Truck-stop deaths reach 5

Truck-stop deaths reach 5
SAN ANTONIO -- When two bodies were found in a rig at a truck stop on the well-traveled route to Houston, some drivers figured it was an accident -- maybe carbon monoxide poisoning. When another body was discovered there weeks later, they called it a mystery. But now that two additional bodies have been found at two truck stops, they are getting worried So far, investigators have not established what killed the five or whether the deaths are related. But police said they might have been victims of a bad batch of drugs. The first bodies were found Nov. 1 at the Petro Stopping Center on Interstate 10 in San Antonio. They were identified as Harry Ackroyd, 35, and Michelle Ackroyd, 32. Police said they did not know whether the two were truckers. The Bexar County medical examiner's office said the body of a third man, identified as Byron Gonzales, was discovered inside a rig at the truck stop on Thanksgiving Day. Police reported that a fourth person, Clifton Frank Lee, 62, was found dead in a motel room next to the Petro on Sunday. A police report said Lee was a diabetic who had pneumonia and had left the hospital two days earlier against doctor's orders. A fifth man, Hubert Hardesty, 53, was discovered dead Monday in a stolen rig at the Flying J stop just east of the Petro.
Quake strikes under ocean
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- A strong earthquake struck under the ocean in northern Indonesia today, the U.S. Geological Survey said, but the temblor did not trigger a tsunami and there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. The 6.1-magnitude earthquake, which struck north of the Maluku islands, was centered 45 miles beneath the sea and 134 miles northeast of Ternate, the capital of North Maluku province, the agency said. Rafael Abreu, a USGS geologist in Golden, Colo., said a tsunami was unlikely because of the quake's depth.
Lawmakers investigated
BOGOTA, Colombia -- The Supreme Court said Tuesday it was investigating six lawmakers for links to the country's right-wing militias, responsible for thousands of killings during Colombia's brutal civil war. Four senators -- including Alvaro Araujo, the brother of Foreign Minister Maria Consuelo Araujo-- and two congressmen are accused of conspiracy to commit crime, the court said in a statement. Five of the six are members of political parties loyal to President Alvaro Uribe. The six legislators are from Colombia's Caribbean coast, long-known as the heartland of the paramilitary movement, which was originally created by landowners and drug traffickers to defend themselves against leftist rebels.
Lawmakers scuffle
MEXICO CITY -- President-elect Felipe Calderon named a governor tied to a violent crackdown on protesters to his Cabinet on Tuesday, while leftist and ruling party lawmakers came to blows in Mexico's Congress over fears that the opposition would try to sabotage the inauguration. The shoving and shouting match was likely a preview of protests to come as Calderon prepares to be sworn in Friday, taking charge of a fiercely divided nation after beating leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador by less than a percentage point. The congressional chaos began when conservative legislators took over the podium, amid rumors that leftist lawmakers planned to seize Congress to block Friday's inauguration, as they did before President Vicente Fox's Sept. 1 state-of-the-nation speech. The leftists quickly followed, and scuffles broke out as Jorge Zermeno, the president of the lower house, called repeatedly for calm.
Famine termed genocide
KIEV, Ukraine -- Parliament adopted a bill Tuesday recognizing the Soviet-era forced famine as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian people in a vote seen as a victory for pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko. The bill passed in a vote of 233-1, a small majority in the 450-seat legislature. Many lawmakers chose not to participate in the vote, choosing silence on a highly divisive issue. The 1932-33 famine, known here as "Holodomor" or "Death by Hunger," was orchestrated by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and killed 10 million Ukrainians, almost one-third of its population at the time.
Iran: U.S. causes chaos
TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's supreme leader blamed the United States on Tuesday for the chaos in Iraq and demanded the withdrawal of foreign forces, but also pledged his country's help in quelling the violence. In a meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused the United States of hiring terrorists and former members of Saddam Hussein's regime to destabilize Iraq, according to a state television report. His comments came hours before the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to extend for one year the mandate of the 160,000-strong force in Iraq. Khamenei predicted the United States would fail in Iraq, saying "the occupation of Iraq is not a morsel that the U.S. can swallow."
Associated Press