British Columbia fire forces 8,500 to flee

Wildfires have driven nearly 8,500 people from their homes and burned dozens of houses in the British Columbia town of Barriere, emergency officials said.

At least 60 homes and a sawmill were destroyed Friday in the town, said Bob Buglsag of the provincial emergency program.

The British Columbia government declared a state of emergency in the area.

Above, a helicopter drops water on flames at Mount Paul in Kamloops.

Residents were shepherded to Kamloops, along with people from neighboring McLure and its surrounding area, where the fire broke out Wednesday. It has spread to 33 square miles.

San Diego

Environmentalists thought behind fire

Officials suspect radical environmentalists set a fire that swept through an unoccupied five-story apartment complex, causing more than $20 million in damage.

A banner reading “If you build it, we will burn it,” with the initials “ELF,” was found Friday next to the burning building still under construction in the upscale University Town Centre residential neighborhood. No injuries were reported.

The initials may correspond to the Earth Liberation Front, a loose-knit group that describes itself as “an international underground organization that uses direct action in the form of economic sabotage to stop the destruction of the natural environment.”

Florida

Commission studying hanging finds problems

A federal official investigating the hanging of a black man said he had found information that contradicts evidence presented at an inquest that found the death was a suicide.

Bobby Doctor, director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights’ Southern regional office, would not say what inconsistencies he had discovered but said they might implicate Palm Beach County’s justice system.

“The issue as we see it is beginning to mushroom beyond just the hanging,” Doctor told The Palm Beach Post in an article published Saturday.

A judge ruled at an inquest Tuesday that Feraris “Ray” Golden, 32, committed suicide in Belle Glade on May 28, although rumors persist that Golden was lynched and that his hands were tied behind his back.

Detroit

Retailers: Fraud suspect claimed to be prince

It’s good to be the prince, but only if you’re the real thing.

A Michigan man who is not a Saudi prince and not worth $480 million, as he claimed, is accused of defrauding two upscale stores of $29,000 worth of clothing, jewelry and perfume, according to a newspaper report.

Officials of Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue in suburban Troy became suspicious in December of Anthony Gignac’s claim to be Prince Khalid bin Al Saud of the Saudi royal family, so they called in authorities, who called the Saudi Embassy in Washington.

Gignac, 32, faces charges of credit card fraud.