Polygamous sect leader Jeffs caught after year on lam

Polygamous sect leader Jeffs caught after year on lam

SALT LAKE CITY

Polygamous sect leader Lyle Jeffs was captured in South Dakota following nearly a year on the run after he pawned two pairs of pliers and provided a real identification card, authorities and the pawn-shop owner said.

The suspicious pawn-shop employee notified the owner that Jeffs was wanted by the FBI, who learned more about him online and alerted authorities.

Jeffs was alone near a lakeside marina and hours away from a compound in the state run by his polygamous group when an off duty police detective spotted a pickup truck Thursday that a tipster told police Jeffs had been driving, said Eric Barnhart, FBI Special Agent in Charge for the Salt Lake City Division.

Cladding may have helped spread blaze in London blaze

LONDON

The official cause may not be known for months. The death toll is unclear – and rising. No one has said exactly where the fire started. But experts suspect recent renovations at the Grenfell Tower, including newly installed external cladding, played a tragic role in spreading the fire so quickly.

A look at the photos and video of the inferno that claimed at least 17 lives shows why the cladding is a possible culprit: The flames can be seen “climbing” up the sides of the public housing building at an alarming pace, overwhelming efforts to limit the destruction.

The exterior cladding and the insulation squeezed between its panels were added as part of an extensive renovation completed last year. Matt Wrack, leader of the Fire Brigades Union, told The Associated Press that changes made during the refurbishment project seem to have left the building vulnerable to a catastrophic blaze.

Army to expand Arlington Cemetery

ARLINGTON, Va.

Arlington National Cemetery is moving ahead with plans to expand by roughly 50,000 spaces, extending the cemetery’s life beyond 2050.

The cemetery is run by the U.S. Army. For several years, military officials tried to negotiate a land swap with Arlington County that would allow the cemetery to expand and accommodate the county’s needs as well.

Arlington County announced Thursday that the Army has ended those negotiations and intends to expand unilaterally on the site, known as the Navy Annex. The land cited for expansion is on the cemetery’s southern border, in and around the Air Force Memorial.

The cemetery also will acquire about 5 acres from Arlington County and 7 acres from the state of Virginia.

About 4,000 more US troops to go to Afghanistan

WASHINGTON

The Pentagon will send almost 4,000 additional American forces to Afghanistan, a Trump administration official said Thursday, hoping to break a stalemate in a war that has now passed to a third U.S. commander in chief. The deployment will be the largest of American manpower under Donald Trump’s young presidency.

The decision by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis could be announced as early as next week, the official said. It follows Trump’s move to give Mattis the authority to set troop levels and seeks to address assertions by the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan that he doesn’t have enough forces to help Afghanistan’s army against a resurgent Taliban insurgency.

Associated Press