Argument over crack brings on machete attack

Kansas City - Jackson County prosecutors today accused a 66-year-old man of attacking a 42-year-old woman with a machete after an argument over crack cocaine. According to police, Planche gave the victim, who was his roommate, $20 to buy a rock of crack then complained about the size of the rock she delivered. Planche allegedly retrieved a machete from his bedroom and swung it at the victim while other roommmates tried to break up the fight. ---...More

Cops: Pair allegedly use jury box to smuggle drugs

PUEBLO, Colo. (AP) -- It was a dumb way to try to sneak drugs into prison. Pueblo County authorities said a 22-year-old woman worked out a plan with her boyfriend to get narcotics into jail Wednesday through a courtroom exchange at her own sentencing hearing. Officials learned of the plot because the woman in jail, Felisha Trujillo, and her boyfriend talked about the plot on a monitored phone line---...More

Doctors amputate wrong leg, then right one

LIMA, Peru - Peruvian doctors amputated the healthy leg of an 86-year-old man, then amputated the other leg when they realized their mistake. The Alberto Sabogal Hospital in the coastal district of Callao just north of Lima said it had suspended the doctors involved in the botched surgery for a life-threatening ulcer, pending an investigation. ---...More

Chinese News-Woman to have plastic surgery to win boyfriend back

China - A Chinese woman whose boyfriend insisted she wore her make-up like actress Jessica Alba is now planning the drastic step of changing her entire face to look like the Hollywood star. Desperate to win back her obsessed boyfriend, who had insisted she wore a blonde wig and copy Miss Alba in every way, the 21-year-old woman is prepared to spend a fortune on the very physical make-over. ---...More

China News-Ban on eating cats and dogs

China - Chinese legal experts are proposing a ban on eating dogs and cats in a contentious move to end a culinary tradition dating back thousands of years. In ancient times, dog meat was considered a medicinal tonic. Today, it is commonly available throughout the country, but particularly in the north where dog stew is popular for its supposed warming qualities.More

Send undocumented inmates to jails in Mexico

SAN FRANCISCO, California - Govenor Arnold Schwarzenegger suggested California could ease its crowded prison system by sending thousands of undocumented inmates to specially built jails in Mexico. ?I think that we can do so much better in the prison system alone if we can go and take, inmates for instance, the 20,000 inmates that are illegal immigrants that are here and get them to Mexico,? Schwarzenegger said.More

Rapist rips off girl?s clothes, gets a surprise

Georgia - A would-be rapist fled Sunday night after he ripped off his victim?s clothes and discovered he had attacked a man dressed as a woman. The suspect was riding a bicycle when he started stalking a 17-year-old walking along Bray Street near Fourth Street in East Athens about 6:30 p.m., police said. The teen began to walk faster, but the man caught up to him, grabbed his arm and dragged him into some nearby woods.More

Oldest working British woman dies after first hospital visit

UK - The oldest working woman in Britain, Connie Brown, has died aged 102 after briefly being admitted to hospital for the first time in her life. Mrs Brown worked six days a week for more than 80 years in the west Wales chip shop she opened with her late husband Sydney.
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Man stabs woman 25 times as bystanders watch

Australia - A Perth man has been charged with attempted murder for allegedly stabbing his former girlfriend up to 25 times as bystanders watched in horror, before then stabbing himself repeatedly in the chest. The 29-year-old woman and 49-year-old man were driving along Lewis Road, in southeast suburban Maddington on Saturday morning, when an argument broke out. ---...More

Passenger decides to get off airliner in flight

DENVER, Colorado - A United Airlines jetliner carrying more than 100 people en route to Las Vegas was diverted to Denver Saturday after a passenger tried to open an exterior door on the plane while it was in flight, officials said. Flight 223 from Washington, D.C., set down at Denver International Airport. ---...More

Man sues over Russian mail order bride agency

Naples - The three men were in Russia when they decided to open a Ukrainian marriage agency and a Web site filled with thousands of attractive mail-order brides, all tied to a Naples-based company. From February 2005 to February 2008, www.angelstolove.com invited American men to look through photos of thousands of Russian and Ukrainian women - and to come meet the ?woman of their dreams.? But angelstolove.com folded and Kevin Linehan of Michigan was left wondering where his initial $35,000 investment had gone, as well as $25,000 more he invested in the parent company, KGA International Inc. of Naples.---...More

Girl dies after police chase driver for no seat belt

UK - A teenage girl was knocked down and killed by a car seconds after police began pursuing it because the driver was not wearing a seat belt. Jessica Harrison, 17, died when a Ford Escort mounted the pavement and struck her. Seconds earlier, the car had sped off after a marked patrol car switched on its lights to attract the driver?s attention. Officers had noticed that the car?s driver was not wearing a seat belt. Jessica was taken to University Hospital of North Staffordshire after the incident on Sunday but died later that evening.---...More

Man jumps from 16th-floor during argument with wife

New York - A brilliant NYU computer-science prof who had just become the father of twins jumped to his death last night from a 16th-floor balcony at his university-owned apartment, sources said. Sam Roweis, 37, an associate professor in the school?s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, died at 10:22 p.m. His wife had recently given birth to preemie twins, the sources said. ?They were in some kind of argument over caring for them and all of a sudden, in the middle of the argument, he jumped over the 16th-floor balcony,? a source said.---...More

Man offers apologetic robbery note, waits for cops

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Portland police said a man handed an apologetic robbery note to an employee at a FedEx Kinko's store, then waited for police to arrive. Employee Paul Rhoney said the note said: "This is a robbery, I'll wait outside for police, sorry---...More

Scammer sends $4,000 check to police in Washington

RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) -- Not even the police are immune from those offers of free money from African countries that are really scams. Richland police could use another $4,000, but the department wasn't tempted by the cashier's check it received Friday in the mail from the country of Benin. Officer Erica Tungesvik said officers immediately recognized it as a bogus attempt to learn bank account information if the check were deposited---...More

Mom Sentenced in Death of Quadriplegic Daughter

FLINT, Michigan - A Flint woman was sentenced to a minimum of 10 years in prison for the death of her adopted quadriplegic daughter whose starved body was stashed in a storage unit. Lorrie Thomas appeared in Genesee County Circuit Court on Monday, a month after pleading no contest to involuntary manslaughter. The body of 9-year-old Shylae Thomas was discovered in a storage unit last April. In a tearful plea to the judge, Thomas denied killing Shylae and said, ?I am not a monster.? ---...More

Anne Frank protector, dies at 100

Miep Gies, who ensured the diary of Anne Frank did not fall into the hands of Nazis after the teen?s arrest, has died. She was 100. Gies was among a team of Dutch citizens who hid the Frank family of four and four others in a secret annex in Amsterdam, Netherlands, during World War II, according to her official Web site, which announced her death Monday. She worked as a secretary for Anne Frank?s father, Otto, in the front side of the same Prinsengracht building. The family stayed in the secret room from July 1942 until August 4, 1944, when they were arrested by Gestapo and Dutch police after being betrayed by an informant. Anne died at northern Germany?s Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945---...More

Woman awakes, finds stranger cuddling her in bed

WASHINGTON (AP) -- D.C. police said a woman awoke to find a stranger cuddling her in bed. Police said they don't know how the man got into the Glover Park home early Sunday. Sgt. Nicholas Breul said the woman woke up and startled the intruder, who fled the scene. Police said the woman was not injured and she was not able to give a good description---...More

Internet Strangling Craze Spreading

UK - Children are ?strangling? themselves to get high then sharing the videos on the internet, campaign groups have warned. Nicknamed ?Space Monkey?, the practice involves squeezing the carotid arteries in the neck to restrict the flow of blood to the head. Releasing the pressure leads to a sudden rush of oxygen to the brain, giving a feeling of euphoria. But it can lead to brain damage, un-consciousness and death. The craze is well known in the US and France and parents and campaign groups fear it is now catching on in the UK. The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention claims in the last ten years 86 children may have died in the UK playing ?the choking game?. ---...More

Whale Wars: Boat Sliced in Two

SYDNEY - A conservation group?s boat had its bow sheared off and was in danger of sinking as it took on water Wednesday after it was struck by a Japanese whaling ship in the frigid waters of Antarctica, the group said. The boat?s six crew members were safely transferred to another of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society?s vessels, the newly commissioned Bob Barker. The boat is named for the American game show host who donated $5 million to buy it. The clash was the most serious in the past several years, during which the Sea Shepherd has sent vessels into far-southern waters to try to harass the Japanese fleet into ceasing its annual whale hunt. ---...More

Kathy Griffin says she isn?t sure she still has a job at CNN

Kathy Griffin says she isn?t sure she still has a job at CNN after she accidentally cursed on-air. ?I don?t know if I got canned,? she said when Craig Ferguson called her up on his Late, Late Show Tuesday. She then joked, ?I don?t feel I have really done a job well until I get fired. Am I getting fired from this phone call? Tell me what?s going on.? Griffin, 49, came under fire when she dropped the F-bomb on a New Year?s Eve special of Anderson Cooper 360? while discussing the ?Balloon Boy? scandal.---...More

Man shared beers with a grandfather before killing him

Australia - A man suspected of killing a 53-year-old grandad at his southeast Melbourne home was a friend who had a few beers with him last night, police say. Homicide Detective Sergeant Wayne said the 35-year-old allegedly returned to Kenneth Rolfe?s Bentleigh home at about 4.30am (AEDT) and began banging on the front windows and doors demanding to be allowed in. After breaking a window and gaining access, the man allegedly bashed Mr Rolfe before running to the front bedroom and assaulting his wife, Carol Hellman, 60.-----...More

Cigarette-smoking teen burned while siphoning gas

LONGVIEW, Washington - Cowlitz County authorities say a 17-year-old Longview boy was burned when he lit a cigarette while trying to siphon gas from a car. Fire and Rescue Lt. Jason Sanders says the boy suffered first- and second-degree burns over 30 percent of his body during the incident early Friday. The teen, whose name was not released, was taken to St. John Medical Center in Longview to treat the burns on his pelvis, hands and feet.----More

Landfills: not enough trash

DENVER, Colorado - Some landfill operators in Colorado say the recession is causing budget cuts, increased fees and layoffs due to a shortage of their only resource ? trash. At six landfills owned by Waste Management of Colorado, including one of the state?s largest in Denver, trash loads have decreased up to 25 percent, The Denver Post reported Saturday. Most recent figures released by The Environmental Protection Agency reported 5 million fewer tons of garbage went to landfills in 2008 than in 2007. ----More

Man Shoots Burglary Suspect - Charged With Murder

DETROIT - A Detroit man who police said fatally shot a burglar was charged with second-degree murder on Wednesday. The Wayne County Prosecutor?s office said Tigh Croff, 31, killed Herbert Silas Monday morning. Police said at 12:30 a.m., Croff began chasing two men he found standing in his back yard on the city?s east side. One of the men ran away, but 53-year-old Silas, of Detroit, turned around and had a verbal exchange with Croff, who then shot him. Croff told police he had been robbed three times in the past week----More

No Kidding: Goats munch Christmas trees

ARLINGTON, Wash. (AP) -- Dozens of Christmas trees in Arlington, Wash., not only were recycled, they became a meal for goats to munch on----More