Free Republic

DEVELOPING: Police say they have arrested a 62-year-old Alabama man for allegedly poisoning trees at a historic site on Auburn University's campus, where fans have long celebrated big wins and hundreds gathered after the Tigers won the football national championship on Jan. 10. The Auburn Police Division said Thursday that Harvey A. Updyke, of Dadeville, Ala., was arrested and charged with first degree criminal mischief. Police allege Updyke deliberately poisoned oak trees at Toomer's Corner with a commonly used herbicide, applied in "lethal amounts" to the soil around the two trees. The 130-year-old trees likely cannot be saved, officials said.

LONDON, Nov. 29 — The case of the poisoned former K.G.B. agent took a bizarre twist when British Airways said that traces of radiation had been detected Wednesday on jets that flew between London and Moscow, establishing a possible Russian link and indicating that more than 30,000 people might have been exposed to the radiation. The airline said tests had found “very low traces” of radioactivity so far on two of three Boeing 767s, which were singled out because the police suspected that passengers included people linked to the investigation. At least one of the planes flew between London and...