A 12-year veteran of the Bend Police Department was placed on administrative duty Tuesday following his arrest when he allegedly led Oregon State Police (OSP) on a high-speed pursuit in the Santiam Pass area after troopers clocked him riding his motorcycle – with his teenage daughter as a passenger -- at more than 25 mph over the speed limit.   Officer "Buck" Church (inset - LCJ photo), and his Yamaha 1300-cc motorcycle after the pursuit on the ... [full story]

BELGRADE, Serbia - The International Red Cross said Wednesday nearly 18,000 people have been missing since war conflicts in the former Yugoslav federation in the 1990s.Paul Henri Arny, chief of the regional delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Belgrade, said his organization for years has been supporting efforts by the families of missing persons to resolve their fates, the Serbian news agency Beta reported.Marking the International Day of the Disappeared Aug. ... [full story]

TEHRAN - An Iranian diplomat claimed the United States' goal is to destabilize southwestern Asia and the Middle East with its occupation of Iraq.Ambassador-designate to Bahrain, Hussein Amir Abdollahian said in Tehran there was no room for non-Persian Gulf armies in the region, Iran's Fars news agency reported."The region is currently in a very sensitive and fragile situation due to the massive presence of foreign forces," Abdollahian said. "The arrogant powers intend to gain dominance ... [full story]

LONDON - Deposed Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is returning to Pakistan to try to oust President Pervez Musharraf, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.Speaking to the newspaper in London, Sharif said he will return to Islamabad within two weeks for an eve-of-Ramadan campaign against Musharraf, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1999.Sharif has been living in exile in Saudi Arabia. Last week, Pakistan's Supreme Court lifted the ban on him returning to Pakistan.He ... [full story]

RAMALLAH, Gaza - There is division among the Palestinian Hamas party over concessions to Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to achieve a unity government.The pan-Arab daily Asharq Alawsat said one faction wanted to turn over control of the authority's institutions and bases in the Gaza Strip, in return for a renewal of the unity government and reinstating parliament, the Jerusalem Post reported.The newspaper said the proposal was made to Abbas on Tuesday but there was still reluctance ... [full story]

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. - A 20-year-old woman in the U.S. Air Force who alleged three airmen raped her in North Carolina now faces a court-martial for drinking and lewd behavior.Airman Cassandra Hernandez, 20, complained she had been at a party in May 2006 and drank too much. She told officers despite having a fuzzy memory, she recalls being sexually assaulted by three other airmen at their dorm.The men denied the charges, saying the sex was consensual, ... [full story]

WASHINGTON - After a congressional briefing on Iraq next month, U.S. President George Bush will seek $50 billion more for the war, a source told The Washington Post.A White House source, who asked not to be identified, told the newspaper the supplemental request will follow what is expected to be a promising assessment by U.S. Army Gen David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker.The rationale is that Congress will be unlikely to balk ... [full story]

RENO, Nev. - A San Francisco man faces arson charges in Arizona after the annual Burning Man festival's 40-foot wooden effigy was set ablaze four days early.Paul Addis, 35, was booked into the Pershing County jail and booked on felony charges of arson and destruction of property and misdemeanor possession of fireworks and resisting a public officer, the Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal reported Wednesday.The namesake of the festival in the Black Rock Desert began burning early ... [full story]

WASHINGTON - U.S. Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois said he would fine sub-prime mortgage lenders to bail out a myriad of foreclosures.Writing in Wednesday's Financial Times, Obama cited figures from the Center for Responsive Politics in his criticism of lobbyists he said are responsible for the mortgage meltdown."While predatory lenders were driving low-income families into financial ruin, 10 of the country’s largest mortgage lenders were spending more than $185 million lobbying Washington ... [full story]

WASHINGTON - Some 1,000 U.S. immigration agents are being redeployed as customs inspectors, agency documents seen by The Washington Times indicated.The shift will mean a major cut in the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents involved in detention and removal of illegal aliens to about 4,000, the newspaper said.Jim Brown, a spokesman for American Federation of Government Employees and also an agent with the Fugitive Operation unit, said the reduction was too much of ... [full story]