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Today in History

1442		Alfonso V of Aragon is crowned King of Naples.
1812		Napoleon Bonaparte and his army invade Russia.
1849		The gas mask is patented by L. P. Haslett.
1862		Confederate General J. E. B. Stuart begins his ride around the Union Army outside of Richmond, Virginia.
1901		Cuba agrees to become an American protectorate by accepting the Platt Amendment.
1918		The first airplane bombing raid by an American unit occurs in France.
1920		Republicans nominate Warren G. Harding for president and Calvin Coolidge for vice president.
1921		President Warren Harding urges every young man to attend military training camp.
1926		Brazil quits the League of Nations in protest over plans to admit Germany.
1931		Gangster Al Capone and 68 of his henchmen are indicted for violating Prohibition laws.
1937		Eight of Stalin’s generals are sentenced to death during purges in the Soviet Union.
1942		American bombers strike the oil refineries of Ploesti, Rumania for the first time.
1963		Black civil rights leader Medgar Evers is assassinated by a gunman outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi.
1967		The Supreme Court rules that states cannot ban interracial marriages.
1972		At a hearing in front the of a U.S. House of Representatives committee, Air Force General John Lavalle defends his orders on engagement in Vietnam.
1977		David Berkowitz gets 25 years to life for the Son of Sam murders in New York.
1985		The U.S. House of Representatives approves $27 million in aid to the Nicaraguan Contras.
1991		Mount Pinatubo in the Phillipines begins erupting for the first time in 600 years.

Hindu god Lord Hanuman issued with eviction notice for illegally encroaching on to road

Authorities in the Bhind district of Madhya Pradesh, India, issued an eviction notice addressed to Lord Hanuman in the wake of a temple’s encroachment upon a road.

The temple which is located in Bajariya locality has a portion which is deemed to be encroaching upon the public thoroughfare.
After the Gwalior High Court gave the directive to remove the encroachment, the municipal authorities issued the notice addressing Lord Hanuman instead of the temple's priest or the trust.
However, the municipal officials later said that the notice was mistakenly issued and would be recalled.
There's a news video here.

Entire village left their homes for a day to ward off evil spirits

The residents of an entire village in Tamil Nadu, south India, left their homes for a day to get rid of the evil spirits they believe are haunting their village.

Nearly 200 families of Ammanari village, Krishnagiri, left the village early on Sunday morning and returned only in the evening after doing special pujas. They also took their domestic animals with them.
According to the beliefs of the villagers, doing so would relieve them from the clasps of the evil spirits . The villagers believed that the death of three youngsters in the village within a month was the work of an evil spirit roaming around the village.

YouTube link.

The mass exodus was thus planned as part of a ritual to ward off the evil spirits. The road leading to the village was blocked with an old tree smeared with ashes to ‘prevent the evil spirits from entering.’ In addition, 15 men from nearby villages were deputed to guard the village border.

It's A Man Thing

Family fun day shut down early after mass brawl

A family fun day in Nottinghamshire had to be brought to an abrupt end on Saturday night after a mass brawl. Police were called to Bramcote Hills Park at about 9:20pm after reports of groups of youths fighting at the annual Hemlock Happening event.
Organisers say violence broke out at the 'periphery of the event' and the decision was made to call it off as thousands of people were enjoying the last music act of the night. It meant the fireworks finale at 10.30pm was entirely cancelled.

In a statement organizers said: "This is the first time in 14 years that the Hemlock Happening has had to be terminated prematurely and the organizers are astonished and devastated that a tiny minority of our community should behave in the way that they did.
"Feedback meetings will follow after which the future of the event will be considered." Nottinghamshire Police said the majority of people had been behaving peacefully. They added that no arrests were made and they moved all the trouble makers out of the area.

Man died after eating parts of tablet computer in bid to avoid being detained by police

A man in St. Petersburg, Russia, has died after eating parts of a smashed-up tablet computer to avoid being detained by police, the law enforcement agency said on Monday.

Police were called to an apartment in the city at about 5pm on Sunday after reports that someone was throwing items out of a window, the regional branch of the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
When the local police commissioner arrived at the scene, the 41-year-old unemployed man started to behave strangely by eating pieces of glass and the smashed-up tablet to avoid detention, the statement added.
The policeman, who was injured while trying to stop the man from eating his tablet, called an ambulance to the scene but the man lost consciousness and died before it arrived. An investigation into the circumstances surrounding the man's death is ongoing

Man in jail after assault with pizza

A man is behind bars for allegedly throwing a hot slice of pizza at his female roommate during an argument in their Florida apartment.

According to police, Daniel Plunkett and Brenda Fiejdasz “had an argument about pizza” last Wednesday evening inside their Treasure Island residence. The nature of the pizza dispute is not further described in a criminal complaint. During the quarrel, Plunkett, 50, allegedly threw a slice at Fiejdasz, 56, who was struck on the left hand by the pizza.
“The pizza was hot, victim had no injury,” an officer noted, adding, “Victim had pizza sauce on her right shoulder, and cleaned up prior to arrival.” After being read his rights, Plunkett denied throwing the pizza. Instead, Plunkett, who had pizza sauce on his chest and shorts, claimed that Fiejdasz “threw pizza on him.”
Plunkett was arrested for simple battery, a misdemeanor. He was also charged with violating the terms of a felony probation stemming from convictions for drunk driving and driving with a license that had been suspended or revoked. Plunkett is being held without bond on the probation violation counts.

Police hunt thieves who left hundreds of bread rolls behind after robbing elderly man

A man in his 70s has been robbed of a mobility scooter and ride-on mower but the thieves left behind hundreds of freshly baked bread rolls in what police have described as a "bizarre" incident in Victoria, Australia.

Police said thieves broke into a home in Templestowe by forcing open the garage door. They stole a number of items including a ride-on lawn mower, crystal glasses and a double-seater mobility scooter, which police said was unique.
When the home owner, a man in his 70s, returned home he found the robbers had left behind hundreds of freshly baked bread rolls. Police labelled the incident "bizarre" and asked anyone who may have seen suspicious activity in the area to contact them.
Senior Constable Martin Nunn said police were keen to return the stolen items to the owner. "He's a man in his 70s and the wheelchair belonged to his late father, so it has a sentimental value as well as a practical one," he said. "To rob an elderly man of his wheelchair is a pretty low act and police are keen to catch up with those responsible."

Burglar broke into home and stole everything including the kitchen sink

A burglar broke into a house in Coventry and stripped it of everything including the kitchen sink. Sebastian Ptasinski also took a new boiler, radiators, pipework, new carpets and even the cooker from a home in Wyken. The house was being renovated by the landlord after a tenant moved out.

Despite his fingerprints and empty cans of Zubr, a Polish beer, being found inside, Ptasinski had initially pleaded not guilty. But on the day of his trial at Warwick Crown Court, Ptasinski, 30, of Wyken, changed his pleas to guilty. The offense involved him targeting a neighboring house which had been let to a tenant who had moved out in December last year. The owner spent £3,000 on carrying out improvements, including installing a new boiler, pipework and radiators, and fitting new carpets.
But the property remained unoccupied, and when the owner visited on April 10 he discovered that it had been burgled and ‘vandalized.’ The new boiler, piping and radiators had been stolen, together with the carpets, lights and electrical switches, cooker - and even the kitchen sink and taps. Ptasinski sold a lot of the property to a scrap dealer, and he was identified as the seller after being traced through his car which had been captured by a CCTV camera at the scrap yard.
As well as the empty beer cans with his DNA on it, Ptasinski had also left behind a bailiff’s notice with his name and address on it. Adjourning the case for a pre-sentence report to be prepared on Ptasinski, Judge Sylvia de Bertodano granted him bail with a condition of an electronically-monitored curfew. But she warned him: “Please be under no illusions; this is likely to be a sentence of custody which is measured in years rather than months.”

Woman dressed as blue rabbit wanted by police

A woman dressed in a blue rabbit onesie is being hunted by police after two burglaries in Lancashire. The unusually-dressed suspect is wanted in connection with two break-ins in Skelmersdale last month.
Lancashire Police said she is thought to be in her 40s, with greasy, dyed purple hair, scabs on her face and a tattoo of the name Evelyn on one hand. She was also wearing a yellow Minions rucksack, a padded jacket and carrying a black sleeping bag.
The burglaries happened on 23 May on Inglewhite. During the first incident, which happened between 8:00am and 3:00pm, a property was entered through a back door and keys to the house and nearby allotments were stolen.
A second home was later entered in the same way between 11:30am and 12:00pm, and keys to the house and car keys were taken. PC Hanif Patel said: "The woman was seen in the area by a number of witnesses and we are keen to trace her as soon as possible."

How It A Started

Scientists just found soft tissue inside a dinosaur fossil

Here's why it's so exciting.

A theropod claw fossil, in which microscopic structures resembling red blood cells were found.  

Dinosaur fossils, it was long thought, are simple objects. The fossilization process leaves the overall shape of a dinosaur's bones intact, but all the microscopic structures inside them — the blood cells, connective fibers, and other sorts of soft tissue — inevitably decay over time.
But that view is changing — and it's possible that many ancient fossils may preserve more detail than meets the eye. The sort of biological tissue now being found in some fossils could tell us about dinosaur anatomy, behavior, and evolution in ways that weren't possible just a few years ago.

More

Kitten used up one of its nine lives after being accidentally fed through recycling machine

A kitten has had a miraculous escape after being mistakenly fed into industrial machinery at a recycling plant, and popping out again at the other end, unscathed. Stig, a six-week-old black moggy, was heard before he was seen at the Rainham center on Friday May 29 after finding himself going along a conveyor belt into industrial machinery at the recycling plant in Rainham, Essex.

But miraculously he appeared at the other end, unscathed. Site supervisor Daniel Coker, 34, heard Stig's distressed meows from inside the heavy machine which separated different types of rubbish, and then was very relieved when the young cat popped out the other side. He said: "I can't quite believe he survived - what a lucky escape. The machinery was pretty heavy duty so it was quite some miracle.
"There was nothing I could do when I heard the cat's cries from inside, but then he popped out the other end on the conveyor belt in between blocks of metal - stressed but unhurt." Mr Coker scooped up the little kitten, named Stig by staff after the popular children's story character Stig Of The Dump, and gave him some comfort, before calling the RSPCA which has taken him into its care and now hopes to find him a happy new home to help him recover from his ordeal.

Deborah Satchell, manager at Danaher Animal Home in Essex, where Stig is being kept, said: "It is hard to say exactly how Stig ended up in that recycling plant. He could have climbed into the bin and curled up to sleep, which was then gone unnoticed by the bin men. The important thing is that he wasn't hurt, and this kind man spotted him, cared for him, and called us. Stig is a little anxious for obvious reasons but is doing well, and we hope we can find him a happy new home soon."

Lost pigeon given helicopter ride home from North Sea oil platform

A lost pigeon which landed on a North Sea oil platform has been flown back to land by helicopter. The "exhausted" bird was found on Talisman Sinopec's Clyde platform, about 160 miles offshore.

The pigeon, nicknamed Pedro by the workers on board, was flown by helicopter to Aberdeen. It was then taken to the Scottish SPCA's National Wildlife Rescue Center in Fishcross, where it was said to be making a good recovery.
Animal rescue officer Kirsty McQuade said: "It was actually my boyfriend Kevin Mitchell who found Pedro. He crash landed on deck and Kevin managed to catch him and take him inside.
"Pedro appeared to be exhausted and extremely thin so Kevin contacted me for advice. I advised him on what to feed Pedro and he was kept safe in a box on board. It was fantastic that Pedro was able to ride in the helicopter with the crew who were coming back to the mainland and we would like to thank everyone for their assistance."

Dog making miraculous recovery after being shot in head during domestic dispute

A dog is making a miraculous recovery after she was shot in the head in the Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood last Wednesday. It's a story of survival for Sophie, a beautiful 6-year-old shepherd/lab mix that was caught in the crossfire during a domestic incident between two men. Both men died. When officers arrived on the scene they found the dog reaching out for help, despite suffering what should have been mortal wounds. Fifteen minutes after the incident, at about 4:50pm, Sophie was taken by Chicago police officers to the Blue Pearl Veterinary Center in Skokie.

"They are part of the reason why she is still alive right now, yeah," said Dr. Lauren Nazarian. Dr. Nazarian is now thrilled that Sophie can move around, eat, even wag her tail. Chicago Police Officer Steven Ommundson didn't stick around long that day. He was needed back at the crime scene. "It was kind of emotional because I grew up with dogs and just seeing a dog in that state, I mean, it's a lot to take in," Ommundson said. With bullet fragments in her jaw and shoulder and a left flank still puffy from all the internal bleeding, Sophie has a long road to recovery.
Still, the veterinarian says she's one lucky pooch. "The biggest concern we have right now is the neurological trauma, it seems to affect her vestibular systems - her balance center - which is why when you see her walking she is wobbly, has the head tilt to the side, she is kind of spinning in circles a little bit," Dr. Nazarian said. Frankie's Friends, an animal welfare charity, has raised over $14,000 for her care. "I think given how she looks now, she may not be 100 percent normal, but will have a good prognosis for a good quality of life as a dog," Dr. Nazarian said.

Sophie will get a CT scan later this week to see if she has other injuries. Ommundson said that out of his eight years on the force, this was one of the hardest things to see. "I kept thinking to myself, how could someone do this to man's best friend? You know, the dog didn't do anything to anybody. It just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time," Ommundson said. Currently, Sophie has no home. If someone doesn't come forward to take adopt her out of Blue Pearl Hospital, she will be turned over to animal control. Though, there have been numerous offers to take her in.
There's a news video here.

Bull yak sprinted away at sight of bear and just kept on running, leaving calves and cows behind

When a curious brown bear showed up outside the fence at Eagle Peaks Farm in the Anchorage area of Alaska on Friday, the cows in a small yak herd there defiantly surrounded the calves. But not the lone bull, Stormy: he sprinted away and never looked back.

"It was really cool to watch the cows and how fierce they were," said Angie Johnson, who along with her husband, Doug, owns the 25-acre farm. "But the bull just ran the long ways down the field and then hopped over the fence. The cows and the young kind of stood their ground against the bear, even though the bear never got inside the field."
Immediately, one of Angie's sons started tracking Stormy, who has broken loose two other times, and earned the nickname Wimpy for his latest escape, and coaxed him back into the pen with the help of a cow. Ironically enough, when the family moved to the farm a couple years ago, they bought yaks with bears in mind, Johnson said.

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"During our research on the internet, we knew there were a lot of brown and black bears on Eagle River Road," she said. "We were under the impression that yaks could defend themselves against bears. This one little data point, at least we have seen our cows do marvelously."

Coastguard looking for drugs at sea ended up rescuing turtles

A would-be drugs bust turned into a rescue operation off the coast of Central America last month. Coast Guardsmen aboard the Cutter Stratton from Alameda, California, who were investigating a suspicious item floating in a known drug transit zone instead made a unique rescue. Instead of drugs, the crew found two large sea turtles entangled in fishing line and makeshift buoys.

"There was no question what we had to do," said Petty Officer 2nd Class Hylan Rousseau, the coxswain of Stratton's interceptor boat. "And no one spoke a word. We immediately moved in to rescue mode." An officer-mounted camera captured the rescue operation. One of the turtles had line wrapped around its neck, which restricted its airway and caused apparent respiratory distress.
"We cut the first turtle free without much incident," said Chief Petty Officer Brian Milcetich, a member of the law enforcement team. "While we were freeing him, we could see the second, and much larger turtle, was quite literally choking to death. He had been trying so hard to free himself from the fishing line that he had cinched the line around his own neck."

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After lifting the approximately 70-pound turtle aboard the boat, officers used a specialized pair of sheers normally used by emergency medical technicians to sever the line. The turtle took a deep breath once the line was removed from its neck. "Everyone was elated," said Milcetich. "As you see in the video, he (the turtle) didn't stick around to celebrate." The second turtle jumped back into water and swam away. "It's another perfect example of the Coast Guard's ability to quickly adapt to different missions," said Petty Officer 3rd Class Jerry Renfroe.

Hippos helped duckling out of pond at zoo

A young duckling was given a helping nudge to get out of the water in the hippo enclosure at Diergaarde Blijdorp zoo in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on Saturday.

The little bird couldn't get out of the pond and two curious hippos finally helped it out with a final push.
Filmed by Breshna Senchi, she said: "I had just taken my son and daughter to the zoo. At first we were worried that the bird was about to be eaten, but the hippos really wanted to help."

YouTube link.Alternative YouTube link.

According to the zoo the hippos had no intention of eating the duckling. "Hippos do not eat meat, but they are very curious about visitors," said Constance Alderlieste from the zoo.
You can watch Breshna Senchi's original Facebook video here.

Animal Pictures