Josh Powell: "I'm sorry, goodbye" note left before killing himself, kids in house blast

(CBS/AP) GRAHAM, Wash. - "I'm sorry, goodbye," is what Josh Powell wrote in a farewell note to his attorney just minutes before police say he set fire to his home Sunday, killing himself and his two young sons.


For the last two years, Powell has been scrutinized in the media, hammered by police and questioned by judges, prosecutors and social workers since the day his wife vanished in 2009.

The alleged murder-suicide occurred just days after he was denied custody and ordered to undergo a psycho-sexual evaluation.

The deadly fire at Powell's home brought another twist in the public scandal that began when Susan Powell vanished. The case became a saga of accusations of sex and lies and now the loss of two young boys in caught in the middle.

A social worker brought the two boys to Powell's home Sunday for what was supposed to be a supervised visit. They rushed towards the home, leaving the social worker behind. By the time she got to the door, Powell had locked her out, Graham Fire and Rescue Chief Gary Franz said.

The social worker called her supervisors to report she smelled gas. Moments later, the home burst into flames. The blast was so intense, neighbors said it rattled their houses.

The Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Ed Troyer said it seemed some sort of accelerant was used to make the house burn faster. He said that emails Powell sent just before the blaze seemed to confirm Powell planned the fire.

Susan Powell, 28, was reported missing Dec. 7, 2009, after she failed to show up to her work in Utah.

Josh Powell quickly became a person of interest in the case, but he had repeatedly denied any involvement in her disappearance, saying he was out camping with his two sons when she went missing. He was the only "person of interest" in the case.

"I would never even hurt her," a tearful Josh Powell told CBS' The Early Show in August. "People who know me know that I could never hurt Susan," he said.

On Sunday, the attorney for Susan Powell's parents, Chuck and Judy Cox, told the Associated Press the children had started talking to the grandparents about things they remembered from the night their mother disappeared.

"They were beginning to verbalize more," the attorney Steve Downing said. "The oldest boy talked about that they went camping and that Mommy was in the trunk. Mom and Dad got out of the car and Mom disappeared."

In a statement Sunday night from West Valley City police, authorities said the investigation will remain ongoing as they work to find Susan Powell. It said Utah police were headed to Washington state to work with investigators there in the continuing probe.

Kirk Graves, 39, of West Jordan, Utah, whose wife is Josh Powell's sister, said they were stunned by the news.

"We never contemplated the idea he would do something like this. You just don't expect it from a father," he said. "His world was falling apart around him and he was going to lose his boys and get arrested for Susan's disappearance. He's a narcissist and he has no love for anyone but himself."

Tornado devastates Joplin, Missouri, leaves 89 dead

JOPLIN, Missouri (Reuters) - A monster tornado nearly a mile wide killed at least 89 people in Joplin, Missouri when it tore through the heart of the small Midwestern city, ripping the roof off a hospital and destroying thousands of homes and businesses, local officials said on Monday.

U.S. weather officials said the tornado that hit at dinnertime on Sunday may have been the single deadliest in the country since 1953.
Rescue crews from throughout the region worked all night and battled a driving rain and thunder storm on Monday morning in the town of about 50,000 people, searching for anyone still alive in the rubble.
More than 500 people were confirmed injured, many with massive internal injuries, officials said. The number of dead and injured was expected to climb as rescue workers dig through collapsed homes and businesses.
A number of bodies were found along the city's "restaurant row," on the main commercial street and a local nursing home took a direct hit, Newton County Coroner Mark Bridges said.
At St. Johns Hospital in Joplin, 180 patients cowered as the fierce winds blew out windows and pulled off the roof. Others took refuge in restaurant coolers, huddled in closets, or just ran for their lives.
Roaring along a path nearly six miles long and about 1/2 mile to 3/4 mile wide, it flattened whole neighborhoods, splintered trees, flipped cars and trucks upside down and into each other. Some 2,000 homes and many other businesses, schools and other buildings were destroyed.
An estimated 20,000 homes and businesses were without power on Monday morning.
"It is a significant tragedy," said Missouri Governor Jay Nixon. "We're working on all cylinders. We've got to get an active and complete search ... to make sure if there is anyone still alive in the rubble that we get them out."
The city's residents were given about 20 minutes notice when 25 warning sirens sounded throughout the southwest Missouri town around 6 p.m. CDT, said Jasper County Emergency Management ... (reuters)

Eminem, Justin Bieber scoop Billboard Music Awards

* Rihanna wins top female artist prize
By Christine Kearney
NEW YORK, May 22 (Reuters) - Eminem and teen idol Justin
honor for artist of the year.
With Eminem absent, Bieber helped lead the way om stage
was once an annual event following a four-year hiatus.
Sporting his now short, spiky hair and a sparkling gold
get to make so many people smile."
The Canadian pop star, who has gained a huge following of
helped me get out of my home town and live my dream."
Detroit native Eminem, who released the critical and
rap song and rap album.
Rihanna, 23, kicked off the show with a performance of
including top female and top radio artist of the year.
She thanked her biggest fan devotees, who call themselves
did not attend the awards.
Katy Perry won awards for top hot 100 artist and top
the top hot 100 song of the year for his hit, "Dynamite."
"Need You Now," by Lady Antebellum won country song of the
Billboard.
Taylor Swift, 21, who has swept music award shows in the
new album in five years.
Accepting the top duo or group award for the The Black Eyed
technology we wouldn't be here as an industry."
Beyonce was honored with the Millennium Award for her
musical influence and hailed as a role model for women.
Neil Diamond, 70, won the icon award before performing his
Urban, Nicki Minaj and singer Cee Lo Green.
U2 won the top touring award for its current "U2 360
become the highest-grossing tour of all time.
"You can make classic albums in your bedroom and you can
we just don't do that," U2 frontman Bono told the audience.
The awards, with eligibility from Feb 28, 2010 to March 1,
streaming and popularity on social media sites.
(Editing by Eric Walsh)

... (reuters)

Afghan Taliban say leader Mullah Omar 'safe and sound'

KABUL (Reuters) - The Afghan Taliban rejected as "propaganda" on Monday unsourced media reports that their reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, had been killed in Pakistan, saying he was alive and in Afghanistan and vowing to continue their insurgency.

Security officials in Pakistan and diplomats, U.S. military commanders and government officials in Afghanistan all cast doubt on reports that Omar, one of the most-wanted men in the world, had been killed while traveling between Quetta and North Waziristan in Pakistan.
"He is in Afghanistan safe and sound," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location. "We strongly reject these baseless allegations that Mullah Mohammad Omar has been killed."
"This is the propaganda by the enemy to weaken the morale of fighters."
A spokesman for the Afghan intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), said its sources knew that Mullah Omar had been living in the Pakistani town of Quetta in the Baluchistan region of Pakistan but had recently gone missing.
"We can confirm that he has been disappeared from his hideout in Quetta in Baluchistan for the last four or five days," NDS spokesman Lutfullah Mashal told a news conference.
"We can't confirm if he is dead or alive."
The heavily bearded, one-eyed Omar is rarely seen in public.
With a million U.S. bounty on his head, he fled with the rest of the Afghan Taliban leadership to Quetta after their government was toppled by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001. They formed the "Quetta shura," or leadership council.
The Taliban were overthrown for refusing to hand over al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Bin Laden was killed by a U.S. Navy SEAL team in a garrison town not far from the Pakistan capital, Islamabad, on May 2, ending a search that had dragged on for more than 10 years.
Bin Laden's killing came as a blow to an already splintered al Qaeda, but its ef ... (reuters)

Journalists and conspiracy theories abound in Karachi

KARACHI (Reuters) - A huge billboard outside Pakistan's naval air force headquarters, which came under sustained attack for hours on Monday, says it all -- "Pakistan Air Force Museum. Unique experience."

Attacks against Pakistan security forces are all too common, but the scale of Monday's operation marked it out as the most audacious since the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by U.S. forces early this month.
Blasts rang out and helicopters hovered above the PNS Mehran base in the commercial hub of Karachi, for hours after more than 20 Pakistani Taliban militants stormed the building with guns and grenades on Sunday night, blowing up at least one aircraft.
The Pakistan Taliban, which is allied with al Qaeda, said the attack was to avenge bin Laden's killing. At least 12 military personnel were killed and 14 wounded.
It was not clear how many of the militants were killed.
"If these people can just enter a military base like this, then how can any Pakistani feel safe?" asked Mazhar Iqbal, 28, engineering company administrator taking a lunch break in the shade outside the complex where a crowd had gathered on a patch of grass to watch journalists set up camp as much as anything.
He said he was from an insecure area of the southern city already infamous as a source of funding for militant groups.
"The government and the army are just corrupt. We need new leaders with a vision for Pakistan."
Karachi has a population of about 18 million people, a volatile mix of rival ethnic groups and political factions, who all to readily resort to violence to settle scores.
Sprawling along the sun-baked coast of the Arabian Sea, the city is also home to Pakistan's main port, financial markets and the central bank.
It is also a transit point for military and other supplies to Afghanistan for the U.S.- and NATO-led anti-insurgency effort there.
QUESTIONS
The navy base is ringed with a concrete wall with about five feet of barbed wire on top. An aircraft, armed with rockets, ... (reuters)

Pakistan retakes naval base after attack

KARACHI (Reuters) - Troops recaptured a Pakistani naval air force base on Monday after a 16-hour battle with as few as six Taliban gunmen who had launched their attack to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden.

The assault casts fresh doubt on the military's ability to protect its bases after a raid on the army headquarters in the city of Rawalpindi in 2009 and is a further embarrassment following the surprise raid by U.S. special forces on the al Qaeda leader's hideout north of Islamabad on May 2.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said just six militants were believed involved in the attack on the PNS Mehran base in Karachi late on Sunday, destroying two aircraft and laying siege to a main building in one of the most heavily guarded bases in the unstable, nuclear-armed country.
"When they fired the first rockets, they were intercepted," said Pakistan's navy chief Admiral Noman Bashir. "Then they could not launch another attack on other aircraft and they tried to hide." He said it took three to four hours to sketch out a plan to contain the militants.
At least 10 military personnel were killed and 20 wounded in the assault that started at 10.30 p.m. on Sunday (1730 GMT), a navy spokesman said.
Malik said three militants were killed in the gunbattle while the body of a fourth was believed to be buried under the rubble of a collapsed wall. Two suspects were believed to have fled the scene, he added.
One of two attackers hiding in the building blew himself up while two others were gunned down elsewhere, Bashir said.
The Pakistan Taliban, who are allied with al Qaeda, said they had staged the attack to avenge bin Laden's death.
"It was the revenge of martyrdom of Osama bin Laden. It was the proof that we are still united and powerful," Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.
LADDERS, GUNS, GRENADES
Malik said the militants, aged between 20 and 25, used two ladders to scale the walls of the base and jumped in by cutting b ... (reuters)

Obama visits family roots in Ireland

DUBLIN (Reuters) - President Barack Obama declared solidarity between the United States and economically struggling Ireland with a symbolic gulp of beer and a rousing speech, telling a huge Dublin crowd on Monday: "Your best days are still ahead."

Beginning a four-nation European tour with a celebration of his Irish roots, Obama came to Ireland as what one man called a "long-lost cousin."
Crowds packed the streets for both a stirring speech in Dublin and a visit to the tiny village of Moneygall, where an ancestor of Obama's lived before moving to the United States.
Introduced by Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny as "the American Dream come home," Obama told the throng in central Dublin: "My name is Barack Obama, of the Moneygall Obamas."
For Ireland, Obama's arrival, and the visit of Britain's Queen Elizabeth last week, are a welcome distraction from the global attention paid to its financial woes and the ensuing international bailout.
Obama was also due to visit Britain, France and Poland on a week-long trip whose agenda includes talks on issues as Afghanistan and Pakistan after the killing of Osama bin Laden, the world economy and the "Arab spring" uprisings.
AUSTERITY
Ireland's economic slump has led to a debt crisis and drastic government spending cuts. Apart from lifting the spirits of the Irish, the visit looked set to provide some powerful images back home for Obama's 2012 re-election campaign.
He brought back the signature phrase from his 2008 presidential campaign, "Yes we can," but said it in Gaelic.
"This little country that inspires the biggest things -- your best days are still ahead," Obama said.
"And Ireland, if anyone ever says otherwise ... remember that, whatever hardships winter can bring, springtime is always just around the corner and, if they keep on arguing with you, just respond with a simple creed, 'Is feidir linn', Yes we can."
At O'Neill's pub in Dublin, revelers cheered and some chanted "USA! USA!" as the president emerged on stage for h ... (reuters)