Blast in Paris injures 9

Blast in Paris injures 9
PARIS -- A package filled with explosives blew up outside the Indonesian Embassy in Paris today, slightly wounding nine people in the first terror attack in the French capital in years. The motive was not clear.
French Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin said a "bomb of medium strength" exploded beneath the flag that hangs from a balcony at the embassy in Paris' 16th district.
The blast ripped chunks of stone from an embassy wall, damaged several cars and left a small crater in front of the building. It shattered windows as high as the top fourth floor, carpeting the street with broken glass.
Most of the wounded were hurt by flying glass, Villepin said. Three of the injured were embassy employees.
Authorities could not say why the embassy was targeted. "To our knowledge, there were no specific threats," Villepin said.
Indonesia is home to two separatist rebel armies, one of which -- the Free Aceh Movement -- has been blamed by authorities for several small bombings in the country in recent years.
The interior minister held an emergency meeting at his headquarters with leading law enforcement and terrorism officials. Security was tightened at embassies in Paris and other sensitive sites, the ministry said in a statement.
Google search identifiesvictim of a hit-and-run
MOXEE, Wash. -- Google, the Internet search engine, has done something that law enforcement officials and their computer tools could not: identify a man who died in an apparent hit-and-run accident 11 years ago in this small town outside Yakima.
Detective Pat Ditter of the Washington State Patrol searched with Google for about a week before identifying the victim as David Glen Lewis, 39, who died 1,606 miles from his home in Amarillo, Texas.
Lewis' brother, Larry, praised Ditter's persistence.
"If he hadn't looked at those cases, we would still be back at square one, thinking he's alive and going to give us a call one of these days," Larry Lewis said.
Lewis had no known ties to central Washington, and his presence in the area is still a mystery, Ditter said. Relatives believe Lewis was kidnapped.
Over the years, investigators in Yakima and Amarillo combed through missing-person databases in vain.
Ditter said he turned to Google after reading a series of newspaper stories about long-unsolved missing-person cases. After a week he was focusing on about a dozen cases.
Questioning Muslims
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Arab-Americans and Muslims in Florida question the FBI's latest plan for conducting interviews nationwide to uncover possible terrorist plots that could disrupt the presidential election next month.
For the past week, FBI officials have met with Islamic community leaders statewide to explain a July directive from FBI Director Robert Mueller to seek new information about suspicious activity ahead of the Nov. 2 general election.
The leaders said they understand the need for vigilance but have reservations about the order.
"Our community is already afraid and jittery, because there has already been several rounds of detainees and interviews since 9-11," said Ahmed Bedier, Florida spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
"Arab-Americans will do everything in their capacity to ensure the security of this country," said Taleb Salhab, president of the Arab-American Community Center of Central Florida. "However, we will not tolerate the violation of our community's constitutional rights."
Child killer executed
RALEIGH, N.C. -- A death row inmate was executed early today for the 1992 rape and slaying of a 7-year-old girl.
Sammy Crystal Perkins, 51, died after the Supreme Court issued two orders Thursday to clear the way. By a 5-4 vote, justices turned down a defense request to leave a stay in place so Perkins could contest the state's lethal injection execution method. The decision was unanimous to reject a defense request to reverse state court rulings against Perkins on the issue of whether improper evidence was allowed during his trial.
Perkins' lawyers also asked Gov. Mike Easley to spare their client's life, arguing his trial was marred by jury discussions of the case before formal deliberations began. They also said Perkins' mental illness wasn't fully presented to the jury because of poor testimony by a defense expert.
Cannon from possibleBlackbeard ship found
BEAUFORT, N.C. -- Underwater archaeologists have found another cannon from the wreckage of what they believe was the flagship of the notorious pirate Blackbeard.
Historical records indicate Blackbeard had 40 guns on the French frigate he captured in 1717 and renamed Queen Anne's Revenge. Since 1996, when the wreckage of the ship was discovered in Beaufort Inlet, divers have found 22 at the site.
"We're pretty positive that we have cannon number 23," said project archaeologist Chris Southerly.
It is a large cannon that probably shot a 6-pound or 8-pound ball, Southerly said. Divers uncovered the cannon while excavating an area of the shipwreck's northwest side where they had not previously dug.
Associated Press