An IED (improvised explosive device) with a “substantial” amount of gunpowder and a low-tech burning fuse system found in a Redmond-area intersection Monday night prompted roads to be closed for about three hours while a bomb squad was called upon to make the area safe, officials reported. According to a news release prepared by Deschutes County Sheriff’s Sgt. Vance Lawrence, deputies and Redmond Police officers were called to the intersection of Helmholtz and Obsidian in ... [full story]

Redmond Police are asking the public’s help to identify the person or persons responsible for causing nearly $12,000 in damage to the windows of vehicles, businesses, and schools throughout the city Sunday and Monday. According to a news release prepared by Officer Cory Chase, 15 reports of vandalism were received when windows were shot with a b-b-gun, or had rocks or other large items thrown through them. The mischief occurred “sometime during the late night hours on October ... [full story]

Prineville police on Sunday arrested a 20-year old man in connection with two recent burglaries at the Shred Shed, a board shop in downtown Prineville.   Michael Shawn Koontz - CCJ photo According to a news release issued by Chief Eric Bush, Michael Shawn Koontz was taken into custody and lodged in the Crook County Jail with bail set at $35,000.  Koontz is charged with two counts each of second-degree burglary, first-degree theft, first-degree criminal mischief, and possession ... [full story]

BEIJING -- Typhoon Krosa caused damage of more than $1 billion to China’s eastern provinces of Zhejiang and Fujian before returning to the East China Sea, a report said.Xinhua news agency reported Krosa, which forced the evacuation of more than 1.4 million people and affected 5 million more, hit the provinces Sunday. By Monday evening, it had been downgraded to a tropical storm as it moved back over the sea.Krosa entered China from Taiwan where ... [full story]

SINGAPORE -- Detainees in Iraq are being introduced to religious-based rehabilitation in hope of reducing their extremist views.Similar programs in Singapore and Saudi Arabia use Muslim clerics to rebut extremist views while a program in Yemen was closed in 2005 because of high recidivism, The Christian Science Monitor reported Tuesday.Experts distinguish between rehabilitating low-level sympathizers and hardened terror leaders unlikely to change their thinking, the Monitor reported.Supporters of the plan told the Minotor an effective ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- U.S. House and Senate Democrats have backtracked on their opposition to the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping, the New York Times reported.As recently as August, Democrats said they would fight the continuation of the National Security Agency's right to monitor telephone and Internet communications of citizens without a special warrant, but that has changed the newspaper said.A Democratic House bill released Tuesday would maintain the administration's policy for several years, while the Senate version ... [full story]

PARIS -- Polish President Lech Kaczynski said French President Nicolas Sarkozy supported Warsaw’s idea to include veto rights in a new European Union’s treaty.Kaczynski, meeting with Sarkozy in Paris, said he won French support for a “blocking mechanism” to be inserted in the revised EU treaty, the radio reported Tuesday.The mechanism would grant Poland the right to veto decisions that might be contrary to their national interests.Once the clause on EU voting veto rights was ... [full story]

BAGHDAD -- Anti-al-Qaida Sunni tribal leaders came under attack in northern Iraq Tuesday, with two coordinated truck bombings that killed 18 people.Police said 22 other people were hurt in the early morning attacks in the city of Baiji, CNN reported. The first attack targeted the home of city's police chief and, while he escaped unharmed, some of his family members were among the victims, the report said.The second blast in the city 130 miles north ... [full story]

BOISE, Idaho -- Recovery teams searched a wooded area near Boise, Idaho, Tuesday looking for three skydivers missing after a small plane crash killed seven colleagues.The wreckage containing seven bodies of the 10 people aboard was found Monday night, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported.The single-engine Cessna 208 Caravan, based out of Snohomish, Wash., took off Sunday with a pilot and nine sky-diving passengers for season-ending jumps. The wreckage was discovered about 7:40 p.m. in a heavily ... [full story]

JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert underwent police questioning at his Jerusalem home Tuesday as part of a bank fraud investigation.The probe is into the privatization of Bank Leumi in 2005 when Olmert was finance minister, Haaretz reported.National investigators were looking into the terms of the sale to determine if Olmert arranged for bidding to be advantageous to a personal friend, Australian businessman Frank Lowy. Lowy ultimately dropped out of the bidding, the Jerusalem ... [full story]