`Heavy winds ripped away much of the top nine floors of a fire-weakened Nigerian building early Wednesday, raining debris on mostly empty streets and leaving people on lower floors waving frantically for help.
The 21-story Nigerian Industrial Development Bank had already been heavily structurally damaged by the blaze Monday, which gutted the 10th and 11th floors.
Wednesday’s winds during a heavy downpour shredded large portions of floors 13 through 21, with much of the debris crashing to the streets about 8 a.m., said Segun Ade, a guard at a nearby building.
Late Wednesday morning, a few people could be seen on the bottom floors, waving for help.’
`A British teacher who says a noisy chair made classroom life a misery is suing her former employer for unfair dismissal.
Sue Storer, 48, told an employment tribunal Tuesday she was subjected to sexist and bullying behavior while working as deputy head teacher at Bedminster Down Secondary School in Bristol, southwest England.
Storer said the school failed to replace her chair, which made a “farting” noise whenever anyone sat on it, although other staff received new chairs.’
`The State Government may be forced to repay drivers up to $100 million in fines after the Roads and Traffic Authority lost a Supreme Court appeal over speed camera photos yesterday.
Justice Michael Adams said digital photographs tendered in court against a motorist, Timothy Mitchell, did not contain the markings stipulated by the Road Transport Safety and Traffic Management Act.
Mr Mitchell’s lawyer, Dennis Miralis, is investigating a class action on behalf of thousands of motorists since digital technology was introduced in 1999.’
`A man running from a routine traffic stop early Tuesday sank waist-deep in mud and apparently died of exhaustion and cold while authorities tried to pull him out.
Deputies stopped Shawn E. Leflore, 33, for having an outdated registration sticker, sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Don Peritz said.
“He thought he was wanted. That is why he ran,” Peritz said. “But it turns out he wasn’t wanted for anything, except his driver’s license was expired.”‘
`A Kansas man was arrested at a Tulsa strip club after police say his toddler son wandered from an unlocked car into the club over the weekend.
Christopher Greg Killion, 31, was arrested Saturday on a complaint of “encouraging a minor child to be in need of supervision.” He posted $500 bond and was released from the Tulsa Jail.
The toddler told police that his father told him to stay in the car, and that if he left it, “monsters would eat him,” reports indicate.’
`A bus driver in Britain – who was caught playing video games at the wheel instead of watching the road – has been sacked, the transport authorities said on Monday.
Passengers in Blackburn, in the county of Lancashire in north-west Britain, reported the driver after hearing sound effects of the game coming from the driver’s compartment.
They claimed the driver was using a PlayStation Portable (PSP) when he should have been watching the road.’
`Troops began delivering aid Tuesday to an estimated 7,000 people who lost their homes to the cyclone that battered Australia’s northeastern coast.
No one was killed when Category 5 Cyclone Larry came ashore near Innisfail early Monday, and only minor injuries were reported. But the storm flooded streets, tore roofs off homes and flattened sugar and banana plantations.
“There most certainly would be around 7,000 people … that are effectively homeless,” federal lawmaker Bob Katter told The Associated Press. “They’re sitting in four walls but no roof.”‘
`With almost daily reports of more private information being pumped from personal computers and splashed over the Internet, there is a growing unease that Japan is under insidious attack from within.
The culprit is a digital worm that infects computers using the file-sharing Winny software, a Japanese computer program that, like the infamous Napster, was designed to allow people to easily swap music and movie files. [..]
The list of betrayed secrets is long and getting longer: personal details of 10,000 prisoners from a Kyoto prison officer’s computer; information about crime victims, informants and statements from suspects uploaded from a policeman’s home computer; access codes to 29 airports from an airline pilot’s PC; and the details of surgical procedures on 2,800 patients at a private hospital from the computer of a clerk. All have found their way onto the Internet.’
`Mike Herchenbach was sure he would get a fine. He’d pay a couple hundred dollars, like his roommates, and go on with his life, even though he wasn’t at the party that got out of hand at his rental house. After all, his name was on the lease.
But what he didn’t expect, and hardly believed, was what Lancaster County Court Judge Gale Pokorny had in mind as his punishment for maintaining a disorderly house last Oct. 2.’
‘If wheel chair break dancing becomes a sport, this guy wont be going to the Olympics. How ironic would it be if while performing a wheelchair stunt this guy fell on his neck and became paralyzed?’
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`The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission has taken its fight against drunken driving to a new level. TABC agents, along with Irving police, targeted 36 bars and clubs Friday, arresting some allegedly intoxicated patrons before they departed the businesses.
The officers and agents also kept watch on bartenders who might have over-served patrons.
Agents arrested 30 people Friday night. Most of the suspects now face charges of public intoxication.’
`A macabre scandal in which corpses were plundered for body parts could be even bigger than previously disclosed, with one company alone saying it has distributed thousands of pieces of human tissue that authorities fear could be tainted with disease.
In addition, three other companies have reported quarantining or destroying more than $5 million in tissue from Biomedical Tissue Services — the now-defunct New Jersey supply house at the center of the scandal.
While the exact number of pieces distributed and used in operations has not been revealed, hospitals in recent weeks have spoken of contacting hundreds of patients who may have received tainted tissue.’
`So were the seeds he used to keep in a case in the store, with exotic names like Afghan Dream and Chemo Grizzly. So was the booming business he ran, complete with glossy seed catalogues describing the subtle and sublime nuances of his varieties. (“Nebula: Fruity flavor and scent. Transcendental buzz. Harvest outdoor.”) So, for that matter, are the other marijuana businesses that have sprouted up in the block around his Vancouver bookstore. The street is nicknamed “Vansterdam,” with pot-hazy cafes, headshops filled with pipes and bongs, and neon signs advertising illegal seed sales.
Until recently, nobody much cared, it seemed. The police hadn’t bothered to come around for eight years. Before that, they busted Emery for seed sales and raided him four times. But he just got fined — once with “a nice speech from the judge saying what a nice person I was and how marijuana probably shouldn’t be illegal,” Emery says — and the police stopped trying. [..]
Then came the DEA.’
`Police allowed 7kg of cocaine, worth more than $1 million, to be sold on Sydney streets in an undercover operation, but failed to recover nearly all of it.
The Sunday Telegraph says it was revealed in evidence to a Sydney court earlier this month that police had given the cocaine to a dealer to sell, but 6kg of the drug was never recovered.
It says undercover officers watched as the dealer sold the drug to contacts, but it was not until some time later that they made a number of arrests.’
`Turkeys are going wild on Chestnut Hill residents, forcing walkers to arm themselves with sticks and parents to guard their children at bus stops.
The turkeys have lived in the area behind the Cleveland Circle Cinema and near a Brookline school for years, but recently they have become unmanageable.
“As I was walking faster, they’d walk faster. I heard a sound behind me and then I felt the turkey’s claw on my back. I was lucky that there was a branch right there and I swung it at the turkey,” said neighborhood resident Marianne Lee.’
`The government of Dubai thought it would be a good idea to put a speed bump on a street where locals tended to speed. Problem is they didn’t tell anybody. This Gallardo hit it at over 60 MPH.
There’s actually a video of the accident. The back end of the Gallardo goes about 5 feet off the ground.’
`A runaway train killed seven people and injured at least 11, severing some of their limbs, during the filming of a TV show in Uruguay, police said. [..]
Participants in the programme, called A Challenge to the Heart, raise funds for local charities by completing difficult tasks set by the network – in this case manoeuvring a train a certain distance down railway tracks.
The Associated Press news agency quoted Ana Portela as telling local radio station El Espectador that the train was moving when “somebody slipped and fell under the locomotive, and others were falling alongside it.
“There were shouts and somebody said ‘my arm!'” Ms Portela said.’
`A German hotel has started calculating fees according to the weight of the guest.
The three-star Ostfriesland hotel in the north German town of Norden charges the equivalent of 34p per kilogram.
So a thin man weighing 60 kilos pays just over £20 a night, but a man weighing 100 kilos would be forced to shell out nearly £35.
Owner Juergen Heckroth said: “Slim guests live longer and can therefore come more often and that is why we reward them.”‘
‘If you’re going to start out a fight with a flying jump kick, it’s best not to immediately hit the ground and get kicked in the head. Weak karate for the loss!’
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A young girl terrified by her own shadow. She’s gonna have to get over it, or live the rest of her life in a dark room. :)
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`Two men remain critically ill and four others are in a serious condition after suffering a violent reaction while taking part in a clinical drugs trial. [..]
As there was no antidote and doctors did not know what had happened, they were having to treat the patients on a “symptomatic basis”, [a lawyer] said. [..]
Ms Marshall, 35, whose boyfriend is critically ill, said the normally healthy 28-year-old’s face was so puffed, he “looks like the Elephant Man”.’
`The camera focuses on two gay men kissing in a park. Later, a topless woman emerges from the sea and walks onto a crowded beach. For would-be immigrants to the Netherlands, this film is a test of their readiness to participate in the liberal Dutch culture.
If they can’t stomach it, no need to apply.
Despite whether they find the film offensive, applicants must buy a copy and watch it if they hope to pass the Netherlands’ new entrance examination.’
`A B.C. man spent the weekend detained at a military base in California after being arrested for deserting the U.S. Marine Corps four decades ago during the Vietnam War.
Allen Abney, who was born in the United States but became a Canadian citizen in 1977, was arrested at a border crossing on Thursday while trying to enter Idaho from southeastern British Columbia. [..]
He and his wife were on their way for a holiday in Reno, Nev., when U.S. officials accused him of desertion and took him into custody.
In 1968, Abney was a 19-year-old marine when he fled to Canada because he didn’t want to fight in Vietnam.’
`The reigning Miss Deaf Texas died Monday afternoon after being struck by a train, officials said.
Tara Rose McAvoy, 18, was walking near railroad tracks when she was struck by a Union Pacific train, authorities said. A witness told Austin television station KTBC the train sounded its horn right up until the accident occurred.
McAvoy, who had been deaf since birth, won the state title in June and represented the state “with dignity and pride,” state pageant director Laura Loeb-Hill told the Associated Press via e-mail Monday night.’
`As hybrid sales skyrocket, there’s a growing concern that the battery-gas powered vehicles pose a risk because they aren’t as noisy as gas-powered engines. When idling, hybrids run on the quiet electric battery. Most, with the exception of GM and Honda hybrids, can also operate on the battery until the car reaches higher speeds, when the gas engine kicks in.
What follows is silence at locations where drivers are likely to tangle with pedestrians and bicyclists — crosswalks, turning lanes and parking lots.
In Sant’Anna’s case, an elderly man enjoying a morning walk didn’t hear her coming as she backed into the street. She lunged for the brake, stopping just short of hitting him.’
‘Bill Dance Outdoors fishing show. This guy just cant catch a break or a fish for that matter.’
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‘Check out the guy in the background watching his buddy wipe out on this stunt. That board could of bounced a thousand different ways but it chose the least favorable one for one unlucky bystander.’
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‘A very eager reporter is attempting to run underneath the belly of a horse. I really think the horse knew exactly what it was doing. I think she’ll stick to the weather from now on.’
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`Four former inmates of the Citrus County Detention Facility filed a federal lawsuit against the private company that runs the jail, alleging two former officers put human waste in their food and drinks.
The inmates were subject to cruel punishment, torture and battery in 2004, when they were forced to eat the food contaminated with urine and feces, according to the lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Tampa.
A spokesman for Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America said the company took immediate action once it heard about the incident.
“Management immediately investigated and terminated three employees right there and then,” company spokesman Steve Owen said Saturday. “The company does have a zero-tolerance policy for conduct of that nature.”‘
`A man accused of stealing a car was arrested after stopping to ask for directions at the car owner’s father’s house, authorities said.
Michael Chapman, 54, is accused of stealing a car Wednesday morning in Hopedale, about 130 miles east of Columbus near the West Virginia state line.
Chapman drove east for three miles, then pulled off state Route 151 needing directions to a nearby town. He stopped randomly at the home of Thomas Eltringham.’
