Sixth body found in Kansas City neighborhood

Sixth body found inKansas City neighborhood
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A body found in July behind a vacant apartment building in Kansas City has been linked to five others discovered since Thursday in the same part of the city, police said Sunday.
At a news conference, police Capt. Rich Lockhart said three of the victims had been identified, while the other three bodies were so decomposed that police have not been able yet to determine their race or gender.
The body of 42-year-old Anna Ewing was found July 14 by a man spraying for weeds, he said. Because her body was discovered in the same 18-square-block area, and because all six were found on or near a vacant property, police consider Ewing's death to be related.
"The neighbors in that area, they have reasons to be concerned," Lockhart said. "But I don't think it's something to cause great panic. They just need to be vigilant."
The bodies of 45-year-old Patricia Wilson Butler and a 38-year-old woman were found Thursday in a detached garage after someone notified police of a foul odor. Lockhart said one of the bodies was badly decomposed while the other had only been there about two days.
Police were not releasing the name of the 38-year-old until relatives had been notified.
Iraqi war preparations
WASHINGTON -- A former Senate Intelligence Committee chairman asserted Sunday that the general who ran the war in Afghanistan said more than a year before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that his resources were being shifted in preparation for taking on Saddam Hussein.
Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., contends that just months into combat in Afghanistan, Gen. Tommy Franks also told him that fighting terrorism in Somalia, Yemen and elsewhere should take priority over invading Iraq.
Graham said Franks told him he thought the United States knew less about the situation in Iraq than did some European governments, and the Bush administration should ask them for advice.
The senator, who is retiring at year's end, said his conversation with the now-retired general came in February 2002, when Graham was chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Forced from their homes
KHARTOUM, Sudan -- A U.N. spokesman on Sunday said the world body keeps receiving reports of clashes continuing throughout Sudan's Darfur region, where up to 4,000 people are believed to have been forced from their villages in recent days.
The Sudanese government has been under intense international pressure to do more to end the violence in the western region, where a 19-month ethnic conflict has killed an estimated 30,000 people and driven more than 1 million from their homes into displacement camps inside Sudan or into neighboring Chad.
"We keep receiving reports of insecurity in Darfur that is leading to the further displacement" of Darfurians from their homes, U.N. spokeswoman Radhia Achouri told The Associated Press in Egypt during a telephone interview.
U.S. troops raid hide-out
KABUL, Afghanistan -- U.S. forces raided a suspected Taliban hide-out in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing two fighters and capturing at least one, officials said.
The hourlong battle occurred in Dewalak, a village in Zabul province along the Pakistani border, said Khial Mohammed, the provincial governor. U.S. troops attacked after surrounding the village and coming under fire from the rebels, he said.
The governor said U.S. forces were tipped off about the presence of Taliban fighters in mountains near the village, about 10 miles west of Qalat, Zabul's capital.
Israeli woman arrested
JERUSALEM -- A 28-year-old Israeli woman who befriended a top Palestinian militant was detained without charge for at least three months Sunday under defense regulations often used against alleged Palestinian militants.
Security officials said Tali Fahima was placed under so-called administrative detention for an initial term of 90 days. The order, signed by Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, can be extended indefinitely.
Media reports said her attorneys planned to appeal the order.
According to Israeli human rights groups, about 750 Palestinians are currently held without trial under administrative detention. But the practice is rarely used against Israeli Jews.
Fahima, a paralegal from the Tel Aviv suburb of Bat Yam, struck up a friendship earlier this year with Zakariye Zubeydi, 29, a militant leader from a West Bank refugee camp whose band of gunmen is believed responsible for the deaths of several Israelis in roadside shootings.
Associated Press