Los Angeles: Surgery to separate conjoined twin started

Doctors began operating on 1-year-old twin sisters joined at the head Monday in a long, risky procedure to separate the blood vessels and bone they share.

The surgery on Maria Teresa and Maria de Jesus Quiej-Alvarez began Monday afternoon. It could take up to 24 hours to complete.

By Monday night, neurosurgeons had removed a strip of bone exposing the brain and the veins of both girls, according to a hospital statement. The next and riskiest step was separating the veins that connect the girls’ heads to each other.

Chicago: Van crash victim dies

A woman struck by a van last week in an incident that ended with the beating deaths of two men inside the vehicle died Monday.

Shauna Lawrence, 26, was sitting on a porch when the van hurtled the curb and struck her and two others last week, authorities said. The other women survived.

The driver, Jack Moore, 62, and his passenger, Anthony Stuckey, 49, were attacked and killed by a mob in apparent retribution for the crash. Seven men have been charged with first-degree murder in the case.

Vatican City: 7 ‘priests’ excommunicated

The Vatican has excommunicated seven women who claim to be priests and refuse to repent, saying Monday that the group had “wounded” the Roman Catholic Church.

The women from Austria, Germany and the United States participated in an ordination ceremony June 29 carried out by Romulo Braschi, an Argentine who calls himself an archbishop but whom the Vatican rejects. The Church’s guardian of orthodoxy, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, set a July 22 deadline for the women to reverse their claims.

Pakistan: Gunmen kill 6 at school

Masked gunmen burst through the front gates of a Christian school Monday in Murree, killing six people and wounding three in the latest attack against Western interests since Pakistan joined the war against terrorism.

None of the 150 students, including 30 Americans, or the mostly British staff was hurt in the attack.

All the dead were Pakistanis.

Also Monday, the United States closed its consulate in Karachi after local authorities reopened a street in front of the building that the Americans deemed a security risk. The road was the site of a June 14 car-bombing outside the U.S. Consulate that killed 12, all Pakistanis.