Editorial Briefs of Ft. Wayne, Indiana

On Saturday in Mahmudiya, Shiite militiamen kidnapped a 14-year-old Sunni boy named Omar and brought him to a remote compound. The fighters buried Omar up to his neck, then killed him by taking shots at his head.

Later this week, a sheep seller was killed in Tikrit when a bomb hidden under a teenage girl’s severed head exploded as he lifted it.

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In LaPorte, a police officer checking out a tip found a marijuana plant three feet tall growing in a brick planter downtown.

The planters are maintained by members of LaPorte’s Business Improvement District, a group of local business owners who for years have organized volunteers to weed each of the 130-plus planters.

The president of the Business Improvement District told The News-Dispatch of Michigan City that the marijuana probably was planted as a joke. Or was it a suggestion for boosting restaurant traffic? In any case, police pulled the plant and later smoked destroyed it.

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