Offbeat News

A squirrel was blamed for a power outage at South Lake Tahoe that left about 3,200 Sierra Pacific Power Co.2.7

Associated Press Aug. 3, 2005 12:55 PM ARLINGTON, Va. - A brain dead woman who was kept alive for three months so she could deliver the child she was carrying was removed from life support Wednesday and died, ...

A man made up a story about killing a hitchhiker and burying the body in the woods in an effort to persuade his wife to leave him, authorities said.

A briefcase found Wednesday outside a San Antonio mosque was thought to possibly be a bomb, so police cleared away worshippers, sealed off the area and evacuated dozens of people from a nearby apartment ...2.7

Associated Press Aug. 3, 2005 12:21 PM NEW YORK - John Mayer has writer's block - and he wants your help.2.7

A sausage vendor has given two Salem boys trying to make a buck selling lemonade a lesson in cutthroat business techniques.3.1

It wasn't a big gun or knife that caught the eye of an armed thief's victim in Austria's capital.2.7

Nick Lachey and Kelly Ripa took a broom to some rumors as they co-hosted the syndicated TV show "Live With Regis and Kelly." Lachey denied that his marriage to Jessica Simpson is on the rocks, and Ripa said her ...3.1

Nudist Robert Norton will meet his maker - dressed for the occasion. The Pekin, Illinois, man spent decades fighting arrests for public nudity.

Lawyers for an 11-year-old girl charged with assault with a deadly weapon for throwing a rock at a boy during a water balloon fight reached a deal Wednesday that allows the child to escape jail time.3.3

Joseph B. Verrengia Associated Press Aug. 3, 2005 11:33 AM Scientists for the first time have cloned a dog.

LEAD STORY Even though India now has 80,000 licensed dentists, nearly 100 street dentists continue to operate in dusty, open-air offices, performing extractions and fitting used dentures for, typically, 1 ...2.7

A famed Renaissance statue in the Italian city of Florence was damaged in the early hours of Wednesday when someone climbed onto the figure of Neptune and snapped off the sea god's right hand.3.2

Daryl Hall, diagnosed with lyme disease six weeks ago, returns to the road this weekend with John Oates.2.7

A man trapped for two days beneath a fallen stack of newspapers in New York City; a Virginia woman's home overrun with 500 cats; a Florida man discovered with dozens of vipers in his house - these are just ...2.9

There's a stray roaming the streets of Charleston, West Virginia. But it's no dog - it's a pig.4

It's not just on radio that Howard Stern will be testing out a new technology. The In Demand Networks, which provides video-on-demand content to cable television companies, said Wednesday it had reached an ...2.7

A court in Germany convicted a man for fraud after he racked up huge phone bills phoning a sex hotline from work and split the proceeds with a woman working at the service, authorities said on Wednesday.

A model of Britain's Prince William was already attracting admiring eyes after it was unveiled at Madame Tussauds waxwork museum in London.2.9

Good thing Diane Ellis knows how to handle money. The West Virginia real estate bookkeeper now has plenty of her own.2.7

Days before Private James Marshall Hendrix was officially drummed out of the military, Army brass delivered withering assessments of the 19-year-old soldier.

A man ticketed for speeding thought he'd get even by paying his fine with 12,000 pennies.5.3

A 70-year-old Tombstone man was killed when he tumbled from an abandoned bridge into the San Pedro River.

Australia's immigration department has been forced to reinstate the citizenship of one of the nation's most celebrated architects, after it was made public it had revoked his citizenship 19 years ago but didn't ...3.1

Sri Lanka plans to outlaw the slaughter of stray dogs as a "catch and kill" policy has failed to reduce the incidence of rabies, Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said Wednesday.

Barry Manilow will keep on crooning into 2007 at the Las Vegas Hilton. The hotel-casino has added 150 shows to Manilow's engagement, Hilton executives announced Tuesday.2.7

Soldiers at U.S. Army posts around the world are signing up to compete for a chance to go to Fort Gordon -- not to join the post's famed Signal Center, but to sing.3.1

Brenda Boozer usually looks out for snakes in her mother's garden. But she couldn't believe it when she found an 8-foot-long Burmese python in her mother's yard on Tuesday.4

Taps at some of Sri Lanka's top city night spots, hotels, bars and restaurants have gone dry following lightening raids by inspectors of the Excise Dept, officials said Wednesday.2.7

Saying he was on a "mission to ignite peace," Carlos Santana played before a sold-out crowd at a concert to mark the 60th anniversary of the world's first atomic bomb attack.2.7

NEW CASTLE, PA) , Call it the case of the alleged hooker and the senior citizen discounts.

A former nurse's aide was sentenced to 10 months in prison Monday for conspiring with another nurse to give nursing home patients laxatives to make them sick.5.5

Wayne Newton is disputing Internal Revenue Service claims that he and his wife owe $1.8 million in taxes and penalties from 1997 through 2000.2.7

A woman accidentally shipped her wedding ring as part of a care packages for troops in Iraq.3.2

A COMEDIAN has rowed nearly 200 miles in a bath-tub as part of an epic journey in aid of charity.2.9