WASHINGTON (AFP) — A US woman was arrested this week after she allegedly tried to hire a hitman to murder her married lover’s wife by posting an ad on the popular website craigslist, law enforcement officials said Sunday.

Anne Marie, 48, from Grand Rapids, Michigan offered www.craigslist.org users the chance to kill Carol, a 56-year-old woman in California, in a vaguely worded free ad under the category of “Freelance,” according to court documents.

Two women and one man responded to the ad, with at least one applicant believing it to be an offer for freelance writing work. During subsequent emails, Anne Marie divulged that the task was actually a hit.

“Marie informed (one of the people who responded) that she was looking for ’silent assassins’ and she asked him to eradicate a targeted victim,” offered 5,000 dollars for the job and provided the address, name, age and occupation of the man’s wife.

“Asked what she meant by ‘eradicate,’ Anne Marie said ‘Duh. Well to have her killed,” the court documents said.

The woman, who also goes by the name Anne Marie Linscott, was charged with three counts relating to murder for hire and using interstate commerce to commit a felony.

“This complex investigation was initiated in November 2007 and we have been very concerned for the well being of the victim,” said Butte County Sheriff Perry Reniff, according to a statement released by the Sacramento FBI.

The potential victim’s husband “acknowledged meeting Linscott through an on-line college course in 2004 or 2005,” and said “he and Linscott developed a very deep and intimate online relationship,” the FBI statement said.

The pair met for sex on at least two separate occasions in 2005 and 2007, and “have continued to communicate via telephone and email.”

Asked by law enforcement officials how she would feel if her target were murdered by a respondee on craigslist, the suspect “stated she would be scared that law enforcement would track it back to her,” court documents said.

I wish!  With the price of gas lately!  I could see getting away with it once but every Sunday?  Come on, thats just begging to be caught!

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. – For people in a West Virginia community, Madeline Jordan may have been the right person to know.

She worked at a gas station — where, police say, she would re-set the price at the pumps every Sunday morning, and sell gasoline to family and friends for just a tenth of a penny per gallon.

The owner of the station says he noticed a significant drop in his income, and found receipts that listed the deeply discounted rate.

Jordan is accused of defrauding her boss out of nearly $50,000 over the course of several months.

Also under arrest: Her mother, her brother, a cousin and two others. They were arrested after police set up a sting operation at the station in South Charleston.

MOSCOW – Returning home after an absence can mean unpleasant surprises — a leaky roof, a pet’s mess, even a break-in. But a Russian woman got a nastier surprise when she returned from her country house: Her home was gone, torn down mistakenly by construction workers clearing a site, according to a report Thursday on NTV television.

“There was nothing left, not even a log,” Lyudmila Martemyanova said, bundled against the cold and standing on a snow-covered lot in the center of the Volga River city of Nizhny Novgorod.

A local prosecutor, Nikolai Govorkov, said a construction company tore down the wrong building — Martemyanova’s, instead of one nearby that was marked for demolition.

Many Russians have faced what they say are unfair and inadequately compensated evictions from older housing being torn down amid the country’s oil-revenue-fueled construction boom.

Martemyanova’s case is extreme, however, and she has taken it to court. She refused the builder’s offer of money, saying it wasn’t enough even to get a room on the outskirts of the city, and has sued.

Court hearings started Thursday. Meanwhile, she’s shuttling back and forth between her daughter’s and her sister’s, she told NTV.

Thanks MSNBC

Those must have been some bug underwear.  from AP.

 LONDON – From baggy knickers to the ultimate hotpants: Jenny Marsey’s miraculous underwear saved the day by doubling as an emergency fire blanket when her kitchen caught alight.

Son John Marsey and his cousin Darren Lines were frying bread in her kitchen Sunday when fire broke out and Lines grabbed the nearest thing from a pile of washing to put it out — his aunt’s billowing, extra-large, powder blue underwear.

He doused it with water, tossed it over the fire and put out the flames, said a spokesman for the local Cleveland Fire Brigade, speaking anonymously in line with department policy.

Lines’ swift thinking saved the kitchen of the home at Hartlepool, northeast England, but left Marsey’s underwear slightly scorched.

“It could have been a lot worse,” said Marsey. “My family could have been in hospital but the knickers saved the day. I’m just grateful to the boys.”

The fire brigade spokesman said that the general principle — using a large, wet cloth to cover a grease fire — was a sound one. As for using underwear: “Clearly it depends on what size you are,” he said, “but I don’t want to go there.”

HOUMA, La. – A 6-foot-3, 265-pound man says a restaurant overcharged him for his trips to the buffet line, then banned him and a relative because they’re hearty eaters. A spokesman for the restaurant denies the claim.

Ricky Labit, a disabled offshore worker, said he had been a regular for eight months at the Manchuria Restaurant in Houma, eating there as often as three times a week.

On his most recent visit, he said, a waitress gave him and his wife’s cousin, 44-year-old Michael Borrelli, a bill for $46.40, roughly double the buffet price for two adults.

“She says, ‘Y’all fat, and y’all eat too much,’” Labit said.

Labit and Borrelli said they felt discriminated against because of their size. “I was stunned, that somebody would say something like that. I ain’t that fat, I only weigh 277,” Borrelli said, adding that a waitress told him he looked like he a had a “baby in the belly.”

Houma accountant Thomas Campo said the men were charged an extra $10 each on Dec. 21 because they made a habit of dining exclusively on the more expensive seafood dishes, including crab legs and frog legs.

“We have a lot of big people there,” said Campo, who spoke for owner Li Shang, whose English is limited. “We don’t discriminate.”

Labit denied ever being told he would be asked to pay more than the standard adult price.

The argument grew heated, and police were called.

The police report states, “The incident was settled when the management advised that the bill was a mistake and, to appease Ricky, the meal was complimentary.”

Labit said he insisted on paying but was told not to come back. He complained that when seafood on the buffet line runs out, the restaurant only grudgingly cooks more.

Campo said the proprietress tries to reduce waste of quality food, he said.

“Food is for eating, not toys for your child,” reads a sign posted on a wall in typewritten text. A handwritten addition reads “Or 20% added.”

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