Seven people were found shot dead in an abandoned house in the run-down Mantua district of

Seven people were found shot dead in an abandoned house in the run-down Mantua district of western Philadelphia on Thursday night in what were believed to be drugrelated murders. Three other people were wounded, one critically. Philadelphia police said the killings were the worst in the city's recent history. Four masked gunmen reportedly burst into the house on Thursday evening, firing as they went. Six men were killed on the spot; a woman died later in hospital. A police hunt was on for the four gunmen who escaped from the scene.Police and neighbours said that the house had recently been used for drug-trading. The deputy police commissioner, Sylvester Johnson, confirmed that two of the victims had been selling drugs and a small amount of crack cocaine had been found in the house.The slaughter came two days after the mass shooting at an internet company in Massachusetts in which seven people were killed, apparently by an aggrieved colleague.But while the Massachusetts killings prompted new calls for curbs on gun ownership, the Philadelphia deaths, in a part of the city where shootings and drug crimes are endemic, attracted little shock outside the immediate area where drug-dealing continues to be a fact of life, despite successive get-tough campaigns by police..

George W Bush has announced four more nominations to his Cabinet, leaving only three more senior posts to be filled before he is inaugurated on 20 January. The new nominations, which included the Secretaries of Education, Health, and the Interior, drew heavily on Mr Bush's experience as the Governor of Texas. George W Bush has announced four more nominations to his Cabinet, leaving only three more senior posts to be filled before he is inaugurated on 20 January. The new nominations, which included the Secretaries of Education, Health, and the Interior, drew heavily on Mr Bush's experience as the Governor of Texas. The education portfolio goes to the head of education in Houston, Rod Paige, who is acknowledged to be one of the most successful heads of a public school system in the United States.He is the third black appointee. Mr Bush made education a priority of his campaign and promised to oversee a publicly funded system, modelled on that in Texas, that would "leave no child behind". He claimed credit for higher test scores, especially among ethnic minority pupils, during his six years as state governor, but not everyone agreed the credit was deserved.Some said the improvements reflected policies pioneered by the state's majority Democrat legislature; others said that while scores had risen on paper, standards had fallen as tests became less demanding.As had been heavily canvassed, the key health and human services portfolio went to Tommy Thompson, the four-term Governor of Wisconsin, whose pioneering welfare reform programme became a model for federal reforms instituted by President Clinton backed by Congressional Republicans. Mr Thompson - one of three Republican governors of marginal states who failed to deliver the state to Mr Bush - was reported to have expressed a preference for the Department of Transportation.Mr Bush's other two appointments yesterday were Gale Norton - the fifth woman in his top line-up so far - to be Secretary for the Interior, and Anthony Principi to be Secretary for Veterans' Affairs.

Ms Norton is the former attorney general of Colorado, another state where cross-party co-operation has been essential, and where the state authorities have had to balance the demands of a growing environmental movement with those of industry and developers.. Palestinian leaders yesterday condemned Israel for tightening the siege on Arab communities in the West Bank and Gaza. The Israeli move came in response to two bombings by Islamist extremists on Thursday that killed two Israelis and wounded 16 others. Palestinian leaders yesterday condemned Israel for tightening the siege on Arab communities in the West Bank and Gaza.

The Israeli move came in response to two bombings by Islamist extremists on Thursday that killed two Israelis and wounded 16 others. Ziad Abu Ziad, a minister of state in Yasser Arafat's administration, told The Independent the renewed travel restrictions would make it harder for Palestinian negotiators to respond positively to American proposals aimed at ending the conflict."The closure is a harassment against our people," Mr Abu Zayad, a veteran advocate of Palestinian-Israeli reconciliation, said. "It makes the negotiators' job more difficult because our people are becoming more angry and frustrated. That can only make them hostile to compromise."Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestinian legislative council, said the closure would compound the popular rejection of the proposals offered by Israel and the US. "Those ideas," she insisted, "fall short of what the Palestinian people expect and fall short of United Nations resolutions."A Palestinian policeman was killed yesterday in a battle involving Israeli tank fire near the Erez crossing on the Israel-Gaza border, underscoring the fragility of US efforts to mediate a peace accord in the next three weeks.Palestinians said the policeman was killed by an Israeli tank shell fired in a gun battle that broke out after Israeli soldiers bulldozed trees near a Palestinian military post.The army says it does this to prevent gunmen from using the foliage for cover.A statement from the Israeli army said its soldiers fired one tank shell after they came under "massive gunfire" from Palestinian gunmen. The killing brought the death toll since the intifada erupted at the end of September to 322 Palestinians and 41 Israelis.