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GATLINBURG, Tenn. (AP) - Three Appalachian Trail hikers who were stranded in the snow without shelter have been flown to a hospital by helicopter.

CANBERRA, Australia — An Australian icebreaker carrying 52 passengers who were retrieved from an icebound ship in the Antarctic was told to halt its journey home on Friday after a Chinese vessel involved in the dramatic rescue became concerned that it, too, may get stuck in the heavy sea ice. **SNIP** But on Friday afternoon, the crew of a Chinese icebreaker that had provided the helicopter said they were worried about their own ship's ability to move through the ice. The Aurora — which was carrying the passengers to the Australian island state of Tasmania — was told to stay...

After 10 days stranded far from home, all 52 passengers from a ship stuck in Antarctic ice have now been transferred by helicopter to an Australian icebreaker. "It's 100% we're off! A huge thanks to all," tweeted Chris Turney, an Australian professor among the group of scientists, journalists and tourists marooned on the ship. A helicopter from a nearby Chinese icebreaker ferried passengers Thursday to the Australian icebreaker, the Aurora Australis. The rescue is the latest chapter in a saga that began Christmas Eve after the Russian-flagged MV Akademik Shokalskiy got stuck in unusually thick ice. Officials abandoned a succession...

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority this morning said weather conditions in the Antarctic had improved and those marooned on the MV Akademik Shokalskiy would soon reach the end of their ordeal. "Wind in the area is now down to 10 knots and visibility has improved. Weather conditions are expected to remain favourable over the next 36 hours," a spokeswoman for AMSA said. "The helicopter on board the Chinese flagged vessel Xue Long will be used to rescue the passengers from the MV Akademik Shokalskiy."

Cold Climate: In an event chock-full of bitterly cold irony, perhaps even Al Gore has noticed that multiple icebreakers couldn't free a boat stuck in Antarctic ice that global warming was supposed to have melted. Few of the media reports on the plight of the Russian-flagged research vessel MV Akademik Schokalskiy have noted the irony of a ship full of climate scientists getting stuck in an Antarctic ice sheet so thick that early attempts at breaking through the ice to free them were failures. "We're stuck in our own experiment," the Australasian Antarctic Expedition said in a statement. "We came...

An air rescue for the passengers aboard a research ship that has been trapped in Antarctic ice for a week will wait for a break in the weather to start airlifting people from the vessel, Australian maritime authorities say. The 74 scientists, tourists and crew aboard the Akademik Shokalskiy, a Russian-crewed research vessel touring the Antarctic, have been trapped in ice since Christmas Eve. A helicopter on board a Chinese icebreaker, the Snow Dragon, will be used to collect the passengers once there is a break in the weather, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said in a Monday night conference...

From the Animal Lifeline Facebook Page: Please Help Save Sadie? Meet Sadie, our newest shelter resident. She was dumped out in the country and spent the last several months running the fields and getting food from the families in the area. It appears that Sadie had been caught in a trap. Scared and stranded in the cold, Iowa winter weather with no food or water and in an enormous amount of pain, she found the strength to save herself and used her mouth and teeth to remove the trap from her paw. With bones and tissue exposed, her tongue full...

Two survivors of the plane crash off Molokai were sitting directly behind Hawaii Department of Health Director Loretta Fuddy when the aircraft went down Wednesday afternoon. Fuddy died in the crash.

Cici, a black and white border collie mix was frantically running along Jackson, Missouri's busy Jackson Boulevard dragging her leash behind, when she was spotted by caring driver, Jefferson Fox. Fox was headed to Cape Girardeau at the time and told KFVS Heartland News, "I thought [she] was going to get hit, so I turned in at Shawnee and parked my car, ran down this embankment and found the dog at the next couple of houses." The perceptive driver chased after the dog in hopes of assuring her safety but when she kept evading capture and led Fox to a...

The author, Beckley, says, "I can't say in all honesty that I really knew Jimi Hendrix, but I did see him give a number of really good performances. It was at one of those post- Woodstock concerts where I managed to wind my way backstage. Jimi Hendrix was leaning up against a wall of amps and speakers. As I walked past him, we both just kind of nodded as if we recognized each other, and to this day I can swear I heard him ask me, 'and what planet are you from pal? Jimi expressed a great interest in matters...

Lagos, Nigeria, Dec 5, 2013 / 01:02 pm (CNA).- After a shipwreck off the coast of Nigeria, a 29-year-old man survived three days at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean while constantly reciting a psalm his wife mentioned to him during their last conversation. Harrison Okene was a Nigerian cook on the tugboat Jascon 4, which was one of three vessels pulling an oil tanker. It capsized and sank about 32 kilometers off the coast of Nigeria in late May with its 12 crew members aboard. Although the shipwreck occurred in May, a video of the dramatic rescued surfaced this...

GOS, Nigeria – Entombed at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in an upended tugboat for three days, Harrison Odjegba Okene begged God for a miracle. The Nigerian cook survived by breathing an ever-dwindling supply of oxygen in an air pocket. The other 11 seaman aboard the Jascon 4 died... It was a shock for the diver while he was down there looking for bodies, and we (in the control room) shot back when the hand grabbed him on the screen." Okene kept faith with the psalm he recited, that promises to "give thanks in your name, Lord," at a...

(CNN) -- Gail Sandidge rushed to help when screams rang out during a stabbing at a Texas medical center on Tuesday. Horrified patients and family members watched as a man stabbed the nurse in the chest. "She was just saying...'I'm hurt. He got me,'" witness Jana Jackson told CNN affiliate KLTV. "And that's when we realized there was blood all on the front of her scrubs." Hours later, authorities pronounced Sandidge dead. Police said four others were wounded when 22-year-old suspect Kyron Templeton attacked visitors and employees Tuesday morning at Good Shepherd Ambulatory Surgical Center in Longview, Texas. The hospital's...

GREENVILLE, SC — The last surviving member of the crew that rescued John F. Kennedy from an island in the Pacific Ocean during World War II died Wednesday. Greenville native Jack Gardo was 87. He died in his sleep at his home on Farrs Bridge Road, his daughter-in-law Brenda Gardo said. Gardo enlisted in the U.S. Navy when he was 16, two years younger than the legal age, because he wanted to serve his country. In 1943, Gardo’s PT 157 was sent to rescue the survivors of PT 109, which was cut in half by a Japanese ship. The crew...

I rescued a basset hound late one Sunday afternoon (2 1/2 weeks ago). He was in the middle of a busy road and cars where honking and driving around him. I pulled over to the side and got out to get him. He almost jumped in my arms when I got close. When I opened the passenger door, he went in without hesitating. He's a beautiful dog, probably young adult (but I'll find out tomorrow from the vet), pure bred. Now the questions .... The dog nick name 'stinky' registering as Ulysses. Despite that I've nick named him stinky he...

Rick Williams is a hero for trying to save the life of fellow Revenue-Virginius Mine worker Nicholas Cappanno in a mine accident Sunday that took both their lives, Cappanno’s brother, Eric Keep, said Monday. Cappanno, a 34-year-old Montrose resident, was new to the hard-rock mine industry, having worked at the Ouray County mine only a few weeks, Keep said. He died alongside Williams, his immediate supervisor in the newly reopened silver and gold mine just southwest of Ouray, in an accident that also injured 19 others early Sunday. “He worked in the gas patch for years, but that would take...

If you were stranded in the wilderness, your supplies gone, and you were about to starve to death, could you kill your best friend? That's the heartbreaking dilemma one man faced when he found himself trapped in the Canadian wilderness with no food. At the beginning of his planned three month trek, Marco Lavoie, who was hiking with his best pal, his dog, had his camp rations and canoe destroyed by a bear. But his faithful pooch saved his life by chasing the bear off. He would be "rewarded" three days later by having his own life taken -- by...

Lexi was rescued in 2009 from the SPCA and was severely underweight, had no hair around her neck and some behavioural issues. Now, four years later, it’s incredible to see how far Lexi has come. Watch as Lexi shows off some amazing tricks she’s learnt in the care of her owner, Katerina Jansen. Katerina told Storyful: “She loves to balance on anything and loves to jump into her owners arms from the ground or high up.”

A hiker was rescued after surviving a bear attack and spending three months, exposed to snow and freezing temperatures, in a remote corner of northern Canada, police said. Police located Marco Lavoie, 44, in the wilderness near Waskaganish, Quebec, on Wednesday, 10 days after his family reported him missing and nearly a month after the experienced outdoorsman was expected to return from a two month hiking expedition. Police believe Lavoie survived the bear attack uninjured, sometime in August, when his German shepherd got in between the man and the bear, Sgt. Ronald McInnis, spokesman for the Quebec Provincial Police told...

Defence sources said the “surgical” operation showed the “precision, skill and courage” of British special forces after they stormed the cave where Helen Johnston, 28, was held, and killed her kidnappers. David Cameron spoke individually to the soldiers to thank them for an “extraordinarily brave” mission. He warned that anyone who took British citizens hostage faced “a swift and brutal end”. Miss Johnston, a committed Christian, along with Moragwa Oirere, a Kenyan colleague, and two Afghan women who worked for the same aid agency, were said to be physically well after their ordeal. Miss Johnston’s parents expressed their gratitude to...