'Dead' duck survives two days in fridge

A duck has been found alive in a fridge two days after being shot.

The duck was discovered alive after the hunter's wife opened the door and the duck lifted his head.at their home in Talahassee, Florida.

Local vet Laina Whipple said: "The man's wife was going to check on the refrigerator because it hadn't been working right and when she opened the door, it looked up at her.

"She freaked out and told the daughter to take it to the hospital right then and there."

The duck was transferred to Goose Creek Wildlife Sanctuary, where it was been treated for wounds to its wing and leg.

Sanctuary veterinarian David Hale said it will probably never be released back into the wild, reports the BBC.

He said the duck, which has a low metabolism, could have survived in a big enough refrigerator, especially if the door was opened and closed several times.

Dead woman wins election

A dead woman won an election to a rural school board in Alaska - on the toss of a coin.

Katherine Dunton died on the day of the election which left her and challenger Dona Highstone tied.

Even with Dunton's death, state law required a tie vote to be settled by lot after an official recount.

Highstone called heads, but the coin landed on tails. The school board at Adak must now find a replacement.

Elections director Whitney Brewster said nobody in the election office could remember anything like it happening before.

"This is definitely a new one for the division, and it's just, just ... I'm speechless, frankly," she said.

Dog saves owner, dies trying to save cat

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. - After a disabled woman's cat started a house fire, her specially trained dog came to the rescue, then died trying to help the cat still in the house. Jamie Hanson said the 13-year-old dog named Jesse brought the phone so she could call 911 and also brought her artificial leg.

"She got me outside and then she heard the cat upstairs and she went up there to get the cat and she wouldn't come back to me," Hanson, 49, said at a news conference Monday at Aurora Sheboygan Memorial Medical Center where she was being treated for her injuries.

She received third-degree burns to an arm in the fire Sunday night at her home in the town of Rhine south of Elkhart Lake, the Sheboygan County Sheriff's Department said, adding that both pets died in the fire.

Hanson, who lost a leg in a car accident three years ago, said she was on the couch watching television when the cat ran over the back of the couch.

"And he jumped onto a table that had a candle on it and tipped it over and lighted the artificial plants on fire," she said.

Hanson said she fell off the couch and was unable to get her artificial leg from the table, "so my dog got my leg for me and went and got the phone and brought the phone to me so I could call 911."

She said she tried to put the prosthetic leg on, but it was too hot, and the dog, a golden retriever-German shepherd mix, came to her aid again before going back inside for the cat.

When rescuers arrived, the house was fully engulfed in flames, the sheriff's department said. Hanson was in the doorway and was assisted by a deputy.

Man dies after swallowing coins

AN INQUEST heard that a man who could not stop himself from eating unusual objects died soon after an operation on his bowel.

Dewi Evans suffered from a condition called pica which is an abnormal appetite or craving for substances that are not fit to eat.

The operation discovered a paper towel, a screw, a magnet and 54p in change inside his distended bowel.

Mr Evans, 61, had been a patient at the Hensol psychiatric hospital in Pontyclun, south Wales, from the age of six.

He was transferred to the Royal Glamorgan Hospital in Llantrisant on June 24, 2003, after complaining of stomach pain.

Susan Miller, the deputy manager at Hensol Hospital, told the inquest: “Mr Evans had very specialist care needs.

“An additional fence had to be erected around the hospital to prevent him from absconding and looking for items to digest."

The inquest in Pontypridd heard that four days after the various objects were removed during the operation at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital, Mr Evans died.

David Stock, a consultant pathologist, found the primary cause of death to be coronary heart disease and the secondary cause was an obstruction of the small bowel.

Coroner Philip Walters recorded a verdict of death by natural causes.

World’s Largest Cat Eats World’s Smallest Cat For Lunch

THE WORLD’S LARGEST CAT, Verismo Leonetti Reserve Red, and the world’s smallest cat, Mr. Peebles, were scheduled to be photographed together in a publicity event on Wednesday. Both hold Guiness Book World Records for Longest and Smallest cat, respectively. While it is normal for some cats to reject eachother upon meeting, an unexpected turn of events led to Mr. Peebles’s untimely demise.

It is unknown whether Verismo Leonetti “Leo” Reserve Red, a 4-foot-long Maine Coon, ate breakfast on Wednesday morning. When he was introduced to the 2-lb Mr. Peebles, they immediately took to one another. One witness says, “Leo just started licking Mr. Peebles like a mother to a kitten.”

Once the two were taken to the room with all of the cameras, things began to get a little strange. Leo, who has been rumored to have performed in a cat food commercial on one or two occasions, immediately climbed upon a table and prepared by primping for the photo shoot. Mr. Peebles crawled into a glass bowl to help emphasize his small stature. A photographer thought that this would have been a cute scene, so he asked someone on the set to move Mr. Peebles’s bowl to the table where Leo was bathing.

“From there, it was a bloodbath,” said photographer Peter Ellis. “That big cat must have thought that the bowl was carrying his lunch.” Before anyone could intervene, the massive Maine Coon cat swallowed the tiny Mr. Peebles and licked his chops as though he had just had a tasty meal.

At this time, it is not known whether anyone will be pressing charges

Killer teddy bear leaves 2,500 fish dead

MILFORD, N.H. - A teddy bear has been implicated in 2,500 deaths. Of trout, that is. State officials say a teddy bear dropped into a pool at a Fish and Game Department hatchery earlier this month clogged a drain. The clog blocked the flow of oxygen to the pool and suffocated the fish.

Hatcheries supervisor Robert Fawcett said the bear - who was dressed in yellow raincoat and hat - is believed to be the first stuffed bear to cause fatalities at the facility.

"We've had pipes get clogged, but it's usually with more naturally occurring things like a frog or even a dead muskrat," he said. "This one turned out to be a teddy bear and we don't know how it got there."

The deaths prompted Fawcett to release a written warning: "RELEASE OF ANY TEDDY BEARS into the fish hatchery water IS NOT PERMITTED."

He said it's not known who dropped the bear, but urged anyone whose bear ends up in a hatchery pool to find a worker to remove it. "They might save your teddy bear, and keep it from becoming a killer," he said.

"It's kind of a cute little teddy bear and people wouldn't think that a cute little teddy bear would be able to kill fish."

'Dead' woman shocks family

A Brazilian woman shocked her family by turning up alive and well a week after her own funeral.

Relatives of 18-year-old Maria Fabiana Franco thought she was a ghost and wouldn't let her in the house.

Miss Franco, from Vitoria, had been missing for two weeks when her sister wrongly identified the body of a young woman as being her.

Adriana Lacerda, the sister, said: "The dead woman was identical to my sister. They even had the same scar on the same eyebrow!"

The body was buried in the family grave and the family were still mourning a week later when Miss Franco turned up.

A police spokesperson told Terra Noticias Populares: "The family was so happy but really scared at the same time.

"They didn't let her in until we arrived, they thought they were seeing a ghost."

Miss Franco told police she had run away with her boyfriend but had to return home after he was arrested.

Murder suspect: Goat turned into corpse

LAGOS, Nigeria - A Nigerian murder suspect accused of killing his brother with an axe told police investigators he actually attacked a goat, which was only later magically transformed into his sibling's corpse, officials said Thursday.

The man, whose name wasn't released, offered police his explanation after his arrest on Tuesday in the death of his brother the previous day at Isseluku village in southern Nigeria.

"He said that the goats were on his farm and he tried to chase them away. When one wouldn't move, he attacked it with an axe. He said it then turned into his brother," Police Commissioner Udom Ekpoudom told the Associated Press.

Murder suspects in Nigeria, where many people believe in black magic, sometimes claim spirits tricked them into killing. In 2001, eight people were burned to death after one person in their group was accused of making a bystander's penis magically disappear.

Zombie outbreak strikes Cambodia.

There has been a small outbreak of “zombism” in a small town near the border of Laos in North-Eastern Cambodia.

The culprit was discovered to be mosquitoes native to that region carrying a new strain of Malaria which thus far has a 100 percent mortality rate and kills victims in fewer than 2 days.

After death, this parasite is able to restart the heart of its victim for up to two hours after the initial demise of the person where the individual behaves in extremely violent ways from what is believed to be a combination of brain damage and a chemical released into blood during “resurrection.”

Cambodian officials say that the outbreak has been contained and the public has no need to worry.

General Ary Serey had this to say, "We have obtained samples of this new parasite and plan to learn how it starts the heart and other major organs of the deceased. We intend to use this to increase the quality of life for all."

51-Year Old Woman Strangles Hit Man Hired to Kill Her

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Portland Police say the estranged husband of the woman who killed an intruder with her bare hands has been accused of hiring him to kill her.

Michael Kuhnhausen, 58, was charged Thursday with criminal conspiracy to commit murder and attempted murder.

Detectives say Kuhnhausen let Edward Haffey into Susan Kuhnhausen's house. Detectives say he waited for Susan Kuhnhausen with a claw hammer to arrive home from her nursing job.

Haffey struck her several times. According to a court affidavit obtained by The Oregonian newspaper, she managed to take the hammer away. The intruder bit Kuhnhausen several times. She bit back.

Finally, the 51-year-old woman was able to choke the life out of him. Portland Police found the 59-year-old Haffey dead on the floor. Susan Kuhnhausen told homicide detectives she believed her husband was involved.

Marshmallow Mary Meets her Maker

A UK woman collapsed at the Western Fair earlier this week after participating in a marshmallow-eating contest has died.

A London Health Sciences Centre spokesperson confirmed the patient’s death today, but would not release her name at the request of the woman’s family.

The woman collapsed Wednesday evening after participating in a Chubby Bunny contest, in which participants stuff 100 marshmallows into their mouth and then attempt to say the words “Chubby Bunny.”

Western Fair manager Dave Taylor also confirmed the death and was quoted as saying, “Marshmallow Mary (as she was called) knew her stuff, I had once seen her put 150 marshmallows in her mouth. Just before she gasped her last breath it seemed she was still trying to say Chubby Bunny, to win the prize, but all I heard was, oh fuck!”

Chubby Bunny is expecting a large law-suit to be filed by Mary’s family. The company is reportedly going to change the rules for future contests and only require 75 marshmallow to be stuffed into a contestants mouth prior to speaking those words, which win you a free 20 lbs. bag of Chubby marshmallows.

Poisoned pigeons fall from sky in Texarkana

EXARKANA, Texas (AP) -- Poisoned pigeons began nose-diving into pavement and dying on downtown sidewalks, marring the city's annual festival.

Authorities cleaned up more than 25 sick or dead birds that apparently had eaten poisoned corn from the roof of a nearby bank branch.

"The death of these pigeons was more than an unfortunate accident," local CapitalOne Bank President Lacy McMillen said in Tuesday's online edition of Texarkana Gazette. "It was not the intention of the bank to harm any of these birds."

McMillen said the bank hired an exterminator to handle its pigeon problem after a bird entered the bank and defecated on a customer.

The company, which hired Anti-Pest Co. Inc. of Shreveport, Louisiana, said its goal with the treated corn was to sicken pigeons, so they would leave the rooftop. Death was sometimes an unfortunate side effect, company president Jarrod Horton said.

A similar pigeon control effort at a hospital in Schenectady, New York, led to a hazardous materials incident in July. Emergency workers spent hours searching the hospital grounds and putting dead birds in red hazardous-waste bags after an exterminator used a pesticide to get rid of pigeons on the roof. Fire Chief Robert Farstad had described the scene as birds "coming down like dive bombers."

Vera Martin, working at Texarkana's weekend Quadrangle Festival, said the poisoning in the Texas-Arkansas border city sends a bad message to children.

"I think it's cruelty to animals," she said. "What other animals could be killed in the process of doing this?"

Vietnam’s ‘Electric Man’ electrocuted

HANOI, Vietnam - A Vietnamese man who once appeared on national television to demonstrate his ability to resist electric shocks has been electrocuted while repairing a generator, an official said on Tuesday.

Nguyen Van Hung, aged in his early 40s, was killed in Tay Ninh province near the Cambodian border while repairing the generator without first cutting the power supply, a local official said.

“When alive, he used to demonstrate at our office how he would insert two fingers into the electrical plughole without problems,” the official said.

Hung, nicknamed “Hung Electric”, had appeared on television’s “Strange Stories of Vietnam.’’

Real Corpse Found on CSI: New York Set

Things got a bit too realistic on the set of CSI: New York on Tuesday, where an actual mummified body was discovered inside the building where production was underway.

Though downtown Los Angeles was subbing for the streets of New York, the corpse was real, a source close to the show tells PEOPLE, who says the remains were found on the 5th floor of the building – only two floors below the actors and film crew.

The body, the source says, "was discovered by a building engineer who checked on the tenant because he had not paid rent for the month."

Making matters weirder is that the show has already shot an episode revolving around the discovery of a mummified body.

Wife chopped off late hubby's willy

A German woman chopped off her dead husband's penis - to pickle it as a souvenir of their marriage.

Uta Schneider, 65, used a butcher's knife to hack off Heinrich's manhood in a Stuttgart hospital, reports The Sun.

She wrapped it in foil and put it in a lunchbox to take home but was spotted by a nurse and arrested.

Uta, who was wed to Heinrich, 68, for 35 years, is accused of mutilation.

She reportedly told police: "It was his best asset and gave me so much pleasure". "I wanted to pickle it for eternity - he would have wanted it. We called it his joystick. I wanted it to remember him by."

Alaska Man Found Dead, Trapped by Mower

The owner of a remote Alaska lodge died of exposure after his lawnmower overturned and trapped him, authorities said Friday.

A neighbor found the body of Andrew Piekarski, 61, on Thursday. He had last been seen on Sunday.

Investigators determined that Piekarski drove off a small hill, and the lawnmower landed on his legs. When Piekarski could not free himself, he unsuccessfully tried to take the lawnmower apart using a multipurpose tool, authorities said.

"He couldn't get if off his legs and he couldn't get out from under it and he died from exposure, from hypothermia," Alaska State Troopers spokesman Greg Wilkinson said.

Overnight low temperatures at Talkeenta, about 80 miles north of Anchorage, have been dipping into the 30s.

Police: Woman Shoots Neighbor, Dog Over Dead Cat

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A woman was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon after police said she shot her neighbor and his dog over her dead cat.

It happened near East 68th Street and Monroe Avenue.

Investigators said that the woman had an ongoing feud with her neighbor, and when she found her cat dead in the street, she thought her neighbor's dog did it.

Police said that is when she went over and shot the neighbor's dog. Officers said she then shot the neighbor twice. Both the man and the dog are expected to recover.

No formal charges have been filed against the woman.

Man With Snake Found Dead

Authorities say a 23-year-old southern Indiana man was crushed to death by a 14-foot python.

Indiana Conservation officers say an autopsy performed Tuesday morning on Patrick Von Allmen determined that his death was caused by asphyxiation around the neck and chest.

Von Allmen was found dead in a shed last night near his home in Lanesville, about 15 miles west of Louisville, Kentucky.

A 14-foot reticulated python was loose in the shed.

Conservation officer Mark Farmer says the family had obtained the snake five months ago as a pet. They say Von Allmen had ten to twelve years experience handling reptiles.

Before entering the shed, he told family members he was going to treat the snake for a medical condition. The snake was returned to the family. Indiana law doesn't restrict ownership of pythons.

Man poisoned by dead fish

The curator of a public aquarium has been poisoned by a dead porcupine puffer fish after he sustained a series of minor pricks from its spines during an autopsy.

According to a paper from a team of toxicologists from the National Poisons Information Centre in The Netherlands, which has been published in the latest issue of the journal Clinical Toxicology, the curator suffered from tetrodotoxin or TTX intoxication as a result of the pricks he received.

Suicides on the Golden Gate Bridge - shockingly high

A staggering 1,218+ suicides have been recorded. 833 of the suicides coincide with particular light poles on the bridge.