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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

In brief: Jonestown remains found at mortuary

From Wire Reports

DOVER, Del. – More than 35 years after the infamous suicide-murder of about 900 people – many forced to drink a cyanide-laced grape punch – in Jonestown, Guyana, the cremated remains of nine of the victims were found in a dilapidated former funeral home in Delaware, officials said Thursday.

The remains were clearly marked, with the names of the deceased and place of their death included on accompanying death certificates, authorities said.

The remains were found July 30 during a site visit prompted by a call from the property’s current owner – a bank, according to Dover police and public records. Officials found 38 containers of remains, 33 of which were marked and identified. The containers spanned a period from about 1970 to the 1990s and included the remains from Jonestown, established by Peoples Temple leader Jim Jones.

Tennessee senator gains primary win

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Republican Lamar Alexander became the latest U.S. senator to fend off a tea party challenge in a primary race Thursday, defeating a state senator who had used a familiar tactic in trying to cast him as an out-of-touch insider.

Alexander’s win over state Sen. Joe Carr was by a margin of about 52 percent to 38 percent with 24 percent of precincts reporting.

Seventh charged in border agent killing

TUCSON, Arizona – A seventh suspect in the 2010 killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent has been charged in the slaying that is at the center of a scandal over a botched U.S. gun-smuggling probe known as Operation Fast and Furious.

Federal prosecutors say 30-year-old Rosario Rafael Burboa-Alvarez faces charges of first-degree murder and other crimes.

Burboa-Alvarez is accused of assembling the armed crew that was to steal marijuana from smugglers, when they encountered Border Patrol agent Brian Terry and others on Dec. 14, 2010. He has pleaded not guilty.

A gunfight between the so-called “rip-off crew” and border agents ensued. Terry was killed.

Authorities later discovered that two of the guns found at the scene of the murder had been part of a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operation in which the federal government allowed criminals to buy guns in Phoenix-area shops with the intention of tracking them once they made their way into Mexico. But the agency lost track of more than 1,400 of the 2,000 guns they allowed smugglers to buy.