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Montana bar shooting suspect is captured, ending weeklong search

Montana bar shooting suspect is captured, ending weeklong search
Law enforcement officers stand at the scene where Michael Brown, a suspect in a shooting at a Montana bar that left four people dead, was apprehended on Friday, Aug. 8, 2025. (The Montana Standard via AP)
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Updated 09 August 2025

Montana bar shooting suspect is captured, ending weeklong search

Montana bar shooting suspect is captured, ending weeklong search
  • Michael Paul Brown was taken into custody around 2 p.m. near the area where authorities had focused their search
  • The shooting rattled the tight-knit town of about 9,000 people and prompted the closure of a 57-square-kilometer stretch of forest

A man suspected in a shooting at a Montana bar that left four people dead was captured Friday just a few miles from where the shooting happened after hundreds of law enforcement officers spent the past week scouring nearby mountainsides, authorities said.

Michael Paul Brown, 45, was taken into custody around 2 p.m. near the area where authorities had focused their search in the days following the Aug. 1 shooting at The Owl Bar in Anaconda, about 190 kilometers) from Missoula.

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said during a news conference that about 130 law enforcement officers made a hard push Thursday after getting tips that helped verify they were looking in the right area.

“It’s not someplace he’d been hiding. He was flushed out,” Knudsen said.

Gov. Greg Gianforte first confirmed Brown’s capture on social media Friday afternoon, saying it was the result of what he called a “Herculean effort” from law enforcement officers across the state.

The community finally would be able to sleep tonight, Anaconda-Deer Valley County Attorney Morgan Smith said, adding that the case is just the beginning for prosecutors who will be seeking to charge Brown with the killings.

It was not immediately clear if Brown had legal representation. Email and phone messages were left Friday with the Montana public defender’s office.

State authorities have not said what sparked last week’s shooting, which left a female bartender and three male patrons dead. The victims were identified as Nancy Lauretta Kelley, 64; Daniel Edwin Baillie, 59; David Allen Leach, 70; and Tony Wayne Palm, 74.

Brown’s niece, Clare Boyle, said Kelley worked previously as an oncology nurse and was a close family friend who helped Brown’s mother when she was sick.

Bar owners from around the state have pledged to donate a portion of sales to a fund for each of the victims’ families.

The shooting rattled the tight-knit town of about 9,000 people and prompted the closure of a 57-square-kilometer stretch of forest as authorities searched for Brown. He had fled from the shooting in a white pickup that he later ditched. Authorities say he later stole another white vehicle stocked with clothes, shoes and camping gear. Earlier in the week, Knudsen had said it didn’t appear that Brown had broken into any homes in the area for food or additional supplies.

Lee Johnson, administrator of the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation, said search teams found Brown at a structure near The Ranch Bar and that he looked to be “in pretty good shape, physically.” He was communicative and able to identify himself, Johnson said. Brown was taken to a hospital for treatment and was medically cleared earlier Friday.

Eric Hempstead, who owns The Ranch Bar, about eight kilometers west of The Owl Bar, described an intense law enforcement presence in the densely wooded area over the last couple of days that involved search dogs and drones.

“The guy was never going to make it out in the open,” he said, noting that he and his neighbors were armed and ready to protect themselves.

Brown, who lived next door to The Owl Bar in Anaconda, served in the Army as an armor crewman from 2001 to 2005 and deployed to Iraq from early 2004 until March 2005. He also was in the Montana National Guard from 2006 to 2009.

Boyle said that her uncle has struggled with mental illness for years, and she and other family members repeatedly sought help for him.

Before Brown’s father died in 2015, Boyle said Brown was “a good, loving uncle.” Then, she and other family members noticed a slip in his mental state. Brown began experiencing delusions and often did not know who, when or where he was. He was an avid hunter and kept guns in his home.

Family members had requested wellness checks when they believed he was becoming a danger to himself, she said. Boyle said Brown would tell authorities he was fine.

The Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Law Enforcement Department did not respond this week to several email and phone messages requesting records of the wellness checks Boyle said they helped conduct on Brown in the years leading up to the shooting.

At the news conference, Knudsen said officials had no comment on whether police had performed wellness checks.

Montana is not among the states that have red flag laws allowing families to formally petition for guns to be removed from the homes of people who are deemed a danger to themselves or others. The state Legislature passed a bill this year banning local governments from enacting their own red flag gun laws. The governor signed it into law in May.


Security tightened in India’s Ladakh after deadly protests

Security tightened in India’s Ladakh after deadly protests
Updated 6 min 50 sec ago

Security tightened in India’s Ladakh after deadly protests

Security tightened in India’s Ladakh after deadly protests
  • At least 4 people reported dead, dozens injured after police open fire on protesters
  • Clashes erupt during hunger strike demanding Ladakh’s autonomy, land protections

NEW DELHI: Indian authorities imposed security restrictions in Ladakh on Thursday, following deadly clashes between police and protesters demanding greater autonomy for the Himalayan region which borders China.

Protests turned violent on Wednesday after demonstrators threw stones at officers trying to disperse them in Leh, Ladakh’s main city, where they torched the regional office of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

The Ministry of Home Affairs confirmed in a statement that the police had fired on the protesters — whom they referred to as a “mob” — and “unfortunately some casualties are reported.”

It said that more than 30 police personnel had been injured, while twice as many protesters were reported by protest organizers to have been wounded.

Following the incidents, restrictions were imposed in Ladakh’s main districts, Leh and Kargil, with markets closed and police and paramilitary troops patrolling the streets.

“The situation is under control, but it is still tense. In Leh there is a curfew in some parts. In Kargil, they have imposed Section 144 — a ban on the assembly of more than four people,” said Sajjad Kargili, member of the Kargil Democratic Alliance and the Leh Apex Body, the political advocacy groups central to the region’s negotiations with the Indian government.

Ladakh is part of greater Kashmiri territory, which has for decades been disputed by India, Pakistan and China.

Ladakh’s Muslim-majority Kargil district was the site of military conflict between India and Pakistan in 1999, while the Buddhist-majority Leh district is where India’s deadly border clashes with China in 2020 led to the freezing of relations for five years.

The region belonged to the Indian-controlled semi-autonomous Jammu and Kashmir state until 2019, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government abolished its statehood and put it under the direct administration of New Delhi.

More than 90 percent of the 230,000 population is listed by the Indian government as Scheduled Tribes — a category which includes tribal and Indigenous communities entitled to land protections.

The local community has been peacefully protesting over the past six years. Led by climate activist Sonam Wangchuk, it has been seeking special status for Ladakh to allow the setting up of elected local bodies to have autonomy over the region’s land and agriculture.

“For the last six years, there have been no jobs, no democracy. The government made promises about implementing the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution that provides greater administrative autonomy and self-governance of tribal areas 
 Even the BJP has promised that,” Kargili told Arab News.

“We don’t have any public service commission. The youth don’t have any jobs. This is the reason for the frustration. People are very upset and frustrated because no one is listening.”

Protesters in Leh city have been on hunger strike for the past 15 days. While a round of talks with the government was scheduled for Oct. 6, Wednesday’s clashes erupted when two elderly strikers collapsed and had to be hospitalized.

“Four youths died in the clash,” Rigzin Wangmo, a Ladakh-based journalist who was at the site, told Arab News.

“We have never seen anything like this before. It was just a normal protest and a peaceful protest followed by a rally. Suddenly, the crowd was not in control, and nobody expected that, not even the police.”


Portugal’s Azores brace for Hurricane Gabrielle

Updated 8 sec ago

Portugal’s Azores brace for Hurricane Gabrielle

Portugal’s Azores brace for Hurricane Gabrielle
“The archipelago will feel the first effects from late Thursday afternoon,” the Portuguese meteorological office said
On Thursday night, the eye of the storm will barrel through the Azores’ two western islands and then its five central islands, which are on red alert

SANTA CRUZ DAS FLORES, Portugal: Hurricane Gabrielle is forecast to batter the Portuguese Azores archipelago on Thursday with winds of 200 kilometers (124 miles) per hour and waves higher than 10 meters (33 feet).
“The archipelago will feel the first effects from late Thursday afternoon,” the Portuguese meteorological office (IPMA) said in its latest update on the popular tourist destination.
Gabrielle, which was still classified as a Category 3 hurricane on Wednesday evening, is expected to lose momentum and reach the Azores from the west as a Category 1 hurricane, the IPMA said.
Later becoming a “post-tropical depression,” Gabrielle will make landfall in mainland Portugal on Saturday.
On Thursday night, the eye of the storm will barrel through the Azores’ two western islands and then its five central islands, which are on red alert.
The regional government has ordered schools and public buildings on the seven islands of the Western and Central Groups to close for 24 hours from 6:00 p.m. local time (1600 GMT).
The Eastern Group, comprising the two remaining islands in the archipelago and a cluster of islets, have not received similar orders.
Winds could attain 150 kph in the western islands of Flores and Corvo before strengthening to up to 200 kph in the central islands of Faial, Pico, Sao Jorge, Terceira and Graciosa.
The ocean is expected to be rough with swells of eight to 10 meters. Waves could reach heights of 14-18 meters.
The regional civil protection service has urged islanders to limit their movements to those strictly necessary, avoid all activity at sea and secure their homes by strengthening roofs, doors and windows.
The district of Santa Cruz das Flores, in the north of Flores island, remained calm on Thursday morning but local fishermen said they were afraid violent waves would damage the port.
Firefighters in Flores told an AFP photographer they were worried that the intense rainfall forecast for the evening might trigger landslides.

Norway police seize drone operated by foreigner near Oslo airport

Norway police seize drone operated by foreigner near Oslo airport
Updated 3 min 22 sec ago

Norway police seize drone operated by foreigner near Oslo airport

Norway police seize drone operated by foreigner near Oslo airport
  • The incident came after reports of drone sightings forced temporary shutdowns at Scandinavian airports
  • Lokke said that “At this stage, we see no connection” between these incidents

OSLO: Norwegian authorities have seized a drone operated by a foreigner near Oslo’s airport, after drones led to several flight disruptions in Norway and Denmark this week, a prosecutor with Norway’s police said Thursday.
A man, in his 50s, was flying the drone Wednesday evening in a restricted area, but it did not affect air traffic, Lisa Mari Lokke, head of prosecutions at Norway’s eastern police district, told AFP.
He was not arrested but will be questioned by police, she added, declining to specify the man’s nationality.
“Yesterday around 9:00 p.m. (1900 GMT) police were informed that a drone had entered the no-fly zone of Oslo airport,” Lokke said.
“When we arrived at the site, we found a man in his fifties piloting the drone,” she said, adding that police then landed and seized the device.
The incident came after reports of drone sightings forced temporary shutdowns at Scandinavian airports this week, including in Copenhagen and Oslo.
But Lokke said that “At this stage, we see no connection” between these incidents.
Overnight Monday to Tuesday, air traffic at the Oslo airport was suspended for about three hours after a possible drone sighting was reported.
Lokke said lights had been seen in the air and an investigation was underway to determine whether it had been a drone.


Nigeria top court takes up WhatsApp blasphemy case

Nigeria top court takes up WhatsApp blasphemy case
Updated 14 min 15 sec ago

Nigeria top court takes up WhatsApp blasphemy case

Nigeria top court takes up WhatsApp blasphemy case
  • The Kano State High Court later overturned the conviction but also ordered a retrial
  • Harsh punishments for violations of Islamic law are rarely handed out — and almost never implemented

ABUJA: Nigeria’s Supreme Court held its first hearing in a high-profile blasphemy case Thursday that defense lawyers hope will lead to a ruling that puts curbs on sharia law.
Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, a Sufi Muslim musician, was sentenced to death by a sharia court in Nigeria’s northern Kano state in 2020 for sharing song lyrics deemed to insult the Prophet Muhammad.
The Kano State High Court later overturned the conviction but also ordered a retrial — an outcome his lawyers are trying to prevent while seeking a wider ruling on punishments for violating sharia law, including the death penalty for blasphemy and adultery.
“All various aspects of the sharia penal code that offend the constitution and Nigeria’s international obligations, we cannot have on our statute books,” lawyer Kola Alapinni told reporters after the court granted an extension for his team to file their appeal.
Though Nigeria’s federal government is secular, sharia law operates alongside common law in 12 mostly Muslim northern states.
Harsh punishments for violations of Islamic law are rarely handed out — and almost never implemented. Death sentences for adultery and blasphemy since the courts were established 25 years ago, have either been overturned or paused pending appeal.
However, mobs in the socially conservative north have been known to carry out vigilante justice for alleged blasphemy.
As the case has wound its way to Nigeria’s highest court, civil and religious liberties advocates from the United States, European Union and United Nations have voiced support for Sharif-Aminu.
In April, the international court for the west African regional bloc, the Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States, determined Kano’s death penalty for blasphemy was “excessive and disproportionate.”
Nigeria has not enforced the ruling.
Sharif-Aminu is alleged to have shared lyrics in a WhatsApp group that said that a Muslim religious leader he followed was more pious than the Prophet Muhammad, Islam’s founder, Alapinni told AFP.
Lamido Abba Sorondinki, a lawyer for the Kano state government, told reporters that “anybody that has uttered any word that touches the integrity of the holy prophet, we’ll punish him.”
Standing next to him, Alapinni laughed and quipped: “My learned friend is not the Supreme Court — that’s just the opposition.”
Sharif-Aminu remains in detention as his appeal continues.


UK’s Palestine recognition ‘worthless’ without action against Israeli aggression: British flotilla member

UK’s Palestine recognition ‘worthless’ without action against Israeli aggression: British flotilla member
Updated 14 min 57 sec ago

UK’s Palestine recognition ‘worthless’ without action against Israeli aggression: British flotilla member

UK’s Palestine recognition ‘worthless’ without action against Israeli aggression: British flotilla member
  • Louie-Joe Findlater calls for sanctions, expulsion of diplomats after aid flotilla attacked by drones
  • British citizens on board do not ‘feel protected in the slightest’ by London’s lack of response

LONDON: The UK’s recognition of Palestine is “worthless” if London does not act to stop Israeli aggression against its citizens, a British man aboard a flotilla trying to breach the blockade of Gaza has warned.

Louie-Joe Findlater, 33, is traveling as part of the 52-boat Global Sumud Flotilla taking aid to the besieged Palestinian enclave.
The flotilla has come under pressure from signal jamming and drones, which the GSF said “launched explosives and gases on boats.”

Findlater called on the UK to take concrete steps to pressure Israel, including taking “solid actions like sanctions, like expelling ambassadors and diplomats.”
He added that British citizens taking part in the flotilla do not “feel protected in the slightest” by London’s lack of response.

Findlater told the PA news agency: “We’re making all the best decisions we can, but ultimately, we’re a boat floating at sea and we need the protection of our governments to guarantee that we’re going to stay safe.”

He said they were “under attack,” he had witnessed “enormous flashes, explosions and loud bangs,” and “recognition (of Palestine) alone is worthless if they (the UK government) don’t actually take action to protect their citizens 
 when they’re on a humanitarian aid mission through international waters, legal by all international law.”

He added: “We need to make sure we can get that aid to Gaza, and if they really do recognise Palestine, they should recognise our right to do so and the right of the Palestinians to receive that 
 We are obviously very concerned about our security.”

The activity against the GSF has prompted international condemnation, with Findlater’s local MP Neil Duncan-Jordan urging the UK government to step in on behalf of Britons on the flotilla.

He wrote in a letter to Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper that he is “deeply alarmed by the increasingly concerning rhetoric from the Israeli Foreign Ministry towards the Freedom Flotilla, a group of boats delivering vital humanitarian aid to Gaza,” adding: “I request that you set out how the United Kingdom will uphold the human rights of the humanitarian volunteers within the Freedom Flotilla. Louie must be allowed to deliver aid without obstruction.”

Other nations with citizens aboard the flotilla have been stronger in their stance. Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said Rome has deployed a frigate to the area the flotilla is currently in, off the coast of the Greek island of Crete, “for possible rescue operations,” adding: “In a democracy, demonstrations and forms of protest must also be protected when they are carried out in accordance with international law and without resorting to violence.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said international law needs to be upheld and “the right of our citizens to navigate the Mediterranean safely be respected.”