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Falling tree kills girl, 8, at Scout camp OCEAN TOWNSHIP - An 8-year-old girl was killed and three others injured Wednesday when an oak tree crashed down on them during a first-aid class at a Boy Scout camp, authorities said. The girls were participating in a class being taught as part of an overnight camp when the 31-foot tree suddenly snapped, falling on the picnic table at which they were sitting, Police Chief Kenneth Flatt said. The tree broke about three feet from its base and crashed through a tarp over the picnic table, landing on the girl's head. She...

ZEPHYRHILLS - The lake at Zephyr Park was like glass early Monday evening as 63-year-old Nancy Booth and her two adult children sat at a picnic table beneath a great oak tree. No rain, no wind, mostly clear. Then, witnesses heard a horrible crack. The oak at the water's edge was splitting. Booth's children scampered out of the way, but one of the huge falling limbs pinned their mother to bench where she sat. Booth's daughter, Caloie, ran to a passing van yelling for help. The driver, 39-year-old Gary Killeen, having seen the tree fall, jumped out of the van...

Plum tree planted by China's Jiang in Sendai cut down Wednesday, May 11, 2005 at 05:37 JST SENDAI — A plum tree planted in 1998 by then Chinese President Jiang Zemin in a park in Sendai, capital of Miyagi Prefecture, has been cut down, the Sendai city government said Tuesday. Police said they have begun investigating the incident, suspecting it is related to the recent series of anti-Japan rallies in China. (Kyodo News)

Pakistani killed for desecrating Koran A man in a small village in western Pakistan was shot and killed after a local cleric declared him an infidel for desecrating the Koran. Ashiq Nabi, who had been on the run since Monday after being accused of blasphemy, was shot Wednesday after begging for his life and then climbing a tree to escape an angry mob of about 400 villagers, the Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported. Ashiq, who lived in a village about 18 miles outside Peshawar, allegedly had desecrated the Koran Monday during an argument with his wife. After his uncle complained, police...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - An elderly motorist was killed Wednesday when a large pine tree fell on top of his car on a San Fernando Valley street, the Fire Department said. The accident occurred as the man drove south on Reseda Boulevard in Tarzana. The tree trunk crushed the roof of the victim's SUV. What caused the tree to fall was unknown. Witness Mel Harrison told KABC-TV he heard a crack and saw the tree coming down.

Potential New DU OlimpiXs Event? UFF DA!!!

PRINCETON, N.J. - David F. Bradford, a Princeton University economics professor and former presidential adviser, died Tuesday from injuries suffered in a fire at his home two weeks earlier. He was 66. Bradford, who served as a top economic adviser to former President Bush (news - web sites), suffered third-degree burns over half his body in the Feb. 8 fire, which was caused by one of about 10 lit candles on a Christmas tree that had been in the house since December. He had been a member of Princeton's faculty since 1966 and was an authority on taxation. He was...

Dec. 22, 2004Merry Christmas from IPWHere are a few of the political faces of 2004...   This is an email-able, copyright-ready graphic you can use in emails, on blogs, in flyers, on posters... anything that's noncommercial.

BELLEVUE -- The latest flare-up over Christmas trees in public places has longtime Bellevue chiropractor and resident Sidney Stock protesting the large tree standing in the lobby of City Hall. The tree is a symbol of Christianity, Stock and his wife, Jennifer, told City Council members this week. They said it is inappropriate to display symbols of any religion in a public place. Their objection follows a recent flap over Christmas trees at branch libraries in the King County Library System, which first banned trees then decided to allow them at the discretion of branch librarians. ``I think it's inappropriate,''...

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- A Christmas tree that decorated the lobby in new federal courthouse downtown has been removed. Late last week the Government Services Administration, the agency that maintains the building, acted on direction from the Chief Judge to pull the tree. A lighted snowman, reindeer and sleigh has replaced the tree. A spokesperson for the GSA could not give specifics on why the tree was taken down. Gary Mote who handles Public Affairs from the Southeast Sunbelt Region says the decision was to "...make sure no one is offended." The artificial tree that was decorated with non religious ornaments...

GRAND RAPIDS, Minn. - Two men died Tuesday after a tree fell on the pickup truck they were riding in near Grand Rapids. Kenneth Michael Johnson, 42, and James Matthew Booth, 40, both of rural Grand Rapids, were working for Harris Township at the time, Itasca County sheriff's officials said. Sheriff Pat Medure said the two men were riding in their township work truck when an oak tree fell on its cab at about noon.

Sometimes you just make an exception. And this is one of those times. Last Saturday a bunch of cops hiked a mountain and left behind a reminder of their dead buddy. It was a little plaque, about a foot square. They climbed the highest peak in Utah and got off the trail a ways and on the side of a boulder, where no one would ever see, they calked the plaque in place. It was dedicated to their SWAT buddy, a Marine reservist, a man who went to war to take care of his troops. A man who died in...

NORTH ROYALTON, Ohio, Aug. 17 (UPI) -- Mario Russo, an alleged peeping Tom, is in a North Royalton, Ohio, hospital intensive care unit after a tree branch was used to sexually attack him. WEWS-TV in Cleveland reported Tuesday the 44-year-old man was attacked after being seen outside a bedroom window with his pants around his ankles, while watching a 5-year-old girl sleep. The girl's mother, Stacy Umstott; her aunt, Athena Lemieux; their boyfriends and two others face felonious assault and rape charges for allegedly beating Russo for more than an hour, p;olice told WEWS-TV. Lemieux admitted to police she sexually...

Purdue Lab Uses DNA Testing to Finger Company That Stole Valuable Tree Rick Callahan/Associated Press Jul 3, 2004 INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Maybe the crime-solvers at a Purdue University tree lab could inspire a new TV series: "Law & Order: Special Botany Unit." The scientists used DNA testing to match the stump of a stolen black walnut tree with two logs sold to a lumber mill 60 miles away. "This DNA technology put the log back on the stump," said Keith Woeste, a molecular geneticist at Purdue's Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration Center. The case began in November when an incensed...

Canine family tree reflects human hand Last Updated Thu, 20 May 2004 17:34:55 WASHINGTON - Most genetic variation in modern dogs was introduced by humans through selective breeding programs, researchers have found. This is among the surprising findings of a comparison of dog and wolf DNA by researchers building a canine family tree. Researchers took DNA samples from 414 purebred dogs representing 85 breeds to see how the canine genome accounts for the smallest Pekinese, curly poodle or herding border collie. Some modern breeds are less than 200 years old Scientists used a computer program and statistical analysis to identify...

This chart is VERY general and minimal. There are literally tens of thousands of additional lines that could be included, for various unique Churches, like say, the Amana Colonies. MANY of those Churches seem to be hybrids where some local group has seen some value in each of two or more existing Denominations. So, there might be an "Evangelical Lutheran Episcopal Congregational Methodist Church", and it would be tough to even GUESS what they believed! You'd have to contact such a Church and request a Statement of Faith from them. Our hope with this chart is that, if you are...

BRADENTON -- A decade ago city officials set the stage for an artists colony near downtown. They created a special zoning category for the artists, allowing them to sell art out of their homes. They offered grants that helped the artists renovate houses and paint them in bold colors. But now it seems an artist has gone beyond the bright paint and moderate designs in Village of the Arts, and it's making some city leaders uncomfortable. Mark Runnals erected a shiny piece of metal work, "The Loss of Innocence," in front of his 12th Avenue bungalow. The 10-foot-high aluminum sculpture...

The US Army may have unwittingly killed hundreds of pine trees in an Italian hunting estate. Genetic analysis suggests that the trees were infected with an American fungus, imported by US troops during the Second World War. The Presidential Estate of Castelporziano, not far from Rome, was once home to 60 square kilometres of native Italian flora, including the Italian stone pine (Pinus pinea). Twenty years ago, estate staff noticed that the pine were beginning to rot. Today, a 100-metre barren gash reminds them where the trees once stood. In an attempt to track down the killer, researchers studied DNA...

Do you remember the lawyer who got shot in front of the TV cameras last year as he ducked behind and tree and dodged the bullets? Well, here's the rest of the story. SURVIVING A SHOOTING My morning began like any other workday on Friday, October 31, 2003. I was looking forward to seeing my eight-year-old twin daughters, Alexandrea and Danielle, dress up and go trick or treating that night. I arrived at my office around 7:30 and prepared for a 9:00 a.m. appearance in the Van Nuys court on a trust matter. I made the appearance, spoke with my...

Daschle, administration at odds over forest funds By Bill Harlan, Journal Staff Writer Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota and the Bush administration are at odds over how much money should be spent to thin the nation's forests. The Senate passed its budget resolution early Friday. It includes a provision Daschle pushed that would spend $343 million more than the Bush administration to remove excess trees, brush and debris from fire-prone forests. "The Bush administration was wrong to underfund programs designed to protect our communities from the threat of forest fires in the legislation we passed last year,"...