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SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- A traffic warden slapped a parking ticket on a car which had its dead driver slumped at the wheel outside an Australian shopping mall, an official said Friday. The body of the 71-year-old man, whose identity was not immediately released, was discovered Thursday in a parking lot in the southern city of Melbourne, The Age newspaper reported Friday. The man had been reported missing nine days earlier and was known to be seriously ill, the newspaper said.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Six teenagers at West Mesa High School faced charges Friday after a police officer said the students jumped him. Steven Anzures is a senior at West Mesa. He gets good grades, and he's excited about college. But, Anzures said Albuquerque police officers jumped him, and his younger brother, Ray, while they were at school. "(The officer) shoved his knee in my face and started scraping it on the pavement," Steven Anzures said. "He was all bleeding on the side of his face, and his eyes were closed," Ray Anzures said. The teens said the fight started when...

SYDNEY, Australia - A traffic warden slapped a parking ticket on a car which had its dead driver slumped at the wheel outside an Australian shopping mall, an official said Friday.The body of the 71-year-old man, whose identity was not immediately released, was discovered Thursday in a parking lot in the southern city of Melbourne, The Age newspaper reported Friday. The man had been reported missing nine days earlier and was known to be seriously ill, the newspaper said. Nevertheless, a parking officer who inspected the vehicle failed to notice the man inside and issued the parking fine two days...

ST. PETERSBURG - A 94-year-old motorist struck and killed a pedestrian Wednesday evening, then drove about 3 miles with the body lodged in the windshield until he was stopped at a Sunshine Skyway tollbooth. The driver told officers he thought the body had fallen from the sky, said St. Petersburg police Officer Mike Jockers. "He had no idea he had been involved in an accident," Jockers said. "He doesn't totally understand what happened." The crash occurred about 8:30 p.m. when the 52-year-old pedestrian attempted to cross 34th Street S from east to west near 46th Avenue S, witnesses told police....

MUNCIE, Ind. -- City crews cleaning out sewers accidentally blew raw sewage and roots into a home, covering the walls and floors. Now the homeowners are looking for someone to pay for the cleanup. Maintenance crews on Sept. 26 answered an emergency call of a backed-up sewer down the street from Garry and Ruth Dailey's home. Crews opened the line and the pressure backed up sewage and roots into the drains in the Daileys' home, said Nancy Williams, assistant superintendent of the city's sewer maintenance department. "It is something that we did not intentionally do," Williams said. That it seems...

CLINTON,Md. -- Police in Prince George's County, Md., said a man accused of walking into a mobile phone store, dousing his wife with gasoline and then setting her on fire is now behind bars. Roger Hargrave, 33, was arrested shortly after 11 p.m. Monday in District Heights, Md. Witnesses told police that Hargrave walked into the T-Mobile store in Clinton, Md., where his wife worked, and began throwing gasoline on her. Witnesses said the woman ran outside and Hargrave followed her and set her on fire with a match. Police spokeswoman Cpl. Diane Richardson said a customer who was in...

Weight flies inside angler's eye - The X-ray reveals the weight inside Darren Williams' cheek A freak accident saw an angler's lead weight fly through his eye socket and become embedded inside his cheek. Darren Williams, 34, of Wrexham, had a five-hour operation to repair his shattered cheekbone with a metal plate. The machine operator was on a fishing trip on Anglesey when his line became snagged and the weight flew up. "I was so lucky - if it had been a few millimetres in the other direction then I would have lost my eye," he said. He is keeping...

What should you not do at a fast-food restaurant? For starters, taking off your clothes and eating other patrons' food. David Waller, 40, of Lower Paxton, Pa., was arrested on indecent exposure and disorderly conduct charges on Oct. 1 after he disrobed, then sat down at a table occupied by two women and a 6-year-old boy and began to eat their lunch, according to police. Waller allegedly walked into the restaurant located off a local highway and headed toward the restroom. "When he left the restroom, his shorts were around his knees," Lt. Dave Hogentogler said. "He then went over...

The alligator has some foreign competition at the top of the Everglades food chain, and the results of the struggle are horror- movie messy. A 13-foot Burmese python recently burst after it apparently tried to swallow a live, six-foot alligator whole, authorities said. The incident has heightened biologists' fears that the nonnative snakes could threaten a host of other animal species in the Everglades. "It means nothing in the Everglades is safe from pythons, a top-down predator," said Frank Mazzotti, a University of Florida wildlife professor. Over the years, many pythons have been abandoned in the Everglades by pet owners....

A California family's black labrador jumped up and ate its owner's $6,000 anniversary ring as the woman was admiring it with a friend, according to a Local 6 News report. Barbara Wiesner said she had handed the ring to her friend when her dog, King, grabbed and swallowed the diamond. After a day of waiting for nature to take its course, the family took the dog to a veterinarian and an X-ray showed the stone near his stomach. The veterinarian was able to retrieve the ring with an endoscope. "The dog is fine, the ring is fine and I don't...

A legless teen in Ohio who was told he cannot play during a game in Cincinnati because of a rule requiring players to wear shoes and knee pads will be allowed to play in future games, according to a Local 6 News report.Bobby Martin was told at halftime of a recent game at Mount Healthy High School in Cincinnati that he could not finish the game because of the shoes and knee pads rule. Martin said the decision made him feel disabled for the first time."That's the first time in 17 years," Martin said. "That's a landmark.""Bobby was in tears...

Police Assaulted With Fried Chicken, Coca-Cola Driver Accused Of Driving Wrong Way On One-Way POSTED: 9:12 am EDT September 27, 2005 SMYRNA, Ga. -- A suburban Atlanta police officer pelted with fried chicken, soda pop and human fists is healing from injuries suffered during a traffic stop. A warrant said a 61-year-old Florida woman traveling the wrong way on a one-way street objected to being stopped Friday by the officer. The warrant said she threw a plate of chicken wings at the officer, hit him in the neck with a two-liter Coke bottle, then punched him in the face several...

A reindeer injured an elderly couple in the wilds of Finnish Lapland, in a rare attack that caused injuries needing hospital treatment, officials said Monday. A male reindeer suddenly appeared from a forest and attacked a man who was hiking Sunday with his partner near Kittila, about 620 miles north of Helsinki. The buck butted the man to the ground and kicked him before turning on the woman who was talking to her son on a mobile phone, Kittila fire chief Jorma Ojala said. The son alerted rescue workers who arrived in helicopters and flew the couple to hospital. The...

"The burglars thought they had hit the jackpot when the saw the pale-coloured powder marked “Charlie” — slang for cocaine — in a pot on pet-lover Dee’s mantelpiece. But they were unaware the pot was an urn and the “drugs” really the remains of her beloved Newfoundland Charlie, who died in 1997."

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. - Jerry Dunlap spent more than a year fixing up his 1910 dream sailboat. A gaggle of about 15 hefty sea lions managed to sink the 50-foot craft in just one weekend. Dunlap paid $3,500 to have the boat dragged up from the bottom of Newport Harbor. But the radios, radar and electrical system were ruined, and he doesn't know how much it will cost to repair the boat, which boasts African mahogany woodwork.

AN AUSTRALIAN hoaxer left organisers of the world testicle-cooking championship hanging after claiming he was Australia's leading kangaroo testicle cook. A man calling himself Nigel Bevan failed to turn up for the event after contacting organisers to boast of his credentials and order a supply of kangaroo testicles for the competition. Local villagers in Sumska Kuca in northern Serbia turned out in huge numbers to see what delights the Australian could come up with and a band was ready to strike up to welcome the mysterious Bevan. But they were disappointed and organisers were out of pocket after buying the...

Hurricane Katrina walloped New Orleans just two days before the annual homosexual "Southern Decadence" festival was to begin in the town, an act being characterized by some as God's work. Southern Decadence has a history of "filling the French Quarters section of the city with drunken homosexuals engaging in sex acts in the public streets and bars," says a statement from the Philadelphia Christian organization Repent America. This year's 34th annual Southern Decadence festival, which drew 125,000 revelers last year, was set to begin today in the Big Easy and run through Monday. As writer John d'Addario explained in "Southern...

A WOMAN carrying leaflets denouncing Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi stabbed herself in the neck and stomach today outside his office as he kicked off his re-election campaign, reports said. The woman in her 50s drove her car to Mr Koizumi's official residence and when police stopped her, she stabbed herself with a fruit knife, Fuji TV said. Jiji Press said the woman, who was alone in the car, possessed a number of leaflets denouncing the Koizumi Government. Her name was not disclosed in the media and police would not comment. News reports said the woman was in critical condition. Mr...

Children Transported To Hospital For Treatment SILVER SPRING, Md. -- As many as 15 adults and children are being treated for what authorities said was an attack by a swarm of yellow jackets on a Washington-area elementary school. Montgomery County Fire spokesman Pete Piringer said it happened shortly before noon at Montgomery Knolls Elementary School in Silver Spring. Officials said the children were walking in a wooded area with adults from their day-care center when they apparently moved a log, which turned out to be the nesting spot for the yellow jackets. That got the yellow jackets buzzing, and before...

Iowa Man Walks Off Without Paying for Leg DES MOINES, Iowa - A man test-fitting a $17,000 artificial leg ran off without paying the bill, police said. Spectrum Prosthetics and Orthotics reported the theft of the specially designed leg this week. Police said the crime happened after the man came in on Aug. 19 to be fitted for the prosthetic. He "was allowed to take it for a couple hours to ensure that the fit was proper," a police report said. Sgt. David Murillo said the man didn't come back. Todd Schweizer, one of the owners of the company, said...