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Dozens of masked gunmen cut short a rock concert by a popular Palestinian singer in the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday night. The singer, Ammar Hassan, was denounced by the gunmen as "no Carrie Underwood. " Ms. Underwood was the most recent winner in the "American Idol" competition. "Why must we listen to losers like Hassan?" asked one of the gunmen. "He is homely. Carrie is hot," chimed-in another. "We blame Bush," said a third. Outside, a street mob set fire to a bus in support of gunmen's actions.

Maybe it's an early hibernation thing. A bear wandered into a Raton motel on Monday and a second bear broke into a Taos Ski Valley motel a day later. The bear that walked through the front doors of the Raton motel possibly was lured by the enticing smell of fresh popcorn, officials said. "He walked in, went to the pay phones, then straight toward the pool," said desk clerk Kimbra Pacheco. Lodgers with newspapers chased the bear through an enclosed pool area until game officers arrived. A Department of Game and Fish officer shot the animal with a tranquilizer dart....

A DRUNKEN prank left a North Wales man with severe burns to his bum. Friends were attempting to singe hairs from Eiddon James' buttocks when his bottom burst into flames. They had earlier tried to shave his head, magistrates were told. The terrified friends put out the blaze almost instantly, but Mr James was left injured. The 20-year-old was yesterday awarded £700 compensation by Llandudno magistrates, who heard he ended up in a specialist burns unit at Whiston Hospital, Merseyside. Thomas McLeod, 19, unemployed, of Inner Shield Road, Craigend, Glasgow, was ordered to pay the compensation and carry out 140...

A Montreal-area family is demanding that a manufacturer recall its inflatable pool, after a 13-year-old girl drowned on Sunday when her hair got stuck in the filtration system. Judy Mirandette Gaudet was swimming in an above-ground inflatable pool in her aunt's yard in St-Come, north of Montreal, when her hair became stuck in the filtration system. Her head was pinned to the side of the pool, underwater. Her nine-year cousin, Christina Morin, saw Judy kicking her feet, and at first thought she was playing a game. She only realized something was wrong when Judy ignored Christina's pleas to come to...

The grandmother of a 6-year-old Southeast boy discovered his body in a bathtub early yesterday with his hands tied behind his back and his ankles bound, Metropolitan Police said. Police said the boy's grandmother found him at the Wheeler Park Apartments at about 8 a.m. They said the boy's body had likely been in the bathtub for a few hours at most. Police would not comment officially on the cause of death, nor would they say whether there was water in the bathtub when the boy was found. The boy was identified as Don Miguel Wilson. "It's very disturbing any...

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER Tuesday, July 19, 2005 · Last updated 4:21 a.m. PT Squirrel fires regular occurrence in Canadian border town Squirrel fires regular occurrence in Canadian border town OSOYOOS, British Columbia -- Once again, a squirrel clambering onto a power line has been blamed for a brush fire in this border town north of Oroville, Wash. Firefighters were summoned Monday after a squirrel scrambled up a Fortis Inc. utility pole, got zapped and landed in flames on some dry brush outside a fruit packing business, Fire Chief Ross Driver said. By the time a pumper truck and a bush truck...

SYDNEY, Australia - A movie fan had his nose bitten off outside an Australian cinema in an argument over the quality of the violent new Bruce Willis movie "Sin City," police said. The 19-year-old victim underwent surgery to reattach the tip of his nose following the brawl Sunday night outside a movie theater in Bathurst, 125 miles west of Sydney. Bathurst police Inspector Cameron Lindsay said the victim and his attacker got into a fight over the merits of the film, an adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel about a wicked metropolis filled with tough guys and gorgeous dames. The...

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. A woman found dead in a tank of cherries and brine at Peninsula Fruit Exchange apparently drowned. That's according to preliminary autopsy results on Jo Ann Mendoza. The 38-year-old was found by co-workers in a large vat of cherries Tuesday evening after a babysitter told a company official that she had not picked up her two daughters. Mendoza worked as a quality control inspector at the facility. The medical examiner's report also says the death appears to have been accidental. An acquaintance says Mendoza may have been testing the solution mix of the cherry processing vat at...

A medical examiner office in Louisville, Ky., is conducting autopsies to determine whether two inmates whose bodies were found in a landfill were crushed to death. Investigators believe the inmates may have been loaded into a garbage truck from a dumpster. Authorities think the men were hiding in the dumpster after escaping Wednesday from the Kentucky State Reformatory in La Grange.

BP Plc. said late Monday that Thunder Horse, one if its big Gulf of Mexico deepwater oil rigs, was listing badly after Hurricane Dennis swept through area this past weekend. The semi-submersible rig, an essential component in the development of the Thunder Horse oil and gas field on Mississippi Canyon Block 778, about 150 miles southeast of New Orleans, was heeled over at an angle of 20 to 30 degrees, the company said. While too early to say what caused the rig to lean, righting and repairing it could pose a costly delay to BP's plans to bring the field...

FOUR prisoners described as dangerous enemy combatants escaped from the main American military base in Afghanistan yesterday, the latest embarrassment for commanders there who were already struggling with their worst military losses in four years.A huge manhunt, using helicopters and American ground forces, was under way after the four men were discovered missing from the heavily fortified prison at the Bagram air base, north of Kabul. American military officials would not comment on the identities of the men but an Afghan official said that they were all from Arab countries and suspected al-Qaeda members. Kabir Ahmed, the district chief of...

A German man has been arrested after a marriage guidance counsellor advised him to run around naked shouting at trees.Dieter Braun, 43, from Recklinghausen said the stress release technique had worked perfectly until he was arrested. He told police that venting his anger on the trees had stopped him shouting at his wife. "If I didn't go to the woods and scream at the trees then my marriage would probably be over," he said. He added taking his clothes off at the same time made him feel more relaxed. "For me it's a type of relaxation therapy. Feeling the breeze...

Fri Jul 8, 9:30 AM ET ISTANBUL, Turkey - First one sheep jumped to its death. Then stunned Turkish shepherds, who had left the herd to graze while they had breakfast, watched as nearly 1,500 others followed, each leaping off the same cliff, Turkish media reported. In the end, 450 dead animals lay on top of one another in a billowy white pile, the Aksam newspaper said. Those who jumped later were saved as the pile got higher and the fall more cushioned, Aksam reported. "There's nothing we can do. They're all wasted," Nevzat Bayhan, a member of one of...

STUART, Fla. -- Hyperactive like the rest of her breed, the Jack Russell terrier named Kaylee would chase anything thrown her way. And to the horror of adults and children at a family July 4th picnic, she did just that when a powerful firecracker was thrown into her yard. She chased it down and was killed outright when it went off. "I lost a family member," Joseph P. Kolinoski, 26, wrote in a statement to a Martin County Sheriff's Deputy. Kolinoski said the family was celebrating in their yard when his wife's uncle drove by and threw the powerful firecracker...

Truckin' through the mall leads to arrest Last Updated Tue, 05 Jul 2005 09:38:40 EDT CBC News Police in Edmonton have laid charges after a man drove his truck through a sliding door into the city's biggest shopping mall, calmly drove around for five minutes, then left through another exit. The bizarre incident began at around 5 p.m. Sunday, when staff at the West Edmonton Mall heard a loud noise, they told local newspapers. They looked up to see a blue Dodge Dakota wending its way through the Sears department store. The driver was wearing sunglasses, and a large dog...

The dead fish, likely a victim of Red Tide, has a serrated spine that embedded in the girl's back. A doctor removed it.CLEARWATER - The purple flag was flying on Clearwater Beach Thursday warning swimmers of dangerous marine life in the water. But instead of being stung by a stingray, an 11-year-old girl was attacked by a dead catfish - sort of. At 1:45 p.m., witnesses say a group was playing around on the sand when a man in the party picked up a dead fish and started swinging it around. Then he let it go. The fish flew through...

A half of Moscow may potentially go under the ground. Scientists believe that more than 50 percent of the city's territory is resting on geotectonic fractures. The ground may cave in and destroy the buildings in such dangerous areas, the head of the Digger-Spas underground research center, Vadim Mikhailov, said last week at a press conference in Moscow. The specialist believes that the crust instability in Moscow became the reason of the tragedy, which occurred in the Transvaal water park in Moscow in February of 2004. "The park was built in the area of one of the fractures. A series...

Police divers are hunting a snapping turtle that bit a 15-year-old boy on the penis in an alpine lake. They believe the turtle had probably been dumped in the lake at Grossweil in Bavaria by its owner after it got too big for its tank. They say the animals, that are natives to North America and are illegal to own in Germany, usually avoid human contact unless cornered. They are puzzled as to why the turtle should have attacked the teenage swimmer. The boy was bitten through the swimming trunks on his private parts and then bitten again on the...

Man Wakes Up With Bullet In Tongue UPDATED: 6:29 pm EDT June 21, 2005 JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Police say a man who woke up with a serious headache walked 12 blocks to a hospital with a swollen lip and powder burns. Doctors then discovered the problem. Officials said 47-year-old Wendell Coleman had a bullet lodged in his tongue. Coleman told police that a woman stuck a gun barrel in his mouth during a dispute around 2:30 Tuesday morning and that he heard the gun go off. Police said Coleman then went home to sleep. What authorities did with the bullet...

Truckload Of Toilets Overturns On Interstate POSTED: 6:04 am EDT June 21, 2005 UPDATED: 11:51 am EDT June 21, 2005 SHARONVILLE, Ohio -- A tractor-trailer carrying 16 tons of toilets overturned on the ramp from westbound Interstate 275 to southbound Interstate 75 overnight, News 5 reported. The driver, Roy Wilson, of Norwood, was cited for failing to control his vehicle. He suffered minor injuries. The ramp was closed for about four hours.