News Briefs

A day of remembrance
Yesterday, Oregon and the city of Portland were flurries ofactivity and commemoration in honor of Memorial Day.

Flags were flown at half-mast, celebrations ensued and theOregon Air National Guard buzzed two F-15 Eagles over some of theceremonies throughout the state.

The Thunderbird Boy Scout district will place small U.S. flagson nearly 100,000 gravesites for the 35th year.

The Oregon Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington Park hostedan annual ceremony during which the names of those killed wereread.

Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski issued a statement, saying, “ThisMemorial Day is especially significant because many of our finestand bravest men and women are still in Iraq and overseas working torestore peace and foster democracy.”

Also, the city of Portland gave parking enforcement employeesthe day off, too – all downtown street parking was free.

Terror threat leads to arrests
(Knight Ridder/Tribune) WASHINGTON – A day after top U.S. officialswarned that al-Qaida was poised to launch a summertime strike,federal agents moved on several suspects, some with establishedlinks to terrorism.

In Britain, authorities arrested Abu Hamza al-Masri, a radicalMuslim cleric, on charges that he provided support to al-Qaida andtried to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon.

In San Diego, immigration agents arrested a Saudi nationalbelieved to be associated with friends of two of the Sept. 11hijackers. U.S. officials have frequently used immigration lawssince the 2001 attacks to charge suspects when a terrorism orcriminal case can’t be made.

And in Philadelphia, the Internal Revenue Service arrested theimam of a mosque and collected computers and boxes of documents aspart of a financial probe. FBI spokesman Jerri Williams said agentswould be “reviewing items obtained to see if there is any terrorismconnection.” He said there was no immediate evidence of a terrortie.

Woman still missing
A boat capsized Saturday while sailing on the Columbia River. Fourhave been rescued, but searches continue for one woman.

Janet Wildish, 27, is still missing and presumed dead. Herhusband and their 20-month-old daughter were two of the survivors,along with Ruben and Jasmine Reeves, the boat’s owners.

The survivors were pulled from the water by another group ofcivilians, who happened to be boating nearby. The only one wearinga lifejacket at the time of the capsizing was the 20-month-olddaughter.

Authorities say the problem occurred when the 18-foot boat hadtrouble with its anchor line, turned and began taking on water.