NATION IN BRIEF : MISSISSIPPI : Man Rapes Teachers in Front of 19 Pupils

A man shot his wife and raped two teachers in front of 19 children in a kindergarten classroom in Natchez, Miss., while holding police at bay with a pistol, authorities said. Officers from the Natchez Police Department and Adams County Sheriff’s Department stormed the classroom after an instructor grabbed the .38-caliber revolver from the assailant, Assistant Police Chief George Rutherford said. Rutherford said Police Chief Eddie Jones had talked to Larry Bates, 35, on the school’s intercom system and “distracted him long enough for one of the teachers to grab the weapon.” The man’s wife, Adria Bates, 40, a teacher aide at the school, suffered gunshot wounds to the scalp and back. She was listed in stable condition at Jefferson Davis Memorial Hospital.