Squirrel goes on rampage, injures 3

BERLIN (Reuters) - An aggressive squirrel attacked and injured three people in a German town before a 72-year-old pensioner dispatched the rampaging animal with his crutch.

The squirrel first ran into a house in the southern town of Passau, leapt from behind on a 70-year-old woman, and sank its teeth into her hand, a local police spokesman said Thursday.

With the squirrel still hanging from her hand, the woman ran onto the street in panic, where she managed to shake it off.

The animal then entered a building site and jumped on a construction worker, injuring him on the hand and arm, before he managed to fight it off with a measuring pole.

"After that, the squirrel went into the 72-year-old man's garden and massively attacked him on the arms, hand and thigh," the spokesman said. "Then he killed it with his crutch."

The spokesman said experts thought the attack may have been linked to the mating season or because the squirrel was ill.

Roller coaster scare leaves riders hanging

POSTED: 8:42 p.m. EDT, June 10, 2007
Story Highlights
• A dozen riders on a roller coaster spent half an hour hanging upside down
• The ride was 150 feet above the ground
• Officials say a power outage shut down the attraction

HOT SPRINGS, Arkansas (AP) -- A dozen riders on a roller coaster spent half an hour hanging upside down -- 150 feet above the ground -- after a power outage shut down the attraction.

It took about 30 minutes for the city fire department to rescue the riders using a ladder truck Saturday evening, said Aundrea Crary, spokeswoman for the Springs & Crystal Falls amusement park.

Spectators cheered when the riders were brought to the ground from the highest point of a loop on the X-Coaster, but one passenger threw up after reaching safety.

The X-Coaster was one of several rides brought to a halt by the outage that originated somewhere near the park.

"You could tell who got off the (X-Coaster) because their faces were red," said Angela Salter. She was riding the Gauntlet, another coaster, and said park employees worked quickly to free her.

The park resumed normal operations, although the X-Coaster remained closed.

One X-Coaster passenger, Jay Plummer, 37, was taken to St. Joseph Mercy Medical Center in Hot Springs after complaining of neck pain and a headache.

"It was very scary," said his girlfriend, Connie McBride. "I love the amusement park, but I will never get on the X-Coaster again."

The park has experienced outages before, but usually they last only seconds, said Dan Aylward, Magic Springs president and general manager.

Entergy Corp. was investigating but crews found no faulty wiring.

"The cause could be a (tree) limb or as simple as an animal (on the lines)," said Mark Hunt, general manager of customer service for Entergy. "We could find no faults, but we are going to continue to investigate until we find the cause."

Jon Benet's dad and Natalee Holloway's mom are dating!!

i find this totally weird..

Monday , June 04, 2007

In a match seemingly made in tabloid heaven, the father of murdered child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey and the mother of missing-in-Aruba teen Natalee Holloway are dating, FOX News has confirmed.

John Ramsey, 63, and Beth Holloway Twitty, 46, have been romantically involved since January 2007, though the two met at a fundraiser last year.

The couple has been spotted openly holding hands and kissing in Mountain Brook, Ala. — where Twitty lives — and at an art show at a nearby art museum. They've also been seen at various restaurants.

Ramsey on Monday denied the reports that they are dating. He said that he and Twitty have a special friendship based on tragedy.

Ramsey's wife and JonBenet's mother, Patsy Ramsey, died last June of ovarian cancer at the age of 49. Twitty was officially divorced from George "Jug" Twitty in December.

Both single parents share the tragedy of children who are victims of unsolved crimes.

Child beauty-pageant winner JonBenet Ramsey was 6 years old when she was killed in December of 1996. She had been beaten and strangled, and her body was found the day after Christmas in the basement of her own home in Boulder, Colo.

JonBenet's parents were the initial focus of the investigation, but they maintained their innocence and said an intruder must have committed the crime. No one was ever arrested and the little girl's murder remains unsolved.

Eighteen-year-old Natalee Holloway disappeared in Aruba while on a high school senior class trip in May of 2005 and has never been found, though she is presumed to have been murdered.

Three different teenaged suspects who lived on the island and were last seen with Holloway were arrested and later released in the case.

'Monster pig' was a not-so-wild gift named Fred

POSTED: 12:31 p.m. EDT, June 2, 2007
Story Highlights
• The hog named "Fred" was raised on Alabama farm from 6 weeks old
• Fred was sold 4 days prior to being hunted with a pistol in 150-acre fenced area
• Farmer said Fred has become a "nuisance"
• Not uncommon for farm-raised pigs to be sold to hunting preserves


FRUITHURST, Alabama (AP) -- The huge hog that became known as "Monster Pig" after being hunted and killed by an 11-year-old boy had another name: Fred.

The not-so-wild pig had been raised on an Alabama farm and was sold to the Lost Creek Plantation just four days before it was shot there in a 150-acre fenced area, the animal's former owner said.

Phil Blissitt told The Anniston Star in a story Friday that he bought the 6-week-old pig in December 2004 as a Christmas gift for his wife, Rhonda, and that they sold it after deciding to get rid of all the pigs at their farm.

"I just wanted the truth to be told. That wasn't a wild pig," Rhonda Blissitt said.

Jamison Stone shot the huge hog during what he and his father described as a three-hour chase. They said it was more than 1,000 pounds and 9 feet long; if anything, it looked even bigger in a now-famous photo of the hunter and the hunted. (Watch the boy describe his 'monster' kill Video)

Mike Stone said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press on Friday that he had been under the impression that the hog was wild, not farm-raised.

Telephone messages left Friday with Eddy Borden, the owner of Lost Creek Plantation, were not immediately returned.

Stone said state wildlife officials told him that it is not unusual for hunting preserves to buy farm-raised hogs and that the hogs are considered feral once they are released.

Stone said he and his son met Blissitt on Friday morning to get more details about the hog. Blissitt said that he had about 15 hogs and decided to sell them for slaughter, but that no one would buy that particular animal because it was too big for slaughter or breeding, Stone said.

Blissitt said that the pig had become a nuisance and that visitors were often frightened by it, Stone said.

"He was nice enough to tell my son that the pig was too big and needed killing," Stone said. "He shook Jamison's hand and said he did not kill the family pet."

The Blissitts said they didn't know the hog that was hunted was Fred until they were contacted by a game warden for the Alabama Department of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries. The agency determined that no laws were violated in the hunt.

Phil Blissitt said he became irritated when he learned that some thought the photo of Fred was doctored.

"That was a big hog," he said.

Infant bodies found in cellar bags

VIENNA, Austria (Reuters) -- Badly decomposed remains of three babies were found in plastic bags in the basement of an Austrian house undergoing renovation, officials said on Saturday.

Police told Austria Press Agency (APA) the remains were discovered on Friday by a resident excavating the cellar of a multi-family dwelling in the Alpine city of Innsbruck.

"The remains were badly decomposed. We don't know at this point whether these remains are male or female. An autopsy will have to determine that and this could take a few days," police investigator Walter Pupp said.

It was also unclear how long the remains were in the cellar and who had access to the area.

In 2005 the remains of four children were found in a residential building, two entombed in cement-packed buckets and two in a freezer, in the southern Austrian city of Graz. A 33-year-old woman was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing them.