Australian police say they prevented Christmas bombings

Australian police say they prevented Christmas bombings

CANBERRA, Australia

Police in Australia have detained five men suspected of planning a series of Christmas Day bomb attacks in the heart of the country’s second-largest city, officials said today.

The suspects had been inspired by the Islamic State group and planned attacks on Melbourne’s Flinders Street train station, neighboring Federation Square and St. Paul’s Cathedral, Victoria state Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said.

Five men between the ages 21 and 26 remained in custody and would be charged later today with preparing a terrorist attack. They were not identified but police said four were born in Australia, and the fifth was Egyptian-born with Egyptian and Australian citizenship.

Man charged with killing ex-reality TV contestant

INGLEWOOD, Calif.

A Southern California man has been charged with beating to death a former reality TV show contestant with a hammer and burying her in his backyard.

Jackie Rogers was charged Thursday with murder. Rogers could face 26 years to life in prison if convicted.

The 34-year-old Lennox man is charged with bludgeoning to death Lisa Marie Naegle of San Pedro last Sunday. Naegle was a registered nurse who taught nursing at a local community college. She was a losing contestant in the 2010 reality series “Bridalplasty.”

Rogers was a student of the 36-year-old married woman. He was arrested after video showed him leaving a Torrance beer hall with Naegle.

Mexican president pledges to rebuild fireworks market

TULTEPEC, Mexico

President Enrique Pena Nieto pledged Thursday to help rebuild a fireworks market where explosions killed at least 35 people and reopen it next year, while a Roman Catholic church held funeral Masses throughout the day.

Families packed Our Lady of Loreto Catholic Church in Tultepec in Mexico State, where chain-reaction blasts destroyed the country’s best-known fireworks market Tuesday. Investigators still have not announced the cause of the tragedy, which was the third explosion at the market since 2005 and cast a pall over Mexico’s Christmas season.

Pena Nieto visited the injured in a hospital near Tultepec. But it was later at an anniversary ceremony for one of Mexico’s independence heroes that the president spoke about the future of the San Pablito fireworks market.

Fire chief: Electrical line sparked deadly Calif. wildfire

FRESNO, Calif.

An electrical line in a tree sparked a devastating summer wildfire in central California that killed an elderly couple and destroyed hundreds of homes, investigators said Thursday.

Insulation from the electrical line rubbed the tree and wore down over time, dropping hot, molten material into the dry grass below that sparked the fire, officials said.

The fire raced up a Lake Isabella hillside prone to burning, said Kern County Fire Chief Brian Marshall. But this year, firefighters couldn’t stop the flames, which eventually scorched 75 square miles and turned 280 homes into tangled rubble.

The fire sparked in late June in the community of Lake Isabella, an hour’s drive east of Bakersfield in the southern Sierra Nevada.

Associated Press