INTERNATIONAL
 
Bomb blasts and insurgent attacks kill 11 in Afghanistan on Sunday
 
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A series of bomb blasts and insurgents attacks killed 11 people across Afghanistan on Sunday, including five NATO service members and three Afghan police, officials said.
 
The strikes, which come a day after Taliban fighters stormed a NATO base in eastern Afghanistan, show the insurgents’ fighting spirit has not been broken despite a surge of U.S. troops and firepower.
 
Also Sunday, the Afghan president’s office said the former ambassador-designate to Pakistan, who was seized by gunmen two years ago in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, has been released and is back home safe.
 
The diplomat, Abdul Khaliq Farahi, was freed in eastern Afghanistan late Saturday in a joint effort by officials from both countries and has returned to Kabul, where he met Sunday with President Hamid Karzai, the president’s office said. A statement gave no details on how he was freed.
 
British couple freed by Somali pirates after 388 days in captivity
 
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The retired British couple were sailing the world on a 38-foot-yacht that represented most of their life savings when Somali pirates captured them last year, demanding the sort of huge ransom a multimillionaire or a multinational company might cough up.
 
The fact that Paul and Rachel Chandler couldn’t pay a big ransom helped stretch out their ordeal 388 agonizing days — until Sunday, when they were released thin and exhausted, but smiling. It was one of the longest and most dramatic hostage situations since the Somali piracy boom began several years ago.
 
The Chandlers were welcomed by the Somali community close to where they had been held.
 
 
NATIONAL
 
Snowstorm causes 400 crashes in Minnesota; 2 die in Wisconsin
 
 
(AP) — Parts of the Upper Midwest dug out from a heavy snowfall Saturday that caused more than 400 traffic accidents in Minnesota, and wintry conditions also were being blamed for a collision in northern Wisconsin that killed two people.
 
Nearly a foot of snow had fallen in parts of the Twin Cities area by Saturday evening, downing trees and causing power outages.
 
The storm that began late Friday night was blamed for a collision Saturday morning that killed both drivers and left a passenger hospitalized. The sheriff’s department in Wisconsin’s Bayfield County said the storm produced poor road conditions that likely contributed to the crash.
 
Kevin Kraujalis of the National Weather Service’s Duluth office estimated Bayfield County had a couple of inches of snow when the collision occurred.
 
 
STATE/LOCAL
 
Louisiana family cleaning up after rampaging deer broke into house
 
 
HOUMA (AP) — A Louisiana family says their house was trashed by a full-grown deer that crashed through a glass door and into their home.
 
The rampaging buck created chaos for close to a half hour Friday while trying to get out of the house in Houma, about 50 miles southwest of New Orleans.
 
It smashed belongings, upended furniture and chased the women and child inside before it was shot and killed by a deputy.
 
Linda Babin, a 60-year-old employee of the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office, said she’s shocked by the damage and terror the deer inflicted at her home.
 
She said her house looks like a crime scene after the deer’s home-invasion.
 
Authorities speculate that the 200-pound buck may have thought its reflection in the sliding-glass storm door was another animal.
 
Clinton children’s home will face closure if owners don’t appeal
 
(AP) — A state official says a military-styled group home for abused, neglected or delinquent children will be shut for good if owners don’t appeal the decision by Monday.
 
Trey Williams, spokesman for the state Department of Children and Family Services, says that on Friday, director Brandi Phipps had not appealed the license revocation for the Challenge and Development Center of Clinton.
 
Louisiana oyster season opens, but on a small scale after oil spill
 
 
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Public oyster harvesting grounds open Monday, but on a smaller scale than usual, in part because of complications from the BP oil spill.
 
Louisiana’s Wildlife and Fisheries Commission voted to delay the opening for an area east of the Mississippi River.
 
 
 
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