// a href = ./ //

A small town police chief is now unemployed, and he says it's because he criticized the Montgomery County prosecutor's handling of a burglar investigation. Mike Bland was fired from his post with the Bellflower, Missouri Police Department.

Bland's firing notice indicates that he was terminated for failing to get permission from city officials prior to an interview with Fox 2 News.

Bland told Fox 2 he had permission from the Mayor of Bellflower and he has the phone records to prove it. "There was numerous calls made between her and I about this exact case," Bland said. "And not only that, witnesses to the phone call itself."

Bland had criticized county prosecutors for failing to charge three burglary suspects who had confessed to the crimes.

In a statement Montgomery County’s Prosecuting Attorney said there had not been sufficient documentation to file criminal charges.

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) - The first buses carrying passengers from a disabled cruise ship are pulling away to take them to next stop on their odyssey.

The cruise ship terminal in Mobile, Ala., was raucous late Thursday as passengers streamed off the Triumph.

What was supposed to be a pampered voyage changed for the worse when an engine fire Sunday knocked out primary power to the ship.

After, the trip was marked by overflowing toilets, food shortages and foul odors.

Carnival said passengers have the option of a seven-hour bus ride to the Texas cities of Galveston or Houston or a two-hour trip to New Orleans. Some also can stay in Mobile.

All passengers had disembarked by 1:00 a.m. Central Time.

The Associate Press posted video of interviews with some of the passengers as they left the ship.

MOSCOW (AP) -- A meteor streaked across the sky above Russia's Ural Mountains on Friday morning, causing sharp explosions and injuring more than 1000 people, many of them hurt by broken glass.

"There was panic. People had no idea what was happening. Everyone was going around to people's houses to check if they were OK," said Sergey Hametov, a resident of Chelyabinsk, about 1500 kilometers (930 miles) east of Moscow, the biggest city in the affected region.

"We saw a big burst of light then went outside to see what it was and we heard a really loud thundering sound," he told The Associated Press by telephone.

Fragments of the meteor fell in a thinly populated area of the Chelyabinsk region, the Emergency Ministry said in a statement.

Interior Ministry spokesman Vadim Kolesnikov said more than 400 people had sought medical treatment after the blasts, and at least three had been hospitalized in serious condition. Many of the injuries were from glass broken by the explosions.

Kolsenikov also said about 600 square meters (6000 square feet) of a roof at a zinc factory had collapsed.

Reports conflicted on what exactly happened in the clear skies. A spokeswoman for the Emergency Ministry, Irina Rossius, told The Associated Press that there was a meteor shower, but another ministry spokeswoman, Elena Smirnikh, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying it was a single meteorite.

Amateur video broadcast on Russian television showed an object speeding across the sky about 9:20 a.m. local time (0320 GMT), leaving a thick white contrail and an intense flash.

Russian news reports noted that the meteor hit less than a day before the asteroid 2012 DA14 is to make the closest recorded pass of an asteroid -- about 17,150 miles (28,000 kilometers). There was no immediate demonstrable connection.

Russia Today posted videos of the meteorite streaking over Chelyanbinsk.