Free Republic

Arms cache blast under warlord's home kills 28 By Tom Coghlan in Kabul (Filed: 03/05/2005) An illegal arms dump exploded yesterday beneath the home of an Afghan warlord, killing at least 28 people. Officials said the explosion devastated a village in Baghlan province, 75 miles north of Kabul. The cause of the blast was unclear. The warlord, named as Jalal Bashgah, was not at his home at the time of the explosion, though eight members of his family were killed or injured. The blast injured more than 70 people and the number of dead was expected to rise. The Interior...

Albuquerque police say the suspect in an attempted robbery Friday morning turned up at the University of New Mexico Hospital without his thumb. Stephen Tillet, 19, is suspected in the attempted robbery. He is at the UNM Hospital undergoing treatment for his thumb injury. When he is released, according to APD spokesperson Trish Ahrensfield, he will be charged with armed robbery, tampering with evidence and aggravated battery. Police say the 61-year-old was leaving Discount Tools at Zuni and Valencia. As he approached his truck, police say the suspect approached the man with a handgun. But, according to APD, the suspect...

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Seattle police launched an investigation on Friday to determine how a patient undergoing emergency heart surgery caught on fire at a local hospital in 2003. The male patient, who was not identified, went up in flames after alcohol poured on his skin was ignited by a surgical instrument. The patient died after the surgery but that was due to heart failure and not the fire, said Dr. Robert Caplan, medical quality director of Virginia Mason. Caplan said fires are known to occur in operating rooms although they were extremely rare. The two-year-old incident became publicly known after...

CENTER TOWNSHIP | Kenneth Nailleux wasn't happy when he opened a mail package and saw what looked and smelled just like a pile of human excrement. Nailleux called Porter County police on Friday to report that the "Fecalgram" he received may be related to the harassment he's experienced recently in the neighborhood. Nailleux, of Wild Rose Court, told police he was involved in the shooting of a cat belonging to his neighbor, Cresley Walker, of Hackney Lane. He told police he has never denied his actions, saying he's had problems with cats attacking the birds that use his feeders. Since...

PLEASANT GROVE — Scott and Lori Connors' family room looks like it was bombed. There are random holes in the walls, gashes in the fabric of the couch and chair. There's broken glass everywhere and a sheet of plywood where the window used to be. Outside, a shed is in tatters, and there's a boulder-size crater in the lawn. Upstairs, there are pieces of shrapnel imbedded in the bathroom wall. A large mirror has what looks like bullet holes in the glass. It looks like it was bombed — because it was.

Kathleen Wilson lay on the kitchen floor of her Fairfield home for nearly two years after she died, her son and husband stepping around the remains as they prepared meals and went on with daily life. Fairfield police discovered the corpse and arrested the woman's son, Jack Wilson, 58, Friday afternoon on suspicion of elder abuse. A concerned neighbor had reported not seeing the woman in about a year. Wilson told police his mother had fallen in the kitchen sometime in mid-2003 and had remained there ever since, said Fairfield police Sgt. Mike Johnstone. "He says he left her in...

Burning Cow Dung Starts Colorado Wildfire 27 minutes ago Strange News - AP LONGMONT, Colo. - Authorities are investigating whether Forest Service workers can be charged with arson for a 900-acre wildfire that was ignited after gusty winds carried flaming cow dung outside a controlled burn site. Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck said he received several complaints from farmers and ranchers in the Pawnee National Grassland area, where the Forest Service was conducting a controlled burn of prairie weeds March 11. Callers complained the fire shouldn't have been set because of high winds, and that the fire endangered farm...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. In what police characterized as a one-of-a-kind case, a Las Vegas resident arrived home Monday morning to find a stranger dead in his house. The 31-year-old victim was discovered in the bathroom with a gunshot wound to his head, said Las Vegas police Sgt. Rocky Alby. "It's rare for someone to come home and find an unknown dead person in their home," Alby said. "This is a very unusual call. We just have to see if we can piece it together." The homeowner, whom police did not identify, left his house...

INDIANAPOLIS - A federal grand jury indicted an Indianapolis man on charges he auctioned vintage muscle cars that he did not own on eBay and then had partners rob would-be buyers at gunpoint when they came to pick up the vehicles. Dewan A. Horne, 24, spent Wednesday night in the Marion County Jail, where he was being held for U.S. marshals. The alleged accomplices were still at large, U.S. Attorney Susan Brooks said in a news release Wednesday. The indictment alleges that Horne would direct out-of-state buyers to a garage on the east side of Indianapolis, where two masked gunmen...

Police Reports Woman Becomes Upset Trying To Take Back A Television At Best Buy Date: 05/11/2003 Time: 6:45 pm Location: 9521 Viscount (Best Buy) Arrested: Narcissa Barnhill, 45 years of age, 1600 block of N. Lee Trevino Charge/Bond: Aggravated Assault With A Deadly Weapon/ $3,500 dollar bond At 6:40 p.m. officers from the Pebble Hills Regional Command were dispatched to 9521 Viscount at the Best Buy on a Arson in Progress. Upon arrival the officers learned from witnesses that Narcissa Barnhill had small glass bottles filled with gasoline which she ignited and threw at the business. From the invstigation it...