A pregnant San Francisco area woman was killed by one of her pit bulls, her mauled body found by her husband, police said on Friday.

The 32-year-old woman was pronounced dead on Thursday afternoon at the couple's home in the seaside village of Pacifica, south of San Francisco, Pacifica Police Capt. Dave Bertini said.

Authorities withheld the names of the victim and her husband.

Bertini said the woman's husband told police he came home from work at around noon on Thursday to find one of the couple's pit bulls standing, bloodied, over his wife's mauled body.

First responders to the scene found the woman unresponsive in a front room of the home with massive trauma to her upper body, Bertini said.

A second pit bull was found cowering in the corner.

A brazen, gangland-style shooting with a machine gun in a bustling tourist area on Sunday afternoon has apparently killed a member of one of British Columbia's most notorious families.

Jonathan Bacon, the eldest of three brothers at the centre of a bloody and long-standing gang war, died of injuries suffered when at least one masked gunman sprayed a car with bullets in downtown Kelowna, according to Vancouver radio station News 1130 and other media outlets.

Five other people in the SUV at the time were rushed to hospital after the drive-by outside the luxury hotel at about 2:45 p.m. PT, according to the B.C. Ambulance Service.

RCMP say the chaos began just after a group of people, including women, were seen leaving the Delta Grand hotel and getting into a white Porsche SUV.

As the vehicle prepared to leave, a silvery-green SUV drove up and stopped behind. At least one person emerged and opened fire.

Police spokesman Const. Steve Holmes told reporters this kind of incident is rare in Kelowna.

The United States has apologised for controversial remarks made by a US diplomat who spoke of "dark and dirty" Indians, calling the comments "inappropriate".

US Vice-Consul Maureen Chao told Indian students on Friday that her "skin became dirty and dark like the Tamilians" after a long train journey, according to Indian media -- referring to people from the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

During her speech in the Tamil Nadu capital, Chennai, Chao was quoted as saying: "I was on a 24-hour train trip from Delhi to (the eastern Indian state of) Orissa.

"But, after 72 hours, the train still did not reach the destination... and my skin became dirty and dark like the Tamilians."

Following her speech, the US Consulate in Chennai on Saturday issued a "statement of apology".

"During the speech Ms. Chao made an inappropriate comment. Ms. Chao deeply regrets if her unfortunate remarks offended anyone, as that was certainly not her intent," the US Consulate said on its website.

The American diplomat was describing "positive memories from her own study experiences in India 23 years ago," the US consulate said.

A man in custody in Winnipeg is accused of attacking two women with a hammer in an attempt to steal their beer.

The women, aged 18 and 39, were injured in the upper body and were taken to hospital for medical treatment.

According to the Winnipeg Police Service, officers were on patrol near Dufferin Avenue and King Street around 2:15 a.m. CT on Friday when they heard screams.

A 32-year-old Calgary man has been charged with attempted murder after having allegedly slashed his infant son several times Saturday morning.

Police responded to home in the 1000 block of Cranston Drive SE at approximately 4:15 a.m. MT following a 911 call.

There, officers found the seriously injured six-month-old and a man they described as "agitated."

The child was in critical condition and was transported by ambulance to Calgary's Children's Hospital. The young boy's condition was later upgraded to stable. Police said on Sunday that he is expected to make a full recovery.

You'd have to be crazy to hook up with an abuser, right? That's what I thought, but after working on our relationship violence story for six months, I was shocked by how smart and cool the women who get fooled are. The thing is, these guys are super charmers, pulling off Oscar-worthy performances of Mr. Dream Dude - at least while they're wooing you. And then, when they've got you madly in love with them, ka-bang, their violent true colors start showing.

The good news: there are definite danger sings a guy is an abuser before he ever raises a fist - and they start with you just having a funny feeling in your pit of your stomach. Because possessiveness and control are major red flags, Cindy Southworth, a VP at the National Network to End Domestic Violence, suggests this little test: "Break a date at the beginning when he's all hot and heavy, and tell him your girlfriend needs you. If he says, 'I'm disappointed but I understand,' great. But if it's, 'I can't bear to be apart,' or he makes you feel guilty, puts your friend down, or gets angry, these are not good signs!"

Amnesty International has called on prison authorities at the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary to reconsider draconian sanctions against imprisoned American Indian Movement activist Leonard Peltier and to improve conditions for Peltier and other inmates held in isolation at the facility.

In an August 3 statement, the human rights organization said it "urged Warden Bledsoe to review Peltier's confinement to isolation, and to ensure that he has an opportunity to fairly contest any charges against him. It has also urged him not to confine Peltier in conditions which may be detrimental to his health, and to give him access to appropriate medical treatment he may need."

Peltier has been held in solitary confinement under oppressively hot conditions since June 27 for minor prison disciplinary violations his attorney maintains he did not commit.

The Norwegian man who confessed to killing 69 people at an island youth camp has reconstructed his actions for police back at the crime scene.

Police took Anders Behring Breivik back to the island of Utoya on Saturday for a hearing about the July 22 terror attacks.

He shot the victims dead on the lake island near Oslo after killing another eight people in the capital with a bomb.

The 32-year-old described the killings in close detail during an eight-hour tour on the island, prosecutor Paal-Fredrik Hjort Kraby told a news conference in Oslo.

Motorist Robert Gould is lucky to be alive after a startled cow leapt over a three-foot fence and landed on his car.

The frightened Friesian has written off Robert's Citroen C5 after denting the bonnet and breaking a wheel after bounding onto the busy road.

Stunned police later breath-tested Robert after he called 999 to report the collision.

It is understood the cow which died at the scene had been trying to escape from a farmer when it jumped into the road on the outskirts of Leek, Staffs.

Robert escaped with cuts and bruises despite skidding almost 80 yards and ending up on the wrong side of the road as he tried to stop.

The 24-year-old said: "I am now looking out for low-flying cows when I am driving ."

He "threatened me," "strangled me with a PlayStation cord," "lunged at me with a pocketknife." A horror movie? No, real life for far too many young women, an exclusive new Glamour survey reveals. Why is relationship violence still so frighteningly common in 2011? And how can we help? The answer starts with two simple words: Tell Somebody.

Not long before sunrise on a Midwestern Friday, college student and part-time waitress Alexandra Briggs sat in her one-bedroom apartment, meticulously applying thick makeup all over her face, neck and arms. It took two coats to cover her boyfriend's teeth marks and the cigarette burns he'd inflicted, along with her newly purpling bruises; her pants hid the spot on her thigh where he'd stabbed her with a fork. When she finished, he drove her to the Original Pancake House for her 7:00 a.m. shift. "I'm sick," she told her boss as she clocked in and headed to the restroom.

Briggs, a freckled, blue-eyed Beatles fan who was studying criminal justice, had first chatted with Matthew Hubbard over Instant Messenger five months earlier. After their first date, she hadn't been interested, but when Hubbard, a fellow student, begged her to give him a chance, she did.

By that morning, she was barely a whisper of herself. As Hubbard would later admit in court, before Briggs had gone to work he'd hit her repeatedly with a small bat and strangled her until she slumped, unconscious -- typical of the violence that had started a month into the relationship. "He had me in a choke hold against the wall, saying, 'I'm going to kill you. No one will find your body; no one cares about you,'" Briggs, now 26, recalls. Dazed, she had agreed to Hubbard's order to go to work, fake the stomach flu and return home with him. She was huddled over the toilet when her manager, Shea Duymovic, pushed her way into the stall and sat on the floor. "Look at me," Duymovic said, her face next to Briggs'. "I know what he's doing to you. And I can't stand to see this happen anymore."

A moment passed. When Briggs finally turned, she saw her boss's eyes filled with tears. She remembers thinking one simple thought: Someone cares? Overwhelmed, she began to sob. "Do you want me to call your parents?" Duymovic asked gently. Briggs could only nod.