Free Republic

Investigators said they were told by witnesses that the 62-year-old man had been drinking when he fashioned a device using a motorcycle muffler, a piece of pipe, gunpowder, match heads and gasoline.

OAKLAND — A man apparently locked out of his West Oakland apartment was seriously hurt when he tried to rappel down the roof of the building into a back window and fell four stories, fire officials said. Fire fighters responded to calls of the man's fall around 1:40 a.m. today in the 700 block of Peralta Street, across from the Main Oakland Post Office. The man, whose age was not immediately known, apparently lived in the building and had been locked out of his apartment, officials said. He went to the roof and rigged an orange electrical extension cord, which...

Florida biologist saves drowning bear Last Updated: 12:14AM BST 30/06/2008 A biologist has dived into the Gulf of Mexico in Florida to rescue a stray black bear. Biologist Adam Warwick saves a 375-pound black bear from drowning in Gulf waters Warwick performed the daring rescue when the bear bolted for open Gulf waters after taking the tranquilizer dart The 375lb beast had been roaming a residential area at Alligator Point, near Tallahassee, when wildlife officers decided to trap it and move it away from houses. They shot the bear with a tranquiliser dart, spooking the animal, which raced toward the...

Two teenage boys who fell asleep while stargazing in the middle of a street in Danville were run over early this morning by a woman delivering newspapers from her car. The 15-year-olds were trapped for a time under the driver's Nissan Sentra before being extricated by rescuers from the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District, said Sgt. Phillip Wisotsky of the Danville Police Department. One teen suffered a punctured lung and a broken bone, while the other youth's injuries consisted mostly of "road rash," Wisotsky said. They were taken to John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek, where police questioned...

MOBILE — Joshua Mullen just wanted to kill the bees swarming around his utility shed. When Mullen, 26, walked away from the gasoline-soaked towels he was using, he heard a "whoosh" and turned around to see the shed in flames that spread to his rented home and wound up causing some $80,000 in damage. "There were no injuries, unless you count the bees," Mobile Fire-Rescue spokesman Steve Huffman said. Huffman said the fire appears to have started when the pilot light of a hot-water heater in the shed ignited fumes from the gas. Mullen, who rented the home after his...

French explorer and adventurer Xavier Rosset is about to embark on a 300 day trip to live alone on a remote tropical island in the South Pacific. His adventures will be filmed and used for a 52 minute documentary. Xavier’s only luggage will be a Swiss army knife, machete video camera and a solar panel for charging the camera. He will spend 10 months alone on an island to develop another way of life through an exciting adventure, a return to the elemental sources. Xavier will survive alone on an island without human interference and without polluting emissions. The ambition...

ELMWOOD PLACE, Ohio—A train struck and injured a pedestrian who was sending a text message on his cell phone while crossing railroad tracks, a collision that hurled him about 50 feet, authorities and witnesses said Monday. Zachariah Smith, 18, waited for a southbound train to pass Monday morning. He then walked around a gate and onto the tracks, apparently unaware that another train was coming from the other direction, said witness Mike Billups. "The horn was blowing like mad and the kid was text messaging," said Mayor Richard Ellison, who went to the scene and talked to several witnesses after...

Pensioner used live artillery shell as a doorstop for 20 years Last updated at 19:45pm on 2nd July 2007 For decades the seven-inch-long shell had been a family memento, polished and given pride of place on the mantlepiece. The First World War relic also served as a toy and finally, for the past 20 years, as a front doorstop at the home of 68-year-old Thelma Bonnett. At any time during all those years, however, it could have exploded. The German squat shell was live, packed with its original payload and with its firing mechanism primed, experts have said. It was...

An off-duty rookie San Leandro police officer cradling his 7-month-old son shot and killed a man Wednesday who stormed into his parents' home, authorities said. The shooting happened about 4:30 p.m. at a home on the 22000 block of Fuller Avenue in Hayward, police said. The identities of the dead man and the police officer were not released. About 15 minutes before the shooting, Hayward police had been trying to pull over a car driven by the man, who they said was wanted on outstanding warrants. The man, accompanied by a woman, had refused to stop near West Tennyson Road...

LAKE LUZERNE, N.Y. (AP) - A teenager who put bullets in a vise and whacked them with a hammer to empty the brass shell casings was wounded in the abdomen by approximately the 100th bullet he hit, according to Warren County deputies. Damion M. Mosher, 18, had been discharging .223-caliber rounds, placing them in a steel vise, putting a screwdriver on the primer, and striking the screwdriver with the hammer, deputies said. Deputies were called to his home in Lake Luzerne shortly after 5 p.m. Saturday when one bullet went about a half-inch into his abdomen. He was treated at...

Like Rachel Corrie, Angelo Frammartino was an idealistic young foreign political activist who came to Israel to work on behalf of the Palestinians. And, like her, he met a violent end here. In contrast to Corrie, though, who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza three years ago, it is unlikely that there will be any songs written, plays performed or documentary movies made about the 24-year-old Frammartino. But maybe there should be - because his murder in Jerusalem this week also has significance beyond the immediate circumstances of his death. Frammartino arrived here in early August as part...

VAIL, Colo. -- Two 12-packs and a raft bought at Wal-Mart by three 19 and 20-year friends were no match for Class III rapids on the upper Colorado River between Radium and Rancho Del Rio. One man, Thomas Williams, nearly drowned when the raft overturned last Sunday. He was rescued by a nearby rafting guide. "I was under for so long I just blacked out," Williams told the Vail Daily. "I didn't realize I was being dragged along by the river." Class III rapids, on a scale of 1 to 6, include a large continuous set of waves with small...

SAN JOSE -- A San Jose woman was burned over 50 percent of her body early today when electricity surged through her after she apparently broke into a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. control box, authorities said. The 41-year-old woman was being treated at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center for burns she suffered at 3 a.m. at Meridian and Foxworthy avenues in San Jose, police Sgt. Nick Muyo said. The woman, who was not identified, was "apparently attempting to access the control box in order to remove copper wire,'' PG&E spokesman Jeff Smith said. Smith said that PG&E copper wire...

TAIPEI - A man in Taiwan has died and four others were poisoned after drinking a popular bottled fizzy drink laced with cyanide and labelled "I am poisonous. Please do not drink." Some of the victims thought the warning was a new advertising slogan, police said on Thursday. The manufacturer of Bullwild energy drink, Paolyta Co., ordered an island-wide recall of about 1.2 million to 1.6 million bottles. The drink, which is popular among taxi drivers and workers, has also been taken off shelves in Hong Kong and Macau. Police suspect someone laced the drink with cyanide before placing it...

A teenager had to be rescued from an avalanche of peas after he forced open an industrial container in New Zealand. The 17-year-old, and two friends, used a lighter to burn plastic ties securing the shipping container in Ashburton port, reports Stuff.co.nz. But as the doors opened the teenager became stuck in a chest-high deluge of peas. Police and ambulance were called to the scene and were forced to use a forklift truck to free him. He was sentenced to 200 hours community work and to pay damages of £77, half the value of the peas.

Motorcycle menace was would be cop A motorcycle menace who led traffic patrols on a series of madcap chases in Florida turned out to be a would-be cop. The 24-year-old was just days away from taking his final physical exam when police finally caught up with him. He was arrested at his home after officers tallied him at speeds of up to 140mph off the Florida Turnpike. He hid the bike in his bedroom along with his Florida Highway Patrol application form. When police arrived he pretended to be washing his car, but his dog jumped at the window knocking...

A man is in hospital recovering from non-life threatening injuries, the day after he leapt off the roof of a 40-storey downtown Calgary building. Police say a 41-year-old man wearing a parachute jumped from the roof of the TD Canada Trust building shortly after 11 p.m. Thursday night. Partway through his descent, at the building's 24th floor to be precise, he smashed into a window. "He was then out of control coming down to the ground and landed on the atrium on the fifth floor smashing out the window on the fifth floor," police Sgt. Mike Lomore told CTV's Calgary...

Ananova: Teenager tried to cut up missile with an axe A teenager who found a cloud-seeding missile was almost killed when he tried to cut it up for scrap metal with an axe. Milan Petrov, 16, from Vinica, Macedonia, found the missile in a forest near his house and brought it home to cut up for scrap metal. But he was badly injured when it blew up after he hit it several times with a heavy axe. Doctors said he was lucky to be alive, adding: "It's a miracle that he wasn't blown to bits along with the rocket." He...

A drunk Mexican man who fell asleep on railroad tracks and was run over by a train slept through the entire episode and escaped unharmed, local officials said. Jorge Lozano Lopez, a 32-year-old electrician, did not regain consciousness until well after paramedics arrived on the scene late one recent night. "He must have been very drunk to have slept through all that," said Jose Alfaro de la Rosa, a health official in the northern town of San Nicolas de los Garza. "It's a miracle he wasn't hurt." The train's driver spotted Lozano Lopez on the tracks and frantically blew the...

A powerful explosion destroyed an Irvington home around 2:40 a.m. today, sending a shock wave through a two-block radius -- causing severe damage to several homes and a nearby nursing home, downing power lines, shattering windows and injuring at least two people. Fire department officials said the cause and origin of the explosion, which took place on the 300 block of South Ritter Avenue, was still under investigation. Indianapolis Fire Department spokesman Captain Gregg Harris said a 57-year-old man who lived at the house was transported to Wishard Memorial Hospital in serious condition. A 17-year-old neighbor was taken to Community...