Free Republic

BATON ROUGE -- St. Helena Parish Sheriff Ronald 'Gun' Ficklin, already indicted in a chop shop scheme, is facing new charges accusing him of defrauding the state Department of Public Safety and Corrections of more than $140,000.

A volcano has erupted and is spewing lava onto an island in India's Andaman and Nicobar chain that was devastated by last week's earthquake. But officials say there is no cause for alarm, as the lava from the volcano on the uninhabited Barren Islands will flow into the sea. The volcano has erupted three times in the last decade. More than 800 people are known to have died in the tremor and tsunami on the islands, with thousands still missing. Residents of Diglipur, a village on an island near the Barrens, reported seeing smoke and fumes rising from the volcano...