‘A barrage of runaway barrels caused carnage after a brewery lorry dropped its load in a quiet Somerset village.
About 100 metal kegs, barrels and bottles rolled into gardens in Pecking Mill, near Shepton Mallet, battering flower displays and spraying beer over nearby homes.
The accident is thought to have caused damage worth thousands of pounds, and left residents in shock.’
‘Abuse of prescription drugs is about to exceed the use of illicit street narcotics worldwide, and the shift has spawned a lethal new trade in counterfeit painkillers, sedatives and other medicines potent enough to kill, a global watchdog warned Wednesday.
Prescription drug abuse already has outstripped traditional illegal drugs such as heroin, cocaine and Ecstasy in parts of Europe, Africa and South Asia, the U.N.-affiliated International Narcotics Control Board said in its annual report for 2006.
In the United States alone, the abuse of painkillers, stimulants, tranquilizers and other prescription medications has gone beyond “practically all illicit drugs with the exception of cannabis,” with users increasingly turning to them first, the Vienna-based group said.’
‘Frisco police said a 60-year-old woman turned the tables on a 19-year-old carjacker and shot him with his own gun, NBC 5 reported. [..]
The woman said an armed man approached her in the parking lot, demanded her car and fired a warning shot into the air. Police said as the woman struggled with the suspect for control of the weapon, the gun fired and struck the man in the stomach.
“During that scuffle, she ended up with the gun and the suspect was shot once in the stomach. He was able to get up, get his gun back from the victim and he took off running,” said Sgt. Gina McFarlin of the Frisco Police Department.’
‘Friday the 13th of April 2029 could be a very unlucky day for planet Earth. At 4:36 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time, a 25-million-ton, 820-foot-wide asteroid called 99942 Apophis will slice across the orbit of the moon and barrel toward Earth at more than 28,000 mph. The huge pockmarked rock, two-thirds the size of Devils Tower in Wyoming, will pack the energy of 65,000 Hiroshima bombs — enough to wipe out a small country or kick up an 800-foot tsunami.
On this day, however, Apophis is not expected to live up to its namesake, the ancient Egyptian god of darkness and destruction. Scientists are 99.7 percent certain it will pass at a distance of 18,800 to 20,800 miles. [..] We will have dodged a cosmic bullet.
Maybe.’
Followup to Space rock on a collision course.
‘An obese 26-year-old man in northeastern China died after a “marathon” online gaming session over the Lunar New Year holiday, state media said on Wednesday.
The 150-kg (330-lb) man from Jinzhou, in Liaoning province, collapsed on Saturday, the last day of the holiday, after spending “almost all” of the seven-day break playing online games, the China Daily said, citing his parents.
Xu Yan, a local teacher, said the “dull life” during the holiday prompted many people to turn to computer games for entertainment.’
‘A man charged with robbing a bank, for the second time since 2005, tried to show police the loot, but discovered he had been robbed, Fayetteville police said.
Joseph Thomas Mulkerin, 46, was arrested at a Bragg Boulevard motel Tuesday and charged with common law robbery of $2,179 from the Wachovia branch on Green Street, said police spokeswoman Jamie Smith.
He had been released from prison Jan. 11 after serving a sentence for the 2005 robbery of the same bank, in which he pleaded guilty to taking $1,098.
Mulkerin went to his motel room to show officers the money, but discovered some missing. Police later charged motel maintenance man David Mims, 49, with breaking into the room and taking some of the cash, Smith said.’
‘A middle school principal accused of selling crystal methamphetamine from his office after school and on weekends was arrested after police found the drug on his desk, authorities said Wednesday.
There was no indication that John Acerra sold the drug to students at Nitschmann Middle School, where he was arrested Tuesday, said Dennis Mihalopoulos, an agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Police said they began investigating Acerra in early February after an informant told them the principal was using and distributing the drug.’
‘Significant new capabilities have been added to the US Air Force’s latest superfighter, the F-22 “Raptor”. The USAF’s Raptors cost more than $300m each, and are generally thought to be the most advanced combat jets in service worldwide. However, until recently they were unable to cross the international date line owing to a software bug in their navigation systems.
A group of F-22s heading across the Pacific for exercises in Japan earlier this month suffered simultaneous total nav-console crashes as their longitude shifted from 180 degrees West to 180 East.
Luckily, the superjets were accompanied by tanker planes, whose navigation kit was somewhat less bleeding-edge and remained functional. The tanker drivers were able to guide the lost top-guns back to Hawaii and the exercises were postponed.’
‘A 74-year-old Italian grandmother who bought a sack of potatoes at the her local market found a live grenade among the spuds.
“I found a bomb in the potatoes,” Olga Mauriello said in a telephone interview with Reuters.
“I went to the market to buy some potatoes and that’s where the bomb was. But this bomb was covered in dirt, and I put it in water and got all dirt off. And then I realized ‘It’s a bomb’!”‘
‘The U.N. human rights chief expressed concern Wednesday at recent U.S. legislative and judicial actions that she said leave hundreds of detainees without any way to challenge their indefinite imprisonment. [..]
“I am very concerned that we continue to see detention without trial and with, in my opinion, insufficient judicial supervision,” Arbour told a news conference after meeting with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
“I thought there had been progress in that direction. There’s been a legislative setback now recently in my view, a judicial decision,” she said. These people have “no credible mechanism to ascertain the validity of these … suspicious or allegations.”‘
‘A race car is travelling at over 180 MPH when a seagull crashes into and breaks his windshield.’
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‘Parents are furious a PE mistress is being allowed to carry on teaching their kids despite posing topless on the internet.
Former England netball player Louise Crolla, 26, exposes her enhanced 32DD boobs and offers to do ‘fetish’ work on the modelling agency website.
But her headmaster will not sack her from her £30,000 supply job. [..]
He told the News of the World: “Miss Crolla is a capable and fully qualified teacher. She has passed all the relevant checks, teachers have to go through.
“On that basis at this time, she can continue to work here.”‘
‘An American historian jailed in Romania for paedophile offences has been released more than two years early because he wrote a book about Dracula.
According to the law, Kurt Treptow was entitled to early release because his writing counted as work in prison.
He published a book about Vlad III Dracul, the Romanian prince who inspired the Dracula legend. [..]
His lawyer, Liviu Bran, denied that he wrote the book to get out of prison, saying that a board of historians had reviewed it and concluded it was an “original scientific piece of work”.’
‘Team Hubris is installing a deep brain stimulator, essentially a neurological pacemaker, in my head. This involves threading two sets of stiff wires in through my scalp, through my cerebrum — most of my brain — and into my subthalamic nucleus, a target the size of a lima bean, located near the brain stem. Each wire is a little thinner than a small, unfolded paper clip, with four electrodes at one end. The electrodes will eventually deliver small shocks to my STN. How did I get into this mess? Well, I have Parkinson’s disease. If the surgery works, these wires will continually stimulate my brain in an attempt to relieve my symptoms.’
‘As various parties continue to fight over the remains of Anna Nicole Smith and custody of her baby, John Travolta has stepped into the fray.
The Pulp Fiction star has decided to use her death as a chance to promote Narconon – the controversial Church of Scientology drug rehab programme – saying it could have saved the Playmate’s life. [..]
Travolta said: ‘It’s so sad. We could have helped her with Narconon but didn’t get a chance to. I wish we had.’ [..]
Scientologists claim Narconon is 85 per cent effective.
However, critics say it is a front to recruit vulnerable drug abusers into the religion.
Either way, it is sadly too late to help Smith now.’
‘Bay County Circuit Judge Joseph K. Sheeran ruled Friday that even though Michigan law does not explicitly define sex with a dead dog as a crime, charges against a Saginaw man will stand. [..]
Fehrman had said in previous written and oral arguments that a dead dog is not an animal and therefore cannot be violated against its will.
Sheeran said the purpose of the sodomy law is not to protect a specific victim, necessarily, but ”to prevent people from debasing and dehumanizing themselves.” Such laws also protect society, Sheeran said, and ”prevents people from acting like animals themselves.”’
A power line explodes in the background during filming for a story about an ice storm.
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‘Scientists in eastern China say they have succeeded in controlling the flight of pigeons with micro electrodes planted in their brains, state media reported on Tuesday.
Scientists at the Robot Engineering Technology Research Centre at Shandong University of Science and Technology said ther electrodes could command them to fly right or left or up or down, Xinhua news agency said.
“The implants stimulate different areas of the pigeon’s brain according to signals sent by the scientists via computer, and force the bird to comply with their commands,” Xinhua said. [..]
The report did not specify what practical uses the scientists saw for the remote-controlled pigeons.’
‘It was only meant to be a safefy drill but dozens of children were left in tears after an animal escape drill at a zoo went hilariously wrong.
Check out the gallery for more pictures
As acting goes, it was a little too convincing.
The idea was to test the readiness of zoo staff for the escape of a dangerous animal.
But despite the ludicrously obvious disguise of the runaway beast, its pre-ordained destiny – to be shot with a tranquilliser gun – had children in tears. [..]
The ordeal of the zoo visitors began immediately when the fancy-dressed ape jumped out and frightened a school party.’
‘Exterminators began sweeping a Kansas City neighborhood infested with rats after one of the rodents crawled into a baby’s crib and severely disfigured the girl’s face.
Authorities said the girl’s parents put her in a crib next to their bed early Sunday and awoke a few hours later, when a heart and breathing monitor alarm went off. The 4-week-old baby, which had been born prematurely, was lying in a pool of blood with her nose and part of her upper lip chewed off.’
This plane takes off from an aircraft carrier right into a big wave, and flies right through it.
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‘ Terry Gilliam’s film Tideland gets a second chance starting today.
The story of a young girl whose parents are drug addicts — which Gilliam describes as a cross between Alice in Wonderland and Psycho — fared poorly with audiences during a brief U.S. theatrical release last fall. [..]
Gilliam says that the movie, which also stars Jennifer Tilly, is “about people in search for love, it’s about relationships. It’s also about drugs, sex and necrophilia. What more would you want in a movie?” he adds with a laugh. [..]
But he persisted, he says, “because I think it was genuinely a good story to tell. The fact is a lot of the public won’t like it, but I’m actually interested in the part of the public that will.”‘
‘Gore’s mansion, located in the posh Belle Meade area of Nashville, consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year, according to the Nashville Electric Service (NES).
In his documentary, the former Vice President calls on Americans to conserve energy by reducing electricity consumption at home.
The average household in America consumes 10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year, according to the Department of Energy. In 2006, Gore devoured nearly 221,000 kWh – more than 20 times the national average.
Last August alone, Gore burned through 22,619 kWh – guzzling more than twice the electricity in one month than an average American family uses in an entire year. As a result of his energy consumption, Gore’s average monthly electric bill topped $1,359.’
‘Japan’s whaling fleet has cut short its hunt in the Antarctic after a fire two weeks ago crippled the main boat.
The controversial annual hunt, which Japan says was carried out for research purposes, was meant to continue until the end of March.
But Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research said the Nisshin Maru boat could not be fully repaired at sea.’
‘A 28-year-old Chico man was killed Monday after he lost control of his car while working on his laptop computer while driving, according to the California Highway Patrol.
“We have reason to believe he was operating his laptop because it was still on and plugged into the cigarette lighter,” said CHP Cmdr. Scott Silsbee. [..]
The crash closed lanes in both directions for nearly two hours and traffic was diverted to alternate routes while a helicopter transported an injured couple to Rideout Hospital and work crews cleared the debris.’
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