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DETROIT -- The Detroit Institute of Arts is stuck with having to repair a painting worth $1.5 million. It has to remove a stain left by a wad of gum stuck on the painting by a 12-year-old visitor. It happened Friday. Museum officials said the boy was with a group from Holly Academy in Oakland County, Mich., when he took the gum out of his mouth and stuck it on Helen Frankenthaler's 1963 abstract painting "The Bay." The gum didn't stick to the fiber of the canvas, but left a stain the size of a quarter. Museum experts are researching...

PITTSBURGH -- It turns out the microwaved penis was a fake. A convenience store clerk in the Pittsburgh area was freaked out when she thought she had put a severed penis in the store's microwave oven. The clerk said a couple came into the store and asked her to heat up something for them. The clerk did and caught a glimpse of what she thought was a penis wrapped in paper towels. McKeesport police Chief Joseph Pero said the woman who came into the store with the fake penis was actually trying to cheat on a job application drug test....

A BAVARIAN village was flooded by liquid pig manure after a tank containing 240,000 litres of it burst, German police said today. Sewage rose to 50cm in the courtyards and streets of Elsa after gushing from the tank. "The village was swamped with green-brown liquid and it was pig manure - the mother of all muck," said Rainer Prediger, a police spokesman in the nearby town of Coburg. Police estimated the pig waste had caused at least 100,000 euro ($161,590) worth of damage.

An 11-year-old Lindenhurst boy who wanted to put an end to his mother's drug use took cocaine from his house Friday and brought it to school to show authorities, Suffolk police said. The boy woke up Friday morning and wanted his mother, Toni LaBarbera, 43, to take him to school at Deauville Gardens Elementary School in Copiague, police said. When he was unable to wake her, he noticed numerous plastic bags of white powder nearby and took one, police said. LaBarbera's boyfriend, Scott Pinto, 43, of Copiague, took the boy to school, where, upset over his mother's drug use, he...

A woman faces charges after a US baggage search found a human skull with teeth, hair and skin in her luggage at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Florida officials have said. Haitian Myrlene Severe, 30, a permanent US resident, arrived on Thursday afternoon from Cap Haitien, Haiti, aboard a Lynx International Airlines Flight, said US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Miami.

A couple in Ohio claims the image Jesus appeared to them after he whipped up a weekend breakfast of pancakes, according to a Local 6 News report. Mike Thompson said he was making flapjacks for his family over the weekend when an image caught his eye. Upon closer inspection, Thompson noticed what appeared to be the face of Jesus. He showed his wife, who agreed the image appeared to be Jesus. Thompson said he believes the image is a sign from above. The couple is selling the pancake on eBay with an opening bid of $500. Watch Local 6 News...

TAMPA - When Maria Rosas heard gunshots coming from the back yard of her east Tampa home, her first thought was that people were getting shot. Once the situation calmed down, Rosas realized the targets of the gunfire were her dogs. The person shooting was a Tampa police officer. That officer, Joe Blanco, was part of five-person narcotics team trying to get into a house on 26th Street. A person inside the house was wanted on a warrant, Lt. Craig Roberts said. Because Rosas' home at 3406 N. 10th St. is adjacent to the one Blanco was trying to get...

Gerald Georgettis apparently thought he got a raw deal on a new car. So he plowed the Ford Escape he didn't want through the glass showroom, poured gasoline on it and set the North Dade Metro Ford dealership ablaze, Miami-Dade police said Sunday. He caused nearly a million dollars in damage, scorching around a dozen cars, including a rare Ford GT Heritage, fire officials said. Georgettis, 56, a supervisor with the city of North Miami Beach, walked away from the dealership Saturday afternoon as if nothing had happened, witnesses said. Police caught up with him a few blocks away from...

Leaping Crocodile Slams Into Car 25 minutes ago SYDNEY, Australia - This was an auto accident with a difference. A 6.5-foot saltwater crocodile leapt out of a roadside culvert and slammed into the side of a passing car, authorities said Thursday. The crocodile died in the collision and was given to local Aborigines, who ate it, said Garry Lindner, crocodile management officer at the Kakadu National Park in northern Australia. "It was probably startled and it just leaped in the wrong direction once it heard the vehicle coming," Lindner said. "The driver barely had time to respond and the (crocodile)...

A spinning black hole in the constellation Scorpius has created a stable dent in the fabric of spacetime, scientists say. The dent is the sort of thing predicted by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. It affects the movement of matter falling into the black hole. The spacetime-dent is invisible, but scientists deduced its existence after detecting two X-ray frequencies from the black hole that were identical to emissions noted nine years ago. The finding will allow scientists to calculate the black hole's spin, a crucial measurement necessary for describing the object's behavior. Blinking X-rays Black holes form when very...

Man dies after dog falls onto car from overpass Labrador retriever also killed after crashing through driver’s windshield LIVONIA, Mich. - A dog apparently fell from a freeway overpass and crashed through a car windshield, fatally injuring the driver, police said Thursday. Charles G. Jetchick, 81, died Wednesday of injuries suffered in the accident over the weekend in suburban Detroit. A passenger suffered minor injuries. Investigators do not believe the 60- to 70-pound Labrador retriever was thrown, but rather fell by while trying to avoid a car, State Police Sgt. Michael A. Shaw said. Police questioned the dog’s owner. The...

Police: Shooter Was Protecting Himself INDIANAPOLIS -- An Indianapolis man fatally shot a man in the groin to protect himself from attack at a west-side home Wednesday night, the Marion County Sheriff's Department said. Authorities said Aaron Sterling, 44, shot Jeffrey B. Randle at a residence in the 7600 block of Marabou Mills Way at about 11 p.m. Someone called police about the shooting, and Randle, 44, of Indianapolis, was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Police said they believe Sterling was justified in shooting Randle, who investigators believe was threatening and charging at Sterling. Authorities said...

EL PASO, Texas -- A mechanic died Monday after being sucked into a Continental Airlines jet engine at El Paso International Airport. Houston-based Continental said the accident involving Flight 1515 happened during a maintenance check before takeoff to Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport. The plane was a Boeing 737-500 with 114 passengers and five crew members. A spokeswoman for the National Transportation Safety Board said there had been an earlier problem with the No. 2 engine, so the engine cowlings were open. She said a mechanic walked in front of the engine and was pulled into it. The victim's identity wasn't...

San Francisco -- The California Highway Patrol chased a car that crashed into the bay in San Francisco today, but the car did not end up in the water due to a low tide. At about 4:15 a.m. an officer with the Marin unit of the CHP was trying to pull a Honda Accord over for speeding in San Francisco's Marina district when the car turned down a street, giving the officer the slip. "As they were looking for him he ran right by them and then crashed,'' said CHP Officer Brian Land. The car crashed into the bay mud...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- A human head was discovered off Jupiter Island by two teenagers who were fishing, authorities said. Michael Puscani and Rocke Greco, both 17, spotted the head about 4 p.m. Wednesday. "We didn't know if it was real or not, so we came around again and we were like, 'That's a human head,'" Puscani said. "I was just in shock, and it's a story that's kind of hard for people to believe." The teens radioed to the Coast Guard and authorities came and picked up the head, said Palm Beach County spokesman Paul Miller. It was...

An artist who chained his legs together to draw a picture of the image hopped 12 hours through the desert after realizing he lost the key and couldn't unlock the restraints, authorities said Wednesday. Trevor Corneliusien, 26, tightly wrapped and locked a long, thick chain around his bare ankles Tuesday while camping in an abandoned mine shaft about 5 miles north of Baker, San Bernardino County sheriff's Deputy Ryan Ford said. The Baker-area artist often sketched images inside mines in the Southwest. When he finished his chain drawing, he realized he would have to seek help in Baker, the deputy...

POLICE in a Vancouver suburb reminded residents it was not a good idea to play with a loaded gun while using the bathroom, after a man accidentally shot himself. A 21-year-old North Vancouver man was facing numerous weapons charges after he shot off one of his fingers while apparently playing with a gun on New Year's Day, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. "Perhaps, our mothers never explained to us that it was not a good idea to play with handguns whilst using the restroom. But then again, maybe that was supposed to be a given," the Mounties said.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) - A trainload of frustrated passengers has been stuck on an Amtrak train stranded in a patch of woods in south Georgia for more than 24 hours. Amtrak Train 98 has been stalled near Georgia's border with Florida while engineers wait for a derailed CSX freight train to be removed. Meanwhile, the train's passengers - including many cash-strapped families headed home from vacations - are getting frustrated. "We're stuck in the woods," said Eleanor Meyer. "People have ran out of money buying food. This is unbelievable. You have to run to different cars because certain cars have...

Pack of angry Chihuahuas attack officer in Fremont - Friday, December 30, 2005 (12-30) 08:56 PST Fremont, Calif. (AP) -- A pack of angry Chihuahuas attacked a police officer who was escorting a teenager home following a traffic stop, authorities said. The officer suffered minor injuries including bites to his ankle on Thursday when the five Chihuahuas escaped the 17-year-old boy's home and rushed the officer in the doorway, said Fremont detective Bill Veteran. The teenager had been detained after the traffic incident, Veteran said. The officer was treated at a local hospital and returned to work less than two...

CBS) CHICAGO It was supposed to be a right turn, but something went wrong. A semi carrying a load of chickens wound up smashing into the side of Aurelio’s Restaurant in the West Loop Thursday morning. The driver apparently misjudged how much room he needed to make that right turn onto Harrison from Canal Street. No people were injured. No chickens were injured. Inspectors are checking out the building to see if it’s stable.