AlexHolm

The Star Tribune reported Saturday that the families of three missing Somali men fear they may have returned to Somalia to fight in a war.
Two of the men, Abdisalam Ali, 19, and Mohamoud Hassan, 18, are students of the University of Minnesota, and the other, Burhan Hassan, 17, is a senior at Roosevelt High School.
They have been missing since Nov. 4.
The families urge other families with missing children to come forward and speak with authorities.
Rumors say that some Somali men, ages 17 to 20, that have gone missing have been recruited to fight in Somalia.
Some say that there is doubt to these rumors.
Police say that men from other U.S. cities have recently returned to Somalia as well.
Family members say that they have received calls from their missing loved ones saying that they are safe somewhere in Somalia.

Posted by holm0629 at 10:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday that a California man drove across the country and shot his estranged wife, killing her.
27-year-old Joseph M. Pallipurath confronted his wife, 24-year-old Reshma James at the St. Thomas Syrian Orthodox Knanaya Church in Clifton, New Jersey at the end of the service.
A witness said she saw the confrontation and went to get help when she heard gun shots.
Police said Pallipurath fatally shot his wife and also shot two others in the head.
The other two victims are reported to be in critical condition.
Police Detective Capt. Robert Rowan said James had come to New Jersey to escape her abusive marriage to Pallipurath, and had filed a restraining order against him.

Posted by holm0629 at 4:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The New York Times reported Sunday that pirates seized a cargo ship with 23 crew members off the coast of Somalia.
This is only one of the 5 reported attacks that have occurred off that same coast within the past week.
These attackers are trained fighters and can be heavily armed.
The attack occurred Saturday night.
There is not yet any information about what kind of ransom they are demanding.
Officials are working to safely return the hostages.
Pirates released 18 hostages after being paid a ransom earlier this week.

Posted by holm0629 at 3:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday that a false fire alarm caused the death of 20 people aboard a Russian submarine late Saturday.
Deadly fire-extinguishing gases were emitted, and there were a large number of civilians aboard the submarine that were not prepared to handle such an emergency.
There was such a large number of civilians because the submarine was being tested, and many experts were on board.
17 of the deaths were civilian.
Officials said that their unpreparedness contributed to the number of deaths, and everyone should have known how to handle the situation.
Some of the crew may have already been sleeping when the alarm sounded.
The other people would have panicked when the doors to their rooms locked automatically and the gases were emitted.
This was the worst incident involving a Russian submarine in 2000, in which 118 people died due to a torpedo.

Posted by holm0629 at 4:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Star Tribune reported Friday that a second lawsuit was filed Friday that states that a friend of Sen. Norm Coleman used a marine company in Texas to pay $75,000 to the company where Coleman's wife,Laurie, works.
The Franken campaign denies having any connection to the suit.
Coleman's campaign manager said the claims were false and were being used to try to influence the election.
He also said the Star Tribune is contributing to hurting the Senator's reputation by reporting on the suit.
Paul McKim, founder of Deep Marine Technology Inc. of Houston, filed the first lawsuit against Coleman.
McKim said he does not know Coleman, and that maybe he is a good man getting tangled up in this mess.
He also said that it is possible that no money ever reached the Colemans.
Bruce Gilman, chairman and interim CEO of Deep Marine, that the company is conducting its own investigation.
Laurie Coleman's company defended her by saying the allegations were outrageous.

Posted by holm0629 at 11:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Chicago Tribune reported Sunday that an Arkansas anchorwoman died in the hospital after being beaten in her home.
Anne Pressly, 26, was severely beaten around her head and neck, and was not able to communicate before she died.
Doctors were encouraged that her vital signs were stable and that the swelling in her brain had gone down, despite her critical condtion.
Pressly died the next day.
Police do not have any suspects and believe that she was the victim of a random attack.
They also found evidence that her credit card was used at a gas station near her home.
Pressly was found Monday morning after she did not respond to a regular wake-up call.
She was supposed to appear on KATV's morning news show that morning.
KATV has set up a reward fund to try to catch the killer and it has reached $30,000.

Posted by holm0629 at 5:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday that phishing may become an even bigger problem due to the current economic crisis.
Investigators have seen a rise in the amount of phishing scams lately, which encourage people to give out personal information which can lead to identity theft.
Dave Marcus, director of security research at McAfee Inc., said that scammers will take advantage of the banking crisis. He also said that they see general patterns when there is an economic crisis in regards to scams.
Scammers have recently sent out e-mails regarding the merger between Wachovia and Citibank, which never happened.
Wachovia put out a warning on its site encouraging customers never to give out personal information via e-mail.
Scammers usually try to make their e-mails look official and urgent, to get a response from victims, and can sometimes be very convincing.

Posted by holm0629 at 9:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday that a wildfire broke out earlier in the da and destroyed two homes and three motor homes.
Residents of 450 homes were ordered to evacuate.
No injuries have been reported, but several other buildings were destroyed.
Firefighters said that they have a "good handle" on the fire and are trying to extinguish it by nightfall because the wind could spark new fires.
The evacuees are taking shelter in an area high school.
Witnesses said they could see large flames close to their homes.
About 1,000 people were called out to try to put out the fire, and many will remain on duty through the night.
Airplanes and helicopters are trying to help put out the fire by dropping water on it from the air.

Posted by holm0629 at 3:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Star Tribune reported that Sarah Palin made a comment about Barack Obama "paling around" with a terrorist.
Palin says that Obama's association with Bill Ayers, founder of Weather Underground group during the 1960s, is a relevant issue.
Obama has said that he does not support the radical views of Ayer and thinks that Palin is just trying to distract voters from the real issues, such as the current economy.
Palin mentioned the issue at three different events on Saturday. She also said that Obama began his political career in "the living room" of Ayer.
She also cited an event that Ayer held for Obama in his home when Obama ran for office in the 1990s.
Obama and Ayer live near each other in Chicago, and support one of the same charities, yet there is no evidence that they "pal around."
Obama and Ayers were obviously not associated when the terrorist acts were being committed; he would have only been 8-years-old.

Posted by holm0629 at 10:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Los Angeles Times reported that several bombs exploded in Baghdad Sunday killing 31 people and wounded dozens of others.
Christians also protested on Sunday against a bill that does not guarantee minority seats on provincial councils, which shows the amount of tension that still exists in Iraq.
The bombs exploded around sunset which is the time when many people crowd the marketplace to buy food for the break in their Ramadan fast.
Victims of the attacks said that they were surprised that the attackers were able to enter the marketplace, because there is heavy security protecting it.
Bombs exploded at several locations, leaving many dead and wounded.
One of the bombs was said to be worn as a vest by a suicide bomber, and another was said to be a car bomb.
Authorities said that damage could have been much worse because they found a vest of explosives that must have been ditched by another suicide bomber.
There are also other issues arising due to the pressure for the United States to withdraw its troops, which would leave Iraqi police with even more responsibility to protect their civilians.

Posted by holm0629 at 3:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The New York Times reported that a train crash on Friday evening killed at least 18 people when a freight train collided with a rush-hour commuter train.
Many other people were critically injured, and this accident may be the deadliest accident involving Southern California commuter trains.
The crash occurred in the Chatsworth area, which is just north of Los Angeles.
Firefighters used cranes and ladders to try to extract passengers from thewreckage, many of whom were either dead or critically injured with twisted or snapped off limbs or severe bleeding.
So far, the cause of the crash has not yet been determined, but the investigation continues.
Many family members crowded the area, which was a scene of complete destruction, trying to find information on their loved ones.
Bystanders from a nearby elementary school rushed to help with the rescue efforts.
The BBC reported that there are fears that the death toll may rise and that Los Angeles City Fire Captain, John Virant, described the scene as "total destruction".
The previous deadliest crash in Southern California occurred in 2005, in which 11 people were killed.

Posted by holm0629 at 4:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Star Tribune reported that police arrested a man on the suspicion that he may have killed his girlfriend on Friday, who they originally thought had died because of a motorcycle accident.
The Andover woman was originally thought to have died from injuries she sustained in a motorcycle accident, but police found new injuries that are not consistent with that theory.
She was a 28-year old mother of a 4-year-old child.
They are not releasing the details of those injuries right now.
Now the father of her 4-year-old child is under suspicion for killing her.
The victim's father said that he thinks the culprit is someone who threatened to kill her over a potential lawsuit, not her boyfriend.
Neighbors have a different view of the relationship, which they described as tense. Though they never suspected violence.

Posted by holm0629 at 4:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)