The BBC seems to have a problem with its sentence structure. I originally heard this headline read aloud, and thought it was terrible. Now they have put it in print, as well:

Suspected left-wing rebels in Colombia killed 17 peasants at a party to celebrate New Year's Eve, police say.

Who was at a party? What was the celebratory action? Ordinarily grammar mistakes aren't quite so gruesome, but I really did find this one inexcusable.

"Suspected left-wing rebels in Colombia killed 17 peasants at a party to celebrate New Year's Eve, police say." And that, my friends, is a perfect example of the grammar mistake everyone loves to say but doesn't really know what it means--the Dangling Participle. The participle in question being "killed" and "to celebrate New Year's Eve" is the dangling part--who's celebrating New Year's Eve?

And now we know. It's really terrible that I was allowed to teach English for two years - I couldn't have come up with that term if my life depended on it. Interestingly, the French version of the story made this error as well, but by not trying to cram too much information into one sentence, they managed to extricate themselves before it became as bad as the BBC version.