`The gate at the entrance to this tiny Sicilian village has come off its hinges and swings in the wind as cats wander into homes abandoned after a series of mystery fires.
Spontaneous fires started in mid-January in the town of Canneto di Caronia, in about 20 houses. After a brief respite last month, the almost daily fires have flared up again – even though electricity to the village was cut off.
An endless flow of scientists, engineers, police and even a few self-styled “ghostbusters” have descended on the town, searching for clues to the recent spontaneous combustion of everything from fuse boxes to microwave ovens to a car.
The blazes, originally blamed on the devil, have not hurt anyone.’
`Seven RMIT staff working just metres underneath two mobile phone towers in a Melbourne CBD building have been diagnosed with brain tumours.
The cases have forced the university to evacuate the two top floors of the Tivoli building and begin immediate health and safety testing.
The seven business faculty staff work on the top two floors of the Bourke St building and have developed tumours in the past seven years.
Two of the cases are cancerous. The remaining five are benign, or non-cancerous, brain tumours.’
`A knife-wielding mugger who robbed a woman of her bags before discovering they were full of dog mess has been jailed for four years.
David Carlisle, 32, forced 52-year-old Marion Budd to hand over the bags at knifepoint last July as she walked her dog in Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol.
When he realised what he had taken, Carlisle, a drug addict and father-of -four, fled the scene empty-handed.
The bungling would-be thief was jailed after admitting attempted robbery.’
`Midvale police are on the lookout for a man who allegedly tried to kidnap a 13 year old boy while he walked to school Tuesday morning.
Brendon Nichol tells police that he noticed a man following him almost from the moment he left his home headed to Midvale Middle School around 7:00 a.m.
“That’s when I took out my notepad and pencil and started looking at his facial expression and how big he was,” says Nichol.
Nichol also says the man followed him for several blocks, and then finally approached the boy from behind, getting him in a headlock. “My first reaction was to pick it up and stab him like this and it broke off somewhere in his face.” Nichol says.’
`A McHenry County man is suing his marriage counselor, contending the therapist he hired to help improve his marriage instead began an affair with his wife.
That relationship eventually prompted the couple to divorce, according to the breach-of-contract suit filed by 35-year-old Scott Buetow of Lake in the Hills. [..]
The lawsuit filed by Buetow in McHenry County also accuses Blair — a state-licensed clinical professional counselor — of fraud and professional malpractice. [..]
Despite the alleged relationship, Blair continued counseling Buetow and worked “to undermine the marriage to his benefit by tendering poor advice,” the suit contends.’
`An honors student at New Brighton Area High School has been expelled after a strange set of circumstances.
At an all-school assembly on Tuesday, a motivational speaker told Corey Johnson he looks like Osama Bin Laden.
Johnson says he was teased about it for two straight days, and finally snapped, saying if he were Osama he’d have pulled a “Columbine” – referring to a deadly school shooting at Columbine High School.
A teacher overheard the and the school expelled him.’
‘Two kids think it would be funny to dress up like a Lama and walk around other Lamas. The fun starts to end when a male Lama is turned on by the impresonators.’
(1.8meg Windows media)
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`Four bus loads of students from O’Brien Middle School made the four-hour trip to Six Flags Marine World in Vallejo, Calif., only to find the amusement park’s gates locked Monday. The school-sponsored trip was supposed to reward top students.
“It was pretty much a fiasco,” said Washoe County School District spokesman Steve Mulvenon. “They ended up wasting a day that those kids could have better spent in class or doing what they were going to do at the park.”
School officials said the $50 fee will be refunded, and the tour company that arranged the trip has agreed to pay for the next one. “The tour company neglected to check the schedule,” Mulvenon said.’
`Police in Sierra Leone are on the hunt for a group of chimpanzees, who escaped from their wildlife sanctuary after a fatal attack on construction workers.
Armed reinforcements are combing the area after a Sierra Leonean died and two Americans were seriously injured. [..]
A worker at Tacugama told the BBC that some 24 chimpanzees had escaped, and six had already returned.
Armed police arrived after the attack and fired shots which caused panic among local people.’
`A carpenter who keeps his clothes clean by working in the nude was arrested after a client returned home early and found him building bookcases in the buff.
Percy Honniball, 50, was charged with misdemeanor indecent exposure this week for the October incident.
He told officers he stripped before crawling under the client’s house to do electrical work because he didn’t want to soil his clothes, police said.
Honniball said Thursday that working in the nude gave him a better range of motion and that a skilled craftsman can work clothing — and injury — free.’
`A man who claims he mistakenly had sex with “the wrong woman” after entering a dark bedroom at the home of a Sydney magazine editor was yesterday committed to stand trial for rape.
Paul John Chappell, 31, was invited back to the editor’s Bondi flat after they met during a night out.
The pair went to bed and Chappell later got up to use the bathroom.
But Chappell claims he mistakenly returned to the wrong bedroom, where the editor’s 23-year-old flatmate was asleep.
He got into bed with the flatmate and initiated sex, allegedly believing she was the other woman.
The flatmate participated because she thought it was her own boyfriend who had come to bed after falling asleep in the loungeroom.’
`Two men have suffered terrifying visual and auditory hallucinations after eating a popular local seafish in Mediterranean restaurants.
According to a clinical study on the patients, which is due to be published in the journal Clinical Toxicology, the men started seeing and hearing things after contracting a rare form of hallucinogenic poisoning from the Salema fish they were dining on.
The species is a popular food fish and is not normally hallucinogenic.
Ichthyoallyeinotoxism, or hallucinogenic fish poisoning, is caused by eating the heads or body parts of certain species of herbivorous fish and has previously only been recorded from the Indo Pacific.
The effects of eating ichthyoallyeinotoxic fishes, such as certain mullet, goatfish, tangs, damsels and rabbitfish, are believed to be similar to LSD, and may include vivid and terrifying auditory and visual hallucinations. This has given rise to the collective common name for ichthyoallyeinotoxic fishes of “dream fish”.’
`In an odd twist of fate, a sister caught her sister’s last minutes alive – without even knowing.
Maria Ramoutar and her sister were in separate cars on their way back from Miami Beach when Maria saw a fiery car crash. She decided to videotape it with her cell phone.
Four people inside that burning car died, including Maria’s sister.
Maria didn’t find out it was her sister till the next day. Now she says she wishes she would have done something to save her.’
`A man portraying Jesus during a passion play in Mexico City has been taken to hospital after he fell from the cross.
The 29-year-old actor hit his head on the ground after falling up to three metres yesterday as he was being lowered to be laid in a tomb, television reports said.’
`Test of a Fire Fighting Foam system at Ellsworth AFB. This was only supposed to last a few seconds, but the system would not shut-off.’
`A three-year-old required hospital treatment after becoming stuck to a toilet seat in a bowling alley which had been smeared with glue.
Lucy Richmond was visiting Bowling International in Stroud, Gloucs, with her mother and elder brother.
Her mother Annabel, 37, tried to lift Lucy off the toilet seat but found she could not move her and lumps soon appeared on her leg.’
`One Briarwood Elementary School kindergartner stabbed another in the chest with a pencil this morning in retaliation for being kicked, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said.
The student was taken to Carolinas Medical Center — Charlotte by Medic with the pencil sticking about two inches into his chest, Sgt. Randy Hagler said. He will be held overnight for observation.’
`A game of Hide and Seek today could have had a tragic outcome for a four-year old boy. It’s another reminder for us all about the need to be careful with kids and cars.
Robyn Stone, Neighbor: “Everyone was out looking, calling his name, up and down, anywhere we could think of.” [..]
Robyn Stone: “I thought, ‘I’ve got to do something, I’ve got to get in the car and go.’ I just said a little prayer asking for him to help me find him and let him be ok. I thought I was crazy but I could hear him crying.”
She wasn’t crazy. He had crawled underneath her car and was holding on for dear life to the shaft between the wheels, near the spare tire.’
`When Thomas Carroll couldn’t come up with the $125 in fines and fees to bail his pet Weimaraner out of the dog pound, investigators say he broke into the pound to free his pooch and three others.
The dogs’ liberation didn’t last long, and authorities soon caught up with Carroll, charging the Glen Carbon man Tuesday with two felony burglary counts. Carroll, 20, remained jailed Wednesday on $50,000 bond.’
`A bailiff was sent to an 80-year-old gran’s council home to demand rent arrears of just five pence.
Alice Nelson was left “terrified” after the official called on her without warning.
She has lived at the same address for 45 years and has never knowingly been behind with her rent.
The bailiff told Alice, of Wigan, Greater Manchester, she had to hand over the 5p there and then.’
`Dutch police have reportedly confiscated the saxophone of a busker who played so badly that his audience complained.
According to the Dutch news agency ANP, the 43-year-old used to perform at the railway station at Leiden in the west of the country to the dismay of passengers, who found his instrument an ill wind.
He was the only person to believe that the station concourse “did justice to the sound quality of his instrument” by amplifying it, as he told policemen who served him with a summons and confiscated his saxophone.’
‘Who wants to be a millionaire idiot. This guy may be the biggest fool in the history of televised game shows. I wish the host would have the nerve to just say what everyone is thinking: you are an idiot, now go home and never live this down.’
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Tracing the culprits by means of DNA matching. :)
`A 38-year-old Lincoln man showed up at BryanLGH Medical Center West on Monday, claiming he had been assaulted last week, police said Tuesday.
The man told hospital staff he was in the area of 28th and P streets Thursday when someone punched him in the head from behind and kicked him when he fell.
He said he temporarily lost consciousness and came to, only to find his pants down to his ankles.
An X-ray at the hospital Monday revealed a 20-ounce soft drink bottle lodged in the man’s lower intestine. He was to have it removed Tuesday.’
It’s at the bottom of the page.
`The grimly named “isolator” was supposed to be temporary.
Everyone expected that the baby boy named David Vetter would develop a functioning immune system once he received a bone marrow transplant from his sister. Then he could leave the plastic walls that protected him from germs and live happily ever after, forever able to touch those he loved.
It was not to be. As a fascinating and heartbreaking new television documentary reveals, overly optimistic doctors and modern medical technology would fail the “boy in the bubble.” Doomed by a deadly combination of hope and hubris, he wouldn’t make it to his teen years.’
`A Drug Enforcement Administration agent who stars in a popular online video that shows him shooting himself in the foot during a weapons demonstration for Florida children is suing over the tape’s release, claiming that his career has been crippled and he’s become a laughingstock due to the embarrassing clip’s distribution. Lee Paige, 45, blames the video’s release on DEA officials in an April 7 federal lawsuit filed against the U.S. government. A copy of the pro se complaint by Paige, a DEA agent since 1990, can be found below. According to the lawsuit, Paige was making a “drug education presentation” in April 2004 to a Florida youth group when his firearm (a Glock .40) accidentally discharged. The shooting occurred moments after Paige told the children that he was the only person in the room professional enough to carry the weapon. The accident was filmed by an audience member, and the tape, Paige claims, was turned over to the DEA. The drug agency subsequently “improperly, illegally, willfully and/or intentionally” allowed the tape to be disseminated. As a result, Paige–pictured above in a still from the video–has been the “target of jokes, derision, ridicule, and disparaging comments” directed at him in restaurants, grocery stores, and airports.’
`A 75-year-old Romanian pensioner literally knocked out a burglar with karate moves she said she learned from television.
Anica D, who lives in Popeni village in Vaslui county, told police she was sleeping when the intruder broke into her house and attacked her.
The woman said she shouted for help but nobody came so she tried some karate she had learned from a self-defence TV programme.
Anica successfully managed to “immobilise” the burglar and then phoned police who arrested the man, the Ziarul newspaper reports.’
`A wild turkey shattered the calm – and a window – at the St. Joseph County Library when it crashed through, toppling books until a custodian captured the disoriented bird.
“I’ve heard of deer going through houses, but never turkeys going into a library,” branch manager Judy Falzon said.
Falzon was preparing to open the library shortly before 9 a.m. Friday when the bird crashed in. She and custodian Irvin Cygirt watched as the animal hopped around, hit stacks of books and flew onto a cabinet.’
`A chunk of ice dropped out of the sky and left a huge hole in the ground this weekend at Oakland’s Bushrod Park in California, and not even astronomy experts know where it came from.
Witnesses said it sounded as if someone had dropped a liter of Coca-Cola out of a 10-story building — and the ice chunk had left behind a big hole. [..]
Jacek Purat, a witness to the falling ice, grabbed a piece and is storing it in his freezer. He says it came out of the southwestern sky, slammed into the ground and exploded into pieces. [..]
It burrowed about two-and-a-half feet into the ground, where Oakland firefighters retrieved it.’
