By wire sources
Official: Dog starts Wash. house fire
VANCOUVER, Wash. — Fire investigators say a dog inadvertently turned on a stove and started a fire that destroyed a house in Vancouver, Wash., early Saturday.
Capt. David James told the Columbian newspaper reports that investigators believe the dog jumped up looking for food on the stove and turned the stove on, causing items on the stove to catch fire.
Firefighters arrived just before 1 a.m. to find heavy smoke and fire coming from the one-story home. James says the blaze damaged most of the house and its contents. The dog did not survive.
James said the renter had left the dog alone in the house for the first time.
Judge allows ‘Sister Wives’ suit to proceed
SALT LAKE CITY — A federal judge has ruled there’s sufficient evidence to allow a polygamous family made famous by a reality TV show to pursue a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Utah’s bigamy law.
U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups on Friday dismissed Utah’s governor and attorney general from the case, but allowed the suit to proceed against Utah County Attorney Jeffrey Buhman, the Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune report.
Buhman threatened to prosecute Kody Brown and his four wives — Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robyn — after the TLC show “Sister Wives” debuted in September 2010, but his office has not filed charges.
The family sued Buhman, Gov. Gary Herbert and Attorney General Mark Shurtleff in July 2011, claiming Utah’s bigamy statute violates its constitutional rights to due process, equal protection, free exercise of religion, free speech and freedom of association.
Waddoups, in his 21-page ruling, wrote he dismissed Herbert and Shurtleff from the case because Shurtleff assured the Browns they wouldn’t be prosecuted. Shurtleff has a policy of not prosecuting consenting adult polygamists as long as they’re not committing other crimes.
But the judge wrote Buhman conducted interviews with the news media that made it clear he intended to investigate and prosecute the Browns. The fact no charges have been filed does not matter, he added.
Indigenous protesters block Pan-American Highway in Panama
PANAMA CITY, Panama — A group of indigenous protesters has blockaded the Pan-American Highway in Panama for days to protest the recent approval of mines and reservoirs in their region.
Some 5,000 members of the country’s largest indigenous Ngobe-Bugle group have blocked the only highway into neighboring Costa Rica since late January after the Panamanian government approved the projects in their home province in the western part of the Central American country.
Hundreds of trucks are stuck in about a half-mile-long traffic jam on the border and stranded tourists had to be rescued by authorities. Local media have reported the protest is resulting in supply shortages.
573 deaths certified as nuclear-crisis-related in Japan
TOKYO — A total of 573 deaths in Japan have been certified as “disaster-related” by 13 municipalities affected by the crisis at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, according to a Yomiuri Shimbun survey.
This number could rise because certification for 29 people remains pending while further checks are conducted.
The 13 municipalities are three cities — Minami-Soma, Tamura and Iwaki — eight towns and villages in Futaba County — Namie, Futaba, Okuma, Tomioka, Naraha, Hirono, Katsurao and Kawauchi — and Kawamata and Iitate, all in Fukushima Prefecture.
The municipalities are in the no-entry, emergency evacuation preparation or expanded evacuation zones around the nuclear plant, which suffered meltdowns soon after the March 11 disaster.
A disaster-related death certificate is issued when a death is not directly caused by a tragedy, but by fatigue or the aggravation of a chronic disease because of the disaster.
By wire sources