‘All across America, a mysterious disease is wiping out bee colonies. This malady causes all the bees in a hive to seemingly vanish overnight, abandoning their brood in the nursery, as well as their stores of honey and pollen. Other bees and pests, which normally plunder deserted honey, shun these hives. This baffling die-off dealt a financial blow to commercial beekeepers this season and raised fears of environmental and economic disaster. For farmers, no bees means no pollination.
But pollination is happening like mad in Leah Fortin’s tiny yard in North Oakland, Calif. Busy little bee bodies cover the clumps of lavender, salvia and roses that line her driveway. More bees work the malaleucas on the parking strip, those trees with shaggy bark that look like giant Q-tips when they’re in bloom.’
‘Americans are living longer than ever, but not as long as people in 41 other countries.
For decades, the United States has been slipping in international rankings of life expectancy, as other countries improve health care, nutrition and lifestyles.
Countries that surpass the U.S. include Japan and most of Europe, as well as Jordan, Guam and the Cayman Islands.
“Something’s wrong here when one of the richest countries in the world, the one that spends the most on health care, is not able to keep up with other countries,” said Dr. Christopher Murray, head of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.’
‘A local woman killed a raccoon with her bare hands Thursday when the animal attacked a young boy.
Officials with Cheshire animal control say the woman was walking in the woods around 11 a.m. with a group of children when the animal bit the 5-year-old son of a friend. She pulled the raccoon off the child, told the children to run home and strangled the animal, authorities said.
The carcass was taken to a state laboratory in Hartford where it tested positive for rabies.’
‘A painkiller used by 60,000 Australians has been ordered off the shelves after the deaths of two people.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration yesterday announced the urgent recall of the drug Prexige, used to treat osteoarthritis and acute pain. Patients using the drug, also known by its chemical name lumiracoxib, are advised to stop taking it immediately and ask their doctor for an alternative prescription.
The TGA made the decision after receiving reports of eight people who suffered serious liver reactions, including two deaths and two liver transplants. Six of the reports occurred since the beginning of July.’
It seems in 1994 Dick Cheney actually talked sense.
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‘A megachurch canceled a memorial service for a Navy veteran 24 hours before it was to start because the deceased was gay. [..]
“It’s a slap in the face. It’s like, ‘Oh, we’re sorry he died, but he’s gay so we can’t help you,'” she said Friday.
Wright said High Point offered to hold the service for Sinclair because their brother is a janitor there. Sinclair, who served in the first Gulf War, died Monday at age 46 from an infection after surgery to prepare him for a heart transplant.
The church’s pastor, the Rev. Gary Simons, said no one knew Sinclair, who was not a church member, was gay until the day before the Thursday service, when staff members putting together his video tribute saw pictures of men “engaging in clear affection, kissing and embracing.” [..]
“We did decline to host the service — not based on hatred, not based on discrimination, but based on principle,” Simons told The Associated Press. “Had we known it on the day they first spoke about it — yes, we would have declined then. It’s not that we didn’t love the family.”‘
‘Bryan Connelly, convicted of forgery charges, is accused of making an unusual choice in seeking a hit man to kill the prosecutor: the judge who sentenced him.
Galveston County District Court Judge David Garner said Connelly, 34, of Santa Fe, was among those defendants who “think outside the box” for allegedly writing a letter offering him $5,000 to kill former prosecutor Donnie Quintanilla, now in private practice in Galveston.
Connelly wrote a second letter to his defense attorney, Houston lawyer Jonathan Cox, offering him $5,000 to kill Garner, special prison prosecutor Alice Gregg said.
“I want Judge David Garner dead and I want you to kill him for me,” the letter to Cox read, according to Gregg. “If you decide not to kill Mr. Garner for me, I will kill him myself after I kill you.”‘
‘The Orange County Health Department issued a warning to swimmers Wednesday concerning freshwater ponds and lakes after a 10-year-old boy died when an amoeba apparently entered his body.
Officials said Will Sellers was treated at Arnold Palmer Hospital for amoebic encephalitis after swimming in Lake Conway, WKMG-TV reported. Sellers died Wednesday at the hospital from amoebic encephalitis, or acute swelling of the brain
The amoeba suspected of infecting the boy usually enters a swimmer’s body through the nose and travels to the brain and spinal cord.’
‘Authorities Wednesday continued to investigate the apparent murder-suicide of a couple discovered Monday in their Cutler Avenue home in Ocean Acres.
Susan M. Tomkinson, 76, had been killed with a gas cartridge-powered nail gun with wounds to her head and chest, authorities said. She was found in her home with her husband of 55 years, James B. Tomkinson, who apparently killed her and also wounded himself in the head and chest with a nail gun, authorities said in a prepared statement.’
‘A freshwater dolphin found only in China is now “likely to be extinct”, a team of scientists has concluded.
The researchers failed to spot any Yangtze river dolphins, also known as baijis, during an extensive six-week survey of the mammals’ habitat.
The team, writing in Biology Letters journal, blamed unregulated fishing as the main reason behind their demise.
If confirmed, it would be the first extinction of a large vertebrate for over 50 years.’
‘A Provo man fatally shot himself with a shotgun while trying to disprove a popular TV crime show, according to authorities.
Earl F. Ellwanger Jr., 55, accidentally shot himself in the stomach about 7 p.m. Tuesday and died of his wounds Thursday at Rapid City Regional Hospital.
Ellwanger saw a television episode of “Forensic Files” in which investigators were trying to show that a woman couldn’t have shot herself in the stomach.
“He decided to show that the program was incorrect and didn’t realize the shotgun was loaded,” said Fall River County Sheriff Jeff Tarrell.’
‘A 42-year-old man who died after a head-on collision near New Plymouth last night was travelling on the bonnet of a car before the fatal crash, police said today.
Darin Paul Maxwell, 42, of New Plymouth, died when the black Mazda Lantis he was travelling on collided with another vehicle on State Highway 3, several kilometres southeast of the city, about 10pm.
The drivers of both vehicles remain in hospital in critical and serious condition, police said.
Witness accounts put Mr Maxwell on the bonnet of the Mazda at the time of the accident.
Detective Sergeant Greg Gray said police would not comment further on why he was on the bonnet of the car at this stage, but confirmed Mr Maxwell and the driver of the Mazda knew each other.’
‘A teenager with a history of sleepwalking plunged to his death from a balcony on the first night of a holiday abroad.
Troy Heather, 18, was staying with his girlfriend and her parents in their second-floor apartment on Minorca.
Hairdresser Danielle Ward, also 18, was woken at 3am on Sunday by the sound of her boyfriend hitting the ground 25ft below their flat.
She ran downstairs and raised the alarm but Mr Heather, who had suffered severe head injuries, died in hospital four hours later.’
‘China has banned the use of slogans like “Raise fewer babies but more piggies” to promote family planning, worried crude language may hamper its message in the world’s most populous country, state media said on Sunday.
The slogans are painted on walls and houses across China, but many are too coarse or even mis-written, the official Xinhua news agency cited a notice from the National Population and Family Planning Commission as saying.
Others judged offensive include “Houses toppled, cows confiscated, if abortion demand rejected” and “One more baby means one more tomb”, it said.’
‘Manuel Cordero’s final booty call cost him his life.
The charming mechanic loved snapping Polaroid photos of the oversized posteriors of neighborhood women. But when Amanda Barrett came over for a ”photo shoot,” a pal named Perry Bailey tagged along — to rob Cordero, Miami police say.
He shot Cordero dead, stealing cash and a credit card, police say.
That’s the story outlined in an arrest warrant released Friday. Bailey, 20, was arrested two days earlier, charged with first-degree murder.
‘Sadly, his love of womens’ physiques cost him in the end,” said Miami Detective Delrish Moss, a spokesman.’
‘A suburban Gainesville couple faces charges on suspicion of torturing animals while performing sex acts on each other.
Brenda and Clyde Farrell, of Keystone Heights, have each been charged with four counts of animal cruelty.
Police obtained a video they said shows the abuse. A frog, two chameleons and a parakeet were all nailed or taped to a board, then slowly decapitated, according to police.
Officers said they investigated the couple after the wife went to deputies, telling them her husband might be plotting to kill a co-worker.’
‘A 24-year-old man has been crushed to death by a mechanical claw while in a van at a Southampton scrapyard.
Barry Collins, of Millbrook, Southampton, died after the accident at James Huntley and Sons Scrap Metal and Merchants in Sholing, on Thursday. [..]
Mr Collins had taken a vehicle to the site to be scrapped.
It is believed he then returned to get something from a van after the crushing process began.
A crane with pincers designed to break vehicles picked up the van and crushed it before he could get out.’
‘A would-be immigrant to the European Union is reported to have confessed to cannibalism to stay alive after his boat lost power and drifted for weeks in the Atlantic.
Two other passengers were killed after they were driven mad by thirst and hunger, he said. [..]
Half way into the two-day journey the vessel started drifting after the engine failed, and two days later their food ran out. They were unable to catch fish or seabirds, and with no rain had to drink seawater.
“The thirst and hunger was unbearable,” said Mr Kaindil, 30. “I was just getting thinner and thinner and thinner.”
Two of the group went insane and, after they started assaulting the others, the captain waited for them to fall asleep before throwing them into the ocean to die.’
‘Shelby County investigators said a 14-year-old Russia area boy who died July 16 after tying a 75-pound rock to his ankle to perform a “stunt” in a family pond.
Jay Luthman died at Miami Valley Hospital a day after he was pulled from the Rangeline Road pond by several Russia volunteer firefighters. [..]
Nathan Luthman told investigators Jay Luthman tied a rock to his ankle and dragged it into the pond to “perform a stunt … but did not know the actual stunt Jay was trying to perform,” O’Leary said.’
‘A Castle Rock man died outside a movie complex yesterday when he hooked a cable from his neck to a concrete pillar, then sped off in his car.
Nobody reported the 57-year-old man’s suicide outside the Castle Rock Stadium 12 movie theater until a construction worker spotted the car in an adjacent field and made the horrific find about 2 p.m., Castle Rock police spokeswoman Karen McGrath said this morning.’
‘Divers in the US city of Minneapolis have suspended their search overnight for victims of a bridge that collapsed over the Mississippi river.
Officials said it was too dangerous for the divers to work in the dark.
Four people are confirmed dead with up to 30 people missing. US officials are not linking the collapse to terrorism.
Some 50 vehicles were hurled into the water when part of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, gave way during the rush hour on Wednesday evening.’
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‘”My age is the same as the olive tree,” reads the blue tattoo on Qaisar Tariq al-Essawi’s left shoulder.
Al-Eassawi, 36, got the tattoo so his family and close friends could recognise his remains if he ended up in a morgue.
“I selected this wording because only my family and close friends know about our olive tree which was planted by my father when I was born,” al-Essawi, a father of two boys, told IRIN in Baghdad.
One response to sudden and violent death which has become commonplace in Iraq’s turmoil, is the emergence of a new subculture – the etching of tattoo identities on people who fear becoming an unclaimed body in a packed morgue.’
‘A 48-year-old Phoenix man whom authorities say was choking his 3-year-old granddaughter during an exorcism early Saturday died after struggling with police officers who went into the home to investigate, Phoenix police said.
Police reportedly found Ronald Marquez, of Phoenix, shirtless and choking his granddaughter as her 19-year-old mother, naked and bloody, looked on. The bloodied girl was gasping and screaming as her mother chanted and held a religious picture of some kind, police said.
“It’s very bizarre, (a) very unusual and pretty horrific situation this young child was involved in,” said Sgt. Joel Tranter, a Phoenix police spokesman. [..]
Investigators later learned the man was trying to “squeeze the demons out of the young girl,” Tranter said.’
‘All troops, when they occupy and battle insurgent forces, as in Iraq, or Gaza or Vietnam, are placed in “atrocity producing situations.”
In this environment, surrounded by a hostile population, simple acts such as going to a store to buy a can of Coke means you can be killed. This constant fear and stress pushes troops to view everyone around them as the enemy. This hostility is compounded when the enemy, as in Iraq, is elusive, shadowy and hard to find.
The rage soldiers feel after a roadside bomb explodes, killing or maiming their comrades, is one that is easily directed over time to innocent civilians who are seen to support the insurgents. It is a short psychological leap, but a massive moral leap. It is a leap from killing — the shooting of someone who has the capacity to do you harm — to murder — the deadly assault against someone who cannot harm you. The war in Iraq is now primarily about murder. There is very little killing.’
‘The owner of a car dealership has been accused of killing two employees because they kept asking for pay raises. [..]
Milinavicius, 38, turned himself in two days after the shootings and confessed to the killings, Popham said.
“As I understand, the employees were not really happy about the pay, and they had questioned him about it over the course of time,” Popham said. “That morning he said he just snapped.”’
‘Recently some restaurants in Guangdong, China, have been promoting a popular dish called “water boiled live cat”.
The way the restaurants kill the cats is very cruel and inhumane. One of the chefs even says “the more torture the cats receive, the better they taste.”
They use a bat and beat the cats until they pass out; then throw them into hot water and boil them alive, then de-skin and cook them again.’
‘A gang of children killed a father-of-two by stoning him as he played a makeshift game of cricket with his son, a court has heard.
They surrounded a tennis court where Ernest Norton and his teenage son had set up a wicket and hurled bricks and debris in a “completely unprovoked attack”.
Mr Norton, 67, collapsed in a pool of blood after being hit by a piece of rock and died from heart failure, the Old Bailey was told. [..]
Five boys, all aged 13 or under at the time of the onslaught last year, are accused of unlawfully killing Mr Norton, a retired engineering draughtsman. None can be named for legal reasons.’
‘Two news helicopters covering a police chase on live television collided and crashed to the ground Friday, killing all four people on board in a plunge that viewers saw as a jumble of spinning, broken images.
Both helicopters went down in a park in central Phoenix and caught fire. No one on the ground was hurt.
TV viewers did not actually witness the accident because cameras aboard both aircraft were pointed at the ground. But they saw video from one of the helicopters break up and begin to spin before the station abruptly switched to the studio. [..]
Rick Gotchie, an air conditioning contractor, was working nearby when he noticed the helicopters overhead. He said they began circling closer as he continued watching, and one appeared to get too close to the other.’
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‘Three men who dug up a young woman’s corpse to have sex with it after seeing her obituary photo cannot be charged with attempted sexual assault because Wisconsin has no law against necrophilia, an appeals court ruled Thursday.
A judge was correct to dismiss the charges against twin brothers Nicholas and Alexander Grunke and Dustin Radke, all 21, because lawmakers never intended to criminalize sex with a corpse, the District 4 Court of Appeals said in a 3-0 ruling.
The three men went to a cemetery in Cassville in southwestern Wisconsin on Sept. 2 to remove the body of Laura Tennessen, 20, who had been killed the week before in a motorcycle crash.’
‘A man from Ohio is accused of offering a Florida mother hundreds of dollars to “dunk” and torture her children under water in order to satisfy a bizarre sexual fetish.
Jeff Doland, of Uniontown, Ohio, was arrested by authorities after he flew to Miami, believing he was going to meet a mother of two girls, ages 9 and 12 years old, to pay her $550 to forcibly submerge the children under water until they became unconscious, officials said.
During multiple Internet conversations, Doland told the woman, an undercover agent with the U.S. Secret Service, that “dunking” was his particular form of sexual gratification. [..]
Doland claimed online that he “liked watching the bubbles” [..]’
