NewburyportNews.com, Newburyport, MA--Offbeat

Hungry bear and cub take refuge on roof of 4-story building in central Romania

Fri, 16 May 2008 01:47:00 EDT

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — A mother bear and her young cub stopped traffic and caused panic yesterday in central Romania after they roamed through gardens in search of food and finally climbed the stairs of a 4-story building and broke onto the roof.

Forgotten tot left behind at Vancouver airport

Thu, 15 May 2008 02:14:00 EDT

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — An immigrant family accidentally left a 23-month boy in the Vancouver airport and learned he was missing only when contacted during the next leg of the trip.
Jun Parreno, the boy's father, told The Vancouver Sun the mix-up occurred Monday as he, his wife and two grandparents of the child, J.M., were scrambling between their arrival in Canada and a connecting flight to Winnipeg on Air Canada.

Australian fined for buckling in beer, not child

Wed, 14 May 2008 01:44:00 EDT

DARWIN, Australia (AP) — An Australian man has been fined after buckling in a case of beer with a seat belt but leaving a 5-year-old child to sit on the car's floor, police said yesterday.
Constable Wayne Burnett said he was "shocked and appalled" when he pulled over the unregistered car Friday in the central Australian town of Alice Springs.

Ga. church tempts worshippers with $500 gas raffle

Wed, 14 May 2008 01:43:00 EDT

SNELLVILLE, Ga. (AP) — So much for spaghetti suppers: The First Baptist Church of Snellville is fueling its membership drive with a sign in front of its sprawling campus proclaiming "Free Gasoline."

College freshman, 19, elected mayor of Muskogee, Okla.

Wed, 14 May 2008 01:42:00 EDT

MUSKOGEE, Okla. (AP) — A 19-year-old freshman at the University of Oklahoma was elected mayor Tuesday of Muskogee, a city of 38,000 in the northeastern part of the state.
With all precincts reporting, John Tyler Hammons won with 70 percent of the vote over former Mayor Hershel Ray McBride, said Muskogee County Election Board Secretary Bill Bull.

Mother-son NJ Guard sergeants heading to Iraq together

Mon, 12 May 2008 01:47:00 EDT

TEANECK, N.J. (AP) — A 46-year-old combat medic and a 29-year-old man will be serving together in the same National Guard unit in Iraq. Nothing unusual — except they're mother and son.
Sgt. Carmen Villegas, a 46-year-old combat medic, was transferred two weeks ago to the same Teaneck-based unit as her son, Sgt. Felipe Diaz.

New idea in mortuary science: Dissolving bodies with lye

Sun, 11 May 2008 02:06:00 EDT

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Since they first walked the planet, humans have either buried or burned their dead. Now a new option is generating interest — dissolving bodies in lye and flushing the brownish, syrupy residue down the drain.

Driver gets in wreck, sees his home catch fire, gets ticket

Sun, 11 May 2008 02:01:00 EDT

ROCK ISLAND, Tenn. (AP) — One moment, Justin Hill was turning into his driveway. Minutes later he was being flown to a hospital as his home went up in flames. Then he got a traffic ticket.
Hill, 42, got into a crash after turning into the path of an oncoming car Tuesday evening, said Tennessee Highway Patrol Officer Monte Terry. Hill's wife heard the crash and ran outside, leaving the kitchen stove, where she had been cooking unattended.

Scientists report the genetic makeup of the platypus

Fri, 09 May 2008 12:43:00 EDT

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — With a bill like a duck, a tail like a beaver and snake-like venom hidden in heel spurs, the platypus could be the result of some strange genetic experiment.
And it is, scientists say: evolution.

Gas price protest singer arrested

Wed, 07 May 2008 02:03:00 EDT

VALPARAISO, Ind. (AP) — A man with a guitar and a megaphone climbed atop a convenience store roof to serenade commuters with his musical protest of high gasoline prices — until police halted the impromptu concert.

La. warden says his prison has an unpaid guard: a black bear

Tue, 06 May 2008 01:47:00 EDT

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The way the warden sees it, the more than 400-pound black bear living in the middle of the sprawling Louisiana State Penitentiary is an extra layer of security.
"I love that bear being right where it is," Warden Burl Cain said yesterday. "I tell you what, none of our inmates are going to try to get out after dark and wander around when they might run into a big old bear. It's like having another guard at no cost to the taxpayer."

Illinois man orders custom beer-can coffin

Mon, 05 May 2008 01:44:00 EDT

SOUTH CHICAGO HEIGHTS, Ill. (AP) — Bill Bramanti will love Pabst Blue Ribbon eternally, and he's got the custom-made beer-can casket to prove it.
"I actually fit, because I got in here," said Bramanti of South Chicago Heights.

Doughnut shop employee accused of installing bathroom cam

Mon, 05 May 2008 01:43:00 EDT

KINGS PARK, N.Y. (AP) — A doughnut shop worker installed a surveillance camera in the women's bathroom at work and watched the footage from a computer in his car, police said yesterday.
Danish Qureshi, 25, of Huntington Station, was arrested Saturday night at work at the Dunkin' Donuts at Kings Park, Suffolk County police said.

Scout who returned wallet with $800 gets own wallet returned

Fri, 02 May 2008 01:51:00 EDT

DORR, Mich. (AP) — An 11-year-old Boy Scout who found and returned a wallet containing more than $800 has received some good karma for his good deed.
Thanks to publicity about his action, J.R. Bouterse has gotten his own lost wallet back.

Dinosaur dung sold for nearly $1,000

Thu, 01 May 2008 01:59:00 EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — A pile of dinosaur dung 130 million years old has sold at a New York auction for $960.
A spokeswoman for Bonhams New York says the prehistoric deposit fetched more than its pre-auction estimate of $450 yesterday evening in Manhattan.

Specially groomed eyebrows a headache at Oregon high school

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 01:34:00 EDT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A Portland high school is raising eyebrows with its brow grooming policy: shave 'em or go home.
Some students at Centennial High School have shaved vertical lines into their eyebrows in a trend recently made popular by hip-hop star Soulja Boy. School officials say the mark looks like a gang symbol.

Penguin's wetsuit puts him back in the swim of things

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 01:50:00 EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — What's black and white and warm all over? A penguin in a wetsuit, naturally.
Sounds like a joke, but it's quite serious for biologists at the California Academy of Sciences, who had a wetsuit created for an African penguin to help him get back in the swim of things.

New church holds service in bar to reach new people

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 01:35:00 EDT

SIDNEY, Ohio (AP) — Another round and amen! Beer was on tap and a mechanical bull inspired the sermon as a new church held its inaugural service in a western Ohio bar.
The Country Rock Church drew about 100 people to Sunday night's meeting at the Pub Lounge in Sidney, 35 miles north of Dayton.

Space workers replying to seaborne message from Bahamas

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:33:00 EDT

TITUSVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A Bahamian girl's seaborne school project has landed on the sandy doorstep of NASA.
United Space Alliance worker Jill Vogel found a message in a bottle from a student at the Holy Name Catholic School in Bimini, about 220 miles southeast of Titusville and closest to Florida of all the Bahamas islands.

Maryland woman gives birth to rare quadruplets, 3 identical

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 01:50:00 EDT

TOWSON, Md. (AP) — A mother has given birth to a rare set of quadruplets in which three of the four boys are identical.
The boys were born 11 weeks premature in January at Greater Baltimore Medical Center in Towson. The parents plan to introduce themselves and their boys at a news conference today.