2009 -- when Garrido took her and her two daughters with him to a parole meeting, and Dugard initially maintained the fiction that she was the Garridos' daughter.

But parole officers were suspicious, and she eventually confirmed her identity by writing down her real name -- an act she likened to re-igniting a flame which had been extinguished.

"The light came back ... it was very dark for so long ... but that light finally came back on," she said.

The California case led to angry questions about how Garrido had been free to kidnap Dugard, even though he was on parole and subject to tight monitoring by authorities.

Since being freed, Dugard has been living at a secret location with her family, including her two daughters by Garrido. California has paid Dugard $20 million in compensation for her suffering.

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US kidnap victim's mother rails at 'monsters' (AFP)

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – The mother of Jaycee Dugard, who was kidnapped as a child and repeatedly raped over 18 years, has lashed out at the couple who held her daughter, calling them evil "monsters."

In a statement released as California couple Phillip and Nancy Garrido were jailed for life over the abduction and sexual abuse of Dugard, Terry Probyn recalled how her perfect daughter was ripped from her at the age of 11 in 1991.

"I protected her innocence and her purity. She was sweet and kindhearted, a gentle, quiet, compassionate soul. Together forever, bonded for life," she said, describing her eldest daughter's birth and early life.

"Then on June, 10th, 1991 my world went dark. My sunshine was taken away. I asked God, 'What did I do wrong? Why am I being punished? How could anyone with a heart or a conscience... take an innocent child away from its mother?

"For 18 excruciating years, I endured a huge gaping hole in my heart that some evil being had put their hand into and had ripped out. For 18 agonizing years, I guarded what little I had left and lived in hell on this earth."

Damning the couple, who were jailed for 431 years and 36 years, she added: "It was you, Nancy Garrido, and you Phillip Garrido, that broke my heart. You took something that didn't belong to you. You hurt my baby.

"I hate you both for the torment and anguish you put my daughter, myself, and my family through. I am nauseous at the thought of the sexual exploitation and the brutal abuse she endured at your uncaring hand," she continued.

"I am sickened by the reality that she had to suffer your cruel and heartless imprisonment for so long. You are the epitome of disgust, and no amount of jail time or even death will cleanse your corrupt souls."

She added: "You do not deserve to live or die or even exist. Your mother did not give you life to destroy others' lives, and I can guarantee that she would be ashamed to know she bore evil."

"You are nothing, other than selfish, self-serving, self-gratifying monsters. What you have done... is unforgivable and the only satisfaction for me is that I know you will never lay eyes on my daughter again," concluded Probyn.

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