RAMALLAH, West Bank — The remains of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will be exhumed Tuesday as part of a renewed investigation into his death, a Palestinian investigator said Saturday.
Arafat’s remains
to be exhumed Tuesday
RAMALLAH, West Bank — The remains of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will be exhumed Tuesday as part of a renewed investigation into his death, a Palestinian investigator said Saturday.
Arafat died in November 2004 in a French military hospital, a month after suddenly falling ill. Palestinian officials claim he was poisoned by Israel, but have not presented evidence. Israel has denied such allegations.
Earlier this year, the detection of a lethal radioactive substance in biological traces on Arafat’s clothing sparked a new investigation. Tests were inconclusive, and experts said they need to check his remains to learn more.
Arafat will be reburied the same day with military honors, but the ceremony will be closed to the public, said Tawfik Tirawi, who heads the Palestinian team investigating the death. He did not specify when results would be announced but said the probe could take months.
1 of FBI’s most wanted fugitives arrested
LOS ANGELES — A man on the FBI’s 10 most wanted fugitive list after an alleged murder spree in Los Angeles was arrested this past week.
He is in Los Angeles Police Department custody and is expected to be arraigned this week on murder charges, said Laura Eimiller, an FBI spokeswoman.
Jose Luis Saenz, who is believed to have worked for a Mexican drug cartel, was arrested after a joint investigation by the FBI, LAPD and Mexican authorities, Eimiller said.
Authorities believe that Saenz, a reputed gang member, shot and killed two gang rivals in Boyle Heights, an east Los Angeles neighborhood, in 1998. Days later, he allegedly kidnapped, raped and killed his girlfriend.
He is believed to have killed a fourth person in Los Angeles County in October 2008, according to the FBI.
Saenz, who is believed to be 36 or 37, was flown Friday under FBI escort from Guadalajara to Los Angeles International Airport.
Officials investigate Mass. strip club blast
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Officials had already evacuated part of the entertainment district in one of New England’s biggest cities because of a gas leak and odor report before a natural gas explosion leveled a strip club and heavily damaged a dozen other buildings, including a day care. Eighteen people were injured, many of them first responders.
Investigators Saturday were trying to figure out what caused the Friday evening blast that left a large hole in the ground where the multistory brick building housing Scores Gentleman’s Club once stood and debris scattered over several blocks.
Inspectors on Saturday assessed damage to other buildings in downtown Springfield. Some controlled demolition was expected.
Firefighters, police officers and gas company workers were in the area filled with commercial properties and residences after responding to a gas leak and odor reported about an hour before the explosion.
Cops: Bargain hunter took home TV, left tot
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Police say a Massachusetts man left his girlfriend’s 2-year-old son in a car while he went shopping for Black Friday bargains, then went home with his new 51-inch flat screen television and left the toddler behind.
Police, alerted by store security, found the boy asleep in the vehicle in a Kmart parking lot at about 1:30 a.m. Friday. They forced their way into the car and took the boy to the hospital as a precaution.
Meanwhile, they tracked the man to his Springfield home. He told police he lost the boy while shopping, panicked and called someone else for a ride. The boy’s mother was working.
The 34-year-old man was not arrested and not immediately charged.
By wire sources