World / Nation briefs December 26, 2011
Hunter injured in accidental shooting
PARMA - Authorities said a 13-year-old boy has been accidently shot in the shoulder while duck hunting.
The Canyon County Sheriff's Office said the boy shot himself with a 20-gauge shotgun while hunting with family members Saturday morning along the Boise River south of Parma.
Authorities said the boy was taken to St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center with injuries described as serious but not life threatening.
Gas company files request to lower rates
BOISE - Intermountain Gas Co. has filed a request with state regulators to lower natural gas rates by an average of 4.5 percent for residential customers.
The company filed paperwork with the Idaho Public Utilities Commission last week.
If approved, company officials point out it will be the fifth price reduction in the last four years.
Company calculations show residential customers who use gas for space and water heating will save an average of $2.24 per month, based on typical weather and usage under the new rate structure. The reduction for commercial customers is projected at nearly $11 per month, or 4.8 percent.
Executive Vice President Frank Morehouse said favorable market conditions and prices for gas is driving move to lower rates.
The company serves more than 300,000 customers in Idaho.
Police find 7 dead in Texas apartment
GRAPEVINE, Texas - Seven people believed to be related had opened their Christmas gifts and started cleaning up the wrapping paper when they were shot to death in a suburban Fort Worth apartment, police said Sunday.
Authorities said they believe the shooter is among the dead.
Four women and three men, aged 18 to 60, were found in an adjoining kitchen and living room area when police entered the apartment around midday, said Grapevine Police Sgt. Robert Eberling. Two handguns were found near the bodies in the apartment that was decorated for the holiday with a tree, he added.
The victims had not yet been identified, but Eberling said it appears they all died of gunshot wounds. He said authorities still don't know what sparked the incident.
Council eyes door-to-door sales ordinance
IDAHO FALLS - The Idaho Falls City council has taken a step toward implementing an ordinance requiring door-to-door peddlers to pass criminal background checks following a series of crimes including rape and burglary carried out by people posing as salesmen last summer.
Council members on Thursday voted 4-1 to pass the ordinance on its first reading, and will revisit the topic in January where members could take final action.
The ordinance would also require door-to-door salesman to wear a city-issued photo ID badge while on the job.
Police Chief Steve Roos said people are coming from out of town and committing the crimes while posing as sales people.
Alcohol test for NYC police officer questioned
NEW YORK - The New York Police Department has launched a probe into why internal affairs investigators were initially kept in the dark about an off-duty police officer who was suspected of drunken driving in a car crash that seriously injured a passenger, a spokesman said Sunday.
More than eight hours passed before Officer Rafael Casiano was given a blood-alcohol test. Court records show that by then, he only had trace amounts of alcohol in his system.
The NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau "is investigating why there was an inordinate delay in it being notified after an off-duty member of the service was involved in a one-car accident," spokesman Paul Browne said.
Casiano, 44, was driving on a Bronx expressway at about 4:30 a.m. Friday when his car smashed into a center divider. The passenger was another off-duty officer, Keith Paul, who suffered a head wound and had to be hospitalized.
Nigerian blasts mar pope's peace appeal
VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI issued pleas for peace to reign across the world during his traditional Christmas address Sunday, a call marred by Muslim extremists who bombed a Catholic church in Nigeria, striking after worshippers celebrated Mass.
The assault on the Catholic church left 35 dead in Madalla, near the Nigerian capital. A failed bombing also occurred near a church in the city of Jos, followed by a shooting that killed a police officer. The blast came a year after a series of Christmas Eve bombs in Jos claimed by Islamist militants killed 32.
Benedict didn't refer explicitly to the Nigerian bombings in his "Urbi et Orbi" speech, Latin for "to the city and to the world" in which he raises alarm about world hotspots. But in a statement, the Vatican called the attacks a sign of "cruelty and absurd, blind hatred" that shows no respect for human life.
Stamford, Conn., house fire kills 5 on Christmas
STAMFORD, Conn. - Fire tore through a house in a tony neighborhood along the Connecticut shoreline on Christmas morning, killing five people, including three children, but sparing two whom firefighters managed to rescue.
Neighbors awakened to the sound of screaming and rushed outside to help, but they could only watch in horror as flames devoured the grand home in the pre-dawn darkness and the shocked, injured survivors were led away from the house.
The fire was reported shortly before 5 a.m. Firefighters were able to rescue two adults from the house in Shippan Point, a neighborhood that juts into Long Island Sound, Acting Fire Chief Antonio Conte said.
- The Associated Press