ANKARA, Turkey
Two prisoners die after setting themselves ablaze in Turkey
Associated Press
Two prisoners died yesterday after setting themselves ablaze to protest a police raid that killed four of their friends, their lawyer said.
The deaths are the latest incidents in a yearlong standoff between the government and leftist prisoners protesting Turkey's new maximum-security prison system.
More than 40 inmates and their supporters have died in a hunger strike launched over a year ago to protest the treatment of prisoners.
The two inmates set themselves on fire in prisons in northwest Turkey, hours after a police raid Monday on an Istanbul house where protesters had been fasting, lawyer Behic Asci said. Both men died in Istanbul hospitals early Wednesday.
The two were members of the banned Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C, and had recently joined the hunger strike, Asci said. Two other prisoners had also attempted to immolate themselves but were not in life-threatening condition, Asci said.
Leftists say police fatally shot four protesters in the raid. Police said the four died after setting themselves on fire.
The hunger strikers are protesting the transfer of prisoners from large, dormitory-style wards to smaller cells. Inmates say the new wards are isolating and leave them vulnerable to beatings by guards.
FLORENCE, Mont.
Montana town shocked by beauty salon murders, killer still on loose
Associated Press
Three women were found dead in a beauty salon with their throats slashed, and investigators said yesterday they have only one clue: a sighting of a man in a dark suit and a top hat.
The bodies of The Hair Gallery's owner, a manicurist and a customer were discovered late Tuesday in the town of about 900.
''Why this occurred, we simply don't know,'' Sheriff Perry Johnson said yesterday. ''What I fear is this could be somebody that, for whatever reason, decided this was a good day to do some evil work.''
The salon was not robbed, there was no money missing from the women's purses, and there was no indication the victims had been sexually assaulted, the sheriff said.
The victims were owner Dorothy Harris, 62; manicurist Brenda Patch, 44; and customer Cynthia Paulus, 71, of Florence.
A customer discovered Harris' body in the front of the salon. The customer called authorities, who found the other bodies in a utility room.
The customer told investigators that a man wearing a dark business suit and a tall top hat was outside the salon when she arrived.
Investigators were interviewing convenience store clerks along a highway into and out of town and planned to review surveillance tapes to see if the killer stopped at any of the places.
PHOENIX, Ariz.
Man accused in a string of Phoenix-area arsons pleads guilty
Associated Press
A man accused of setting fire to seven Phoenix-area luxury homes under construction near protected desert land pleaded guilty yesterday to extortion and other charges.
Mark Warren Sands, 50, said he was trying to stop encroaching development.
Under the plea agreement, he will get 15 to 20 years in prison at sentencing Feb. 11 and must pay restitution, estimated at $3.1 million.
Sands was arrested on June 14. He was accused of setting eight fires over a nine-month period at seven properties on the edge of protected desert areas in Phoenix and Scottsdale, sending fear through the upscale neighborhoods.
Sands became a suspect in April after police said he was caught using a red marker on a sign hanging on a home under construction. Police had been watching ever since leaflets reading ''Thou shalt not desecrate God's creation'' and signed CSP, or Coalition to Save the Preserve, were found there.
He expressed regret for burning an existing house in Phoenix he thought was new construction. Renovation work was being done on the house.
Tim Onofryton and Peggy Myers, who lost their home in one of the fires, said they were relieved by yesterday's plea.
''He's a terrorist, that's what he is,'' Myers said.
