■ COLOMBIA
Casket sales tip off police
Police were tipped off on Monday to the early morning murders of eight cocaine laboratory workers when relatives of the victims showed up at an undertaker in a southern town asking for coffins. "We did not find out about this until they came to a funeral home and asked for eight caskets," Putumayo Province police commander Harold Lara said. The province is a key cocaine production area where leftist rebels and drug gangs fight over lucrative smuggling routes. The murders appeared to be a robbery in which one trafficking group stole coca base from another, Lara said.
■ CANADA
Identity theft to be outlawed
The government plans to criminalize identity theft to give police the ability to stop such activity before any fraud has actually been carried out, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said on Tuesday. He said he would introduce legislation targeting the actual gathering and trafficking in credit card, banking and other personal data for the purposes of using it deceptively. Identity fraud is already a crime, but gathering and trafficking in identity information generally is not. "Our government will be giving police the tools to better protect Canadians by stopping identity theft activity before the damage is done," Nicholson said in a statement.
■ UNITED STATES
Officer chases lawnmower
Michael Ginevan of Bunker Hill, West Virginia, was driving a riding lawnmower near his home when a Berkeley County sheriff's deputy attempted to pull him over. Ginevan, 39, allegedly sped away and Deputy J.H. Jenkins stopped his cruiser and gave chase on foot, according to magistrate court records. Jenkins caught up to the lawnmower after a short chase but Ginevan allegedly wouldn't stop so the deputy pulled him off the machine. Ginevan refused to take a field sobriety test and was arrested. Jenkins then found a case of beer strapped to the lawnmower's front. Ginevan was charged with fleeing while driving under the influence and obstruction.
■ UNITED STATES
Landslide destroys home
A landslide swept away a chunk of an upscale hilltop neighborhood, destroying a home, damaging five others and opening up a 50m chasm in a four-lane road. Officials ordered 111 homes in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, evacuated. No one was hurt in the collapse, which occurred Wednesday morning after city officials warned residents of four homes not to sleep in them because the land might give way. The collapse shortly before 9am toppled power lines and left a 6m-deep ravine. Orange traffic cones and sections of big concrete pipes sat in the fissure slashing across the crumpled residential street.
■ UNITED STATES
`Housewives' apologizes
The producers of Desperate Housewives apologized to the Philippine government on Wednesday for questioning the training of Philippine doctors in the season premiere of the TV series. "The producers of Desperate Housewives and ABC Studios offer our sincere apologies for any offense caused by the brief reference in the season premiere," they said in a statement. "There was no intent to disparage the integrity of any aspect of the medical community in the Philippines," they said. The offending comment was made when Teri Hatcher's character Susan Mayer asked to see a physician's diplomas "because I want to make sure that they're not from some med school in the Philippines."
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