Free Republic

"Our study suggests that it wasn't the use of penicillin that drove the initial emergence of MRSA, it was a natural biological process. We think MRSA evolved in a battle for survival on the skin of hedgehogs, and subsequently spread to livestock and humans through direct contact."

The bodies of four swimmers have been found mauled by piranhas in a spate of attacks that has sent shockwaves throughout South America. The attacks happened in Paraguay, where people have visited local rivers in large numbers during the current heatwave in order to cool down. The first death of the New Year happened on Sunday when a 22-year-old man was bathing in the Paraguay River.

Miracle minister lays ‘healing hands’ on poorly hedgehog at Glasgow church John Mellor, an Australian healing evangelist, shared footage of him helping hedgehog Sprinkles at Destiny Unity Church in Shawlands. The African pygmy hedgehog, called Sprinkles, was brought along by his owner Jennifer to an event held in Destiny Unity Church in Shawlands. Australian healing evangelist John Mellor who calls himself a miracle minister was keen to help Jennifer and Sprinkles. In footage of the event, they are seen coming up on stage in front of a large crowd and a tumour on Sprinkles’ mouth is shown to the audience....

Senate candidate Bart McLeay has distinguished himself in the campaign as being willing to go further in-depth with his answers than his opponents. For example, at the candidates’ debate held in Gering in January, McLeay was the only candidate to actually lay out an alternative to Obamacare. “Ben Sasse now says he’s the only one to propose an alternative to Obamacare,” McLeay said during a Wednesday visit to Lexington. “I told him at a debate in Hastings, ‘Ben, you must be forgetting about the debate in Gering.’”

The idea of granting illegal immigrants a form of legal status — but without the possibility of citizenship — has the backing of two Republican U.S. Senate candidates in Nebraska. Sid Dinsdale and Bart McLeay both said it would be a good compromise toward ending the nation's long-standing dilemma over what to do with an estimated 11 million people living in this country illegally.

(For fans of Monty Python's Flying Circus) The AP* has uncovered startling new details on the death of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat following an assiduous investigation. The AP* recently obtained highly classified documents from an as-yet unidentified member of the CIA*. Those documents revealed that Arafat was literally scared to death while lying in hospital when a giant hedgehog peered into his private room’s window. Witnesses, who wish to remain anonymous, have identified the enormous rodent as Spiny Norman, the long-time nemesis of Britain’s notorious arch-criminal, Dinsdale Piranha. The CIA* operative, who previously worked for the UK’s MI5* was...