Yahoo! News - Mom Pleads Guilty to Attacking Stripper: "Wed Aug 27, 9:48 AM ET
WHEELING, Ill. - A woman has pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery, admitting she attacked a male stripper who failed to meet expectations during her daughter's bachelorette party.
Jacqueline McMahon, 52, was sentenced to 30 days of court supervision and ordered to pay $2,500 restitution to the victim in a plea deal reached Monday. Prosecutors also agreed to drop battery charges against McMahon's daughter, Carrie McMahon, 22, of Loveland, Colo., and bridesmaid Kelly Meyer, 33.
The 28-year-old man suffered head injuries, bruises and scratches when he was punched, kicked and hit over the head with a bottle after his July 2002 performance at a hotel in Crystal Lake.
Police said attendees at the party became angered when the stripper showed up late and turned out to be a stand-in for the dancer requested by the hosts. Tensions increased when the man allegedly ended his performance sooner than expected and without paying enough attention to the bride. "
23:54 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Fired Fair Employee Strips, Hit by Train: "Wed Aug 27, 9:51 AM ET
MONROE, Wash. - A 24-year-old man who led Snohomish County sheriff's deputies on a bizarre chase through the Evergreen State Fair on was seriously hurt when he tried to jump aboard a moving train.
The man, a fair employee, was seen on the midway Tuesday smoking 'an unknown narcotic' from a glass pipe, sheriff's spokeswoman Jan Jorgensen said. He was fired on the spot.
The man attempted to steal money from another carnival worker, then went to a women's restroom, where he exposed himself, Jorgensen said.
When deputies arrived, the man put on his pants, took off his shirt, and fled through a window in one of the restroom's stalls.
He groped women as he ran, then scaled a chain-link fence to U.S. 2, where he attempted to steal a car from a woman.
When that failed, he ran across the highway to a train and tried to jump aboard, even though it was traveling about 45 miles per hour, Jorgensen said.
He was knocked back by the train, and was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with multiple fractures. He was reported in serious condition Tuesday night.
When he's released, Jorgensen said, he'll likely be charged with indecent liberties and attempted robbery. "
23:51 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Man Burns Down Apartments in Wasp Hunt: "Wed Aug 27,10:24 AM ET
ZURICH (Reuters) - A man who tried to fight bothersome wasps with insect spray and a cigarette lighter burned down his apartment and two neighboring flats, Swiss police say.
A police spokesman said Tuesday the man used a whole can of insect spray on a wasp nest underneath an overhanging roof outside his apartment.
When he tried to fend off the angry wasps with his lighter, the fumes ignited and set the flats ablaze.
No one in the apartment block was hurt, but the blaze caused more than $350,000 in damage. "
23:51 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Postman Convicted for Keeping 61,000 Letters: "Wed Aug 27,10:25 AM ET
BERLIN (Reuters) - A German court handed a former postman a 10-month suspended jail sentence and 200 hours community service for failing to deliver around 61,000 letters, authorities said Wednesday.
Police discovered mounds of post that had accumulated over two-and-a-half-years filling the rooms and basement of the 36-year-old's house after locals complained about missing deliveries. The man resigned his job.
'He said he had too many letters to deliver on his round,' said Bernd Lottes, spokesman for the court in the western town of Neuss. 'He was hoping to deliver the other stuff when he had a bit of breathing space.' "
00:24 Posted by David
: "Fri Aug 22, 9:11 AM ET
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (Reuters) - A New Mexico man was charged with beating a woman to death with a lead pipe because he did not want to share his Budweiser beer with her, according to court documents.
Charles Lee Vennevy, 26, was charged with killing 41-year-old Yvonne Garcia and beating her male companion last Monday night before leaving them for dead in downtown Albuquerque. Vennevy is in custody and bail was set on Wednesday at $1 million cash, according to a criminal complaint obtained on Thursday.
According to the complaint filed, Vennevy was drinking beer with friends. Garcia approached the group wanting to drink with them, and was turned away. She returned later with a friend, and a fight ensued over the beer.
While Garcia 'was on all fours looking at the ground,' Vennevy is suspected of kicking her in the face with his steel-toed work boots, then hitting her over the head with a lead pipe. He is also suspected of attacking her companion, the complaint said.
Garcia was found by a security guard and later pronounced dead at the scene. Her male companion was treated and released from a nearby hospital, having lost his left eye after being struck with the pipe.
Vennevy was charged with murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, and tampering with evidence. "
00:24 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - 'Dead' Man Revives After Night in Morgue: "Fri Aug 22, 9:06 AM ET
HANOI (Reuters) - An elderly Vietnamese man thought to have died in a hospital revived after spending the night in the morgue, state media and a doctor said on Friday.
Nguyen Van Quan, 73, was declared dead and taken to a Ho Chi Minh City hospital morgue on the night of August 15 but was found alive by his daughter the next morning as she was retrieving the body for the funeral, the Vietnam News daily said.
'I was shocked and frightened when I saw the blanket that covered my father moving,' Quan's daughter was quoted as saying. 'When the morgue's officials pulled back the blanket, my father's eyes moved, brightening with joy.'
A doctor at the Nguyen Tri Phuong hospital, where Quan had been admitted after complaining of chest pain, told Reuters: 'He is now still in the emergency section.'
After Quan's heart failed and he was declared dead, the man was placed in the morgue where he was laid for seven hours among corpses.
The doctor declined to elaborate on the case but said investigations into the incident were under way. "
00:31 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Thai Man Dies While Laughing in Sleep: "Thu Aug 21,10:49 AM ET
BANGKOK, Thailand - An ice-cream truck driver in Thailand died while laughing in his sleep, a newspaper reported Thursday.
Damnoen Saen-um, 52, laughed for about two minutes on Wednesday and then stopped breathing, The Nation said, quoting officials.
The newspaper said Damnoen's wife tried to wake him up but he kept laughing. An autopsy suggested that he might have had a heart attack, The Nation quoted a doctor as saying.
'I have never seen a case like this. But it is possible that a person could have heart seizure while laughing or crying too hard in their sleep,' said Dr. Somchai Chakrabhand, deputy director-general of the Mental Health Department, according to The Nation.
The incident occurred in Phrae province, 300 miles north of Bangkok. "
00:30 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Man Asks for Shorter Jail Term, Gets Longer Instead: "Thu Aug 21, 8:21 AM ET
HANOI (Reuters) - A Frenchman who appealed against a 20-year jail conviction for trafficking heroin, had his sentenced lengthened to life in prison instead, a Vietnamese court official said on Thursday.
Andro Stephane Michel Auguste, 34, lost his appeal on Wednesday at the People's Supreme Court of Appeal in Ho Chi Minh City, a court official told Reuters.
He declined to say why the sentence has been extended.
The decision by the appeal court in the communist country is rare. Usually the court upholds or reduces the sentence from a lower court.
Auguste was found guilty in May and sentenced to 20 years in jail after being arrested with 317.7 grams (0.7 lb) of heroin in October 2002 while in transit from Thailand to Paris at the city's Tan Son Nhat Airport.
Smuggling 600 grams (1.32 lb) of heroin is punishable by death by firing squad or life imprisonment in Vietnam. "
00:30 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Woman Hurt as Cellphone Bursts Into Flames: "Thu Aug 21, 8:30 AM ET
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A 33-year-old Dutch woman sustained slight face and neck burns after her mobile phone burst into flames, the Amsterdam police said Thursday.
The incident, which occurred Tuesday, happened after the woman dropped her phone in a music store in central Amsterdam. It caught fire when she picked it up and switched it back on, a police spokesman said.
She was treated for superficial burns by an ambulance team that rushed to the scene.
'The battery got hot and then the phone burst into flames. It was a Nokia. We later heard she had used a replacement battery,' said Jan Willem van Hofwegen of Fame Music store.
A Nokia spokesman in Helsinki said similar incidents have happened in the past and were always related to faulty batteries from independent electronics manufacturers.
'We've heard about phones that overheated, melted and, in the worst case, exploded,' he said.
'In all cases it was caused by a replacement battery which was not a Nokia accessory. The manufacturers violated security requirements which should prevent it from heating up after short circuiting, for instance, after it was dropped.'
He could not name any of the battery manufacturers. "
13:05 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Man, 102, seeks wife for good times: "Wed Aug 20,11:43 AM ET
ROME (Reuters) - Active 102-year-old Italian looking for love and marriage -- promises can still deliver the goods.
Centenarian Salvatore Bordino, a father of five who is an avid clay-pigeon shooter, can't understand why he is having trouble finding wife number three.
'I have a house, a pension and I can carry out all my manly duties,' Bordino, who lives on his own in the southern Italian region of Calabria, told online newspaper Il Nuovo on Wednesday.
'I'm looking for a beautiful woman, who is in the best of health. I still haven't called it a day on certain activities.' "
13:02 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Family Boat Trip Ends as Whale Jumps Aboard: "Wed Aug 20,10:32 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - A British family's vacation was rudely interrupted when a 30-foot whale crashed onto their sailing boat off the east coast of Australia, British media reported on Wednesday.
The 10-ton humpback whale leapt out of the water and pulled the rigging and mast along with it as it slid down the boat.
'I was below deck when there was a hell of a crash from port as it leapt out of nowhere,' said Trevor Johnson, who was on the boat with his wife, two sons and a son's girlfriend.
'It's amazing that no one was hurt or killed, but it was a terrifying experience,' he told The Daily Telegraph.
The boat was 10 miles away from the shore and the radio equipment did not work.
They were eventually towed to dry land after using a mobile phone to ring for help. "
21:21 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Ex-Guard Sentenced for Peeing on InmatesTue Aug 19,10:17 AM ET
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - A former guard was ordered to scrub toilets while serving 15 days behind bars for urinating from a roof onto inmates playing basketball.
Greene County Circuit Judge Don Burrell said Monday he hoped the sentence would help Justin Hastings better understand what it was like to be dependent on those with power.
Hastings, 23, also was given two years of probation and 150 hours of community service. He was convicted in June of four counts of assault.
Four inmates said they were splashed by the urine as they played basketball in July 2001 at the Greene County Jail.
Hastings admitted during the trial that he knew prisoners were in the room when he and another jailer urinated through a roof grate.
A DNA expert testified that urine samples taken from the jail roof could be linked to Hastings. But defense attorneys contended there was no proof that Hastings' urine — and not the other jailer's — hit the inmates.
Both guards have resigned. Greene County also paid a total of $100,000 to the four inmates.
21:19 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Teen Trashes Home with Pals, Feigns Robbery: "Mon Aug 18, 8:42 AM ET
BERLIN (Reuters) - A German teen-ager reported a break-in at his smashed-up home only for police to discover he had made the mess himself partying with friends while his parents were on holiday, authorities said Monday.
'The young man hit upon the idea of faking a robbery because he hadn't managed to tidy up before his parents got back,' said a police spokesman in the southern town of Ingolstadt.
Police said the 16-year-old confessed to the deception under questioning after investigations revealed nothing had been stolen from the wreckage-strewn rooms. He now faces possible prosecution for faking a crime and the wrath of his returning parents. "
21:19 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Man Shoots Six at His Surprise Party: "Mon Aug 18, 8:43 AM ET
OSLO (Reuters) - A Norwegian accidentally shot and wounded six of his friends at a surprise party to celebrate his 40th birthday, police said on Sunday.
The man found out about the party in a forest cabin in south Norway beforehand and hid behind trees nearby with a shotgun as about 30 guests turned up on Saturday night, hoping to turn the surprise on his friends,
He blasted off one round in the air, meaning it as a joke to shock the partygoers. But when he came out from his hiding place, he tripped and the gun went off again, badly hurting one woman in the legs and slightly injuring five others.
'Seven people were taken to hospital in Fredrikstad including the man who shot. He wasn't physically hurt but in deep shock,' a police spokesman said.
The party was canceled. "
21:18 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Teen Dies After Prized Fish Stuck in Throat: "Tue Aug 19,10:51 AM ET
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A Cambodian teenager died of suffocation after a fish he caught jumped out of his hands and lodged in his throat, newspapers reported on Tuesday.
Lim Vanthan, 17, and his family were planting rice at the weekend near their home on the outskirts of the impoverished Southeast Asian nation's capital, when they decided to go for a swim.
During his dip, Lim Vanthan caught a prized eight-inch fish, called kantrob in Cambodian, with his hands.
But the high school student's excitement was short-lived when his catch squirmed out of his hands and jumped into his mouth, where it became stuck because of barbs running down its back.
He died of suffocation before he could receive treatment at a local clinic, the newspapers said.
'This is an accident, but it shows we must all be careful,' concluded the Khmer-language Rasmei Kampuchea (Light of Cambodia) newspaper. 'Accidents can happen at any time.' "
21:17 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Naked Man Nabbed for Seeking Shower in Car Wash: "Tue Aug 19,10:52 AM ET
BERLIN (Reuters) - German police briefly detained a 36-year-old man after he tried to shower naked in a car wash in the southern town of Fuerth.
'The man stripped off and said he wanted to take a shower, but he couldn't start the machine,' a Fuerth police spokesman said Tuesday. 'It wasn't a great idea. He could have been coated in car wax, scalded by hot water or rubbed raw by brushes.'
The car wash owner alerted police after spotting the man gearing up for his shower among the brushes and hoses. Police said the man had been looking for somewhere to wash since losing his home at the start of the month. "
20:23 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Dog passes alcohol test: "Wed Aug 13, 6:14 AM ET
BERLIN (Reuters) - A German man of Polish origin lost his driving licence after failing an alcohol test but his dog passed with flying colours, police in the western city of Koblenz say.
Police said the 47-year-old man failed to perform any of the required actions, only to be upstaged by his West Highland white terrier who executed all of the commands given perfectly, including a 360 degree turn as his master staggered and fell.
At the conclusion of the uneven contest, the supervising doctor announced, 'Man: fail; dog: pass.' "
20:22 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Man on Motorized Bar Stool Pulled OverWed Aug 13, 1:27 PM ET
RENO, Nev. - Police pulled over a man on a bar stool — after a slow-speed pursuit on one of Reno's busier streets.
It started Monday when an officer saw a man riding the motorized bar stool at 35 mph. He was being followed closely by a woman in a Mustang.
Both driver and rider were pulled over.
The woman told police she had been on the phone with a dispatcher reporting the bar stool stolen.
The owner of the bar stool confirmed that the stool, powered by a small engine, had been taken three weeks earlier.
Jarrett Orcutt, 22, said he had bought it a little over a week ago, thinking it was a toy and added that he had driven it between Reno and nearby Sparks several times. Police estimate its value at more than $1,000.
Orcutt faces Reno charges of possession of stolen property, possession of drug paraphernalia and numerous traffic violations.
Sparks police are handling the stolen vehicle report.
20:19 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Man on Beach Crushed to Death by Car: "Fri Aug 15,12:02 PM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - A man died when a car crashed through a sea wall and fell on him while he was reading on a beach, British police said on Friday.
They said Harvey Flower, 58, was killed when the driver of the vehicle lost control, bumped into a parked car, crashed through a beach hut and plowed through the wall on to a beach on the Isle of Wight, southern England. The 59-year-old driver escaped with injuries.
Flower, married with two daughters, was Professor of Material Science at Imperial College in London.
'In his field he was a respected world expert on titanium, and his knowledge of the subject was sought by academics and scientists around the world,' his widow said in a statement. "
20:19 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Man on Beach Crushed to Death by Car: "Fri Aug 15,12:02 PM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - A man died when a car crashed through a sea wall and fell on him while he was reading on a beach, British police said on Friday.
They said Harvey Flower, 58, was killed when the driver of the vehicle lost control, bumped into a parked car, crashed through a beach hut and plowed through the wall on to a beach on the Isle of Wight, southern England. The 59-year-old driver escaped with injuries.
Flower, married with two daughters, was Professor of Material Science at Imperial College in London.
'In his field he was a respected world expert on titanium, and his knowledge of the subject was sought by academics and scientists around the world,' his widow said in a statement. "
20:18 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Man Bites Off Girlfriend's Nose but Keeps Her Love: "Fri Aug 15,10:32 AM ET
BERLIN (Reuters) - A woman in Germany says she still loves her boyfriend even though he bit her nose right off.
Judge Beatrix Homann said on Thursday her court in the western city of Hanover had sentenced the 26-year-old man to 18 months in jail for the assault, but that his partner, 50, had forgiven him.
'I still love this man,' the judge quoted the woman, who has had six operations to build a synthetic nose, as saying at the hearing on Tuesday.
'He was just drunk,' Homann told Reuters. "
20:18 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Man Cuts Off Own Penis to Cure Sex Addiction: "Fri Aug 15,10:33 AM ET
BERLIN (Reuters) - A German cut off his own penis with a kitchen knife to cure his addiction to sex, police in the southern town of Tiengen said on Friday.
'The man called a friend around eight o'clock to say he'd done something stupid,' police said in a statement. He had been drinking vodka to pluck up courage for the amateur surgery.
Police arrived to discover the blood-soaked man, 41, in his apartment and his organ under the kitchen table. Emergency services rushed the man and his penis to a nearby hospital.
Police said the man did not want his penis to be reattached but were unable to say if doctors had complied with his wishes. "
12:51 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Miss. Man to Pay for Destroying Marriage: "Fri Aug 8, 9:12 AM ET
WEST POINT, Miss. - Another man stole his wife's heart, so Albert Edwin Holcombe Jr. sued. A jury says his broken heart is worth $175,000.
Harry Stevens was ordered by a jury to pay $175,000 for breaking up a marriage.
Holcombe claimed Stevens had an affair with and destroyed his marriage to his now ex-wife, Andrea Holcombe.
Stevens argued in county court documents that there was no love lost between the couple.
According to court records, the couple were married in 1980 and had three children. They separated in 1998 and were divorced in 1999.
Andrea Holcombe said in an affidavit that by late 1996 and early 1997, the marriage was nonexistent.
Tyson Graham, Eddie Holcombe's lawyer, said such cases are usually settled out of court. Stevens' attorney declined comment.
According to the court record, Andrea Holcombe was an accountant at the same firm where Stevens was a senior partner. She has since left the firm. "
12:50 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - N.Y. Man Tries to Stiff $916.50 Cab Fare: "Fri Aug 8,10:06 AM ET
WELLSVILLE, N.Y. - A man who took a cab almost 300 miles from New York City to western New York didn't get very far after he tried to stiff the driver for $916.50 fare.
Police say 23-year-old Jeremy Hartman got out of the cab in the village of Wellsville, where he has relatives, and fled. Police say they found him holed up in a nearby apartment.
Hartman, who is from Illinois, was arrested after the long cab ride Tuesday. He was charged with theft of services.
Wellsville is nearly 100 miles southeast of Buffalo. "
12:49 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Game Sho: "Mon Aug 11, 7:39 PM ET
LOS ANGELES - The Game Show Network has found a reason to get into politics: the California recall, which will be spoofed in an October special.
'Who Wants to Be Governor of California? The Debating Game' will include a political debate produced in the style of a game show, the channel announced Monday.
'Politics is the ultimate game and the California recall election is one of the most bizarre contests in American history,' Rich Cronin, president of the channel, said in a statement.
The channel said it is lining up five candidates to take part in the Oct. 1 program. The show will chronicle their campaigns and include a 'wide-ranging' debate, including buzz-in answers and bonus questions, the channel said.
Officials say 195 people have submitted papers to run to replace Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, whose approval ratings have fallen to record lows.
The five will compete for a prize of $21,200, the maximum corporate campaign contribution allowed by California law, the channel said. The prize will go to the candidate in the group who receives the most votes in the Oct. 7 recall election.
'If the winning candidate/contestant is actually elected governor, Game Show Network promises not to ask for any political favors in exchange for the money,' the channel said. "
12:47 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Heatwave Claims Frostbite Victim: "Tue Aug 12,10:37 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's heatwave, which has claimed dozens of sunburn and heat exhaustion victims, has now produced its first case of frostbite.
A motorist was diagnosed with the condition after driving with his toes too close to the air conditioning vent on the 250 mile journey from London to Manchester.
One of his toes started to turn black and another went blue.
'It was incredibly hot,' Mike Ball, 46, told the Guardian newspaper. 'I slipped off my shoe and sock because my car is an automatic and I don't need to use my left foot.
'I didn't realize anything was wrong until the next day when my foot was extremely painful.'
Ball went to his doctor and was prescribed a cure for mild frostbite. He is expected to make a full recovery. "
12:47 Posted by David
Unabomber Wants His Bomb Back:Tue Aug 12,10:38 AM ET
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Convicted Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski wants the U.S. government to return a pipe bomb and other items seized from his Montana cabin so that they can be used for "research," according to court papers made public on Monday.
Kaczynski, serving a life sentence for killing three people and injuring 23 others in a 17-year bombing campaign, also asked for his books, personal papers and chemicals used in making bombs.
He wanted most of the material sent to the University of Michigan where it could be studied by "serious researchers," the court documents, filed a week ago with the U.S. District Court in Sacramento, showed.
The court had no immediate response to the requests.
Kaczynski's eight-page list of books included "Controlling Knapweed," "Count Your Calories," "Elementary Chinese," "Growing Up Absurd," and classics like Arthur Koestler's "Darkness at Noon" and George Orwell's "1984," as well as several Montana phone books.
His papers, seized seven years ago, included titles like "On Being Sane in Insane Places" and "Studies of Stressful Interpersonal Disputations."
Kaczynski pleaded guilty in January 1998 to killing three people with bombs sent through the mail from the 1970s through the mid-1990s.
He said in a separate handwritten motion that he owes restitution of more than $15 million to his "alleged victims," and a total of $21 million as a result of civil judgments.
Under assets he listed a hunting rifle, which he estimated to be worth about $150, and said his other property might have "'celebrity' value."
America has a long tradition of preserving links to notorious criminals to promote tourism or museums. On other occasions, officials have auctioned off objects related to famous crimes.
17:16 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Naked rage leads to arrest: "Wed Aug 6, 3:00 AM ET
MANILA (Reuters) - A South Korean businessman incensed at nearly being hit by a taxi has ended up in the hands of Philippine police after he vented his anger by exposing himself.
Police said on Wednesday the man was still shouting and cursing when he was brought to a station house in western Manila after a passing drug squad inspector arrested him.
The man, who has been in the Philippines for about two months, faces 'exhibitionism' charges. "
17:14 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Man Rams Car He Thought Was His Wife'sWed Aug 6, 8:24 AM ET
FOND DU LAC, Wis. - A man accused of repeatedly ramming a car he thought belonged to his estranged wife has been charged with two counts of criminal damage to property.
Armando Cortez, 34, was charged Monday in Fond du Lac County Court and released on a $1,000 cash bond.
A criminal complaint said Cortez repeatedly rammed his van into the side of a Ford Escort, pushing it into a pick-up truck in the same driveway at a town of Friendship home Friday around 6:30 a.m.
Witnesses say he hit the car 20 to 30 times until the Escort and the truck were pushed up against a tree and couldn't go any further — about 47 feet.
The man told officers he knew the car he was ramming belonged to his wife because he bought the car for her, but it turned out to be her neighbor's.
Police said alcohol was likely a factor. He could face up to nine months in prison and $10,000 in fines.
Cortez was scheduled to return to court Sept. 3.
17:10 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Woman Gets Message From Father in Bottle: "Thu Aug 7, 9:09 AM ET
OSLO, Norway - More than 26 years after her father died at sea, a Norwegian woman was shocked to receive a message from him in a bottle.
The crinkled note, with her father's handwriting in red marker pen, aroused 'powerful feelings' in her, Guri Abelsen said Wednesday.
Abelsen said her father, Ola Abelsen, had told her he wrote a message in a bottle which he had thrown into the sea from his fishing boat, Utvik Senior, in February 1977.
Later that month, the boat sank with Abelsen and eight other men on board, after disappearing off the Norwegian coast.
'Best regards, the Utvik Senior of Tromsoe, in the sea this Feb. 2, 1977,' the message said.
'It was like a sign of life from the Utvik Senior,' Guri Abelsen said.
The bottle was found by a vacationing couple on a beach in Finnmark, northern Norway, in 1978. The couple's daughter found the note when she rummaged through their belongings after they died recently, and decided to write to the Abelsen family enclosing the bottled message.
The families of the Utvik Senior's missing crew were unhappy with a 1978 inquiry into the boat's disappearance that blamed bad weather for the sinking. "
17:08 Posted by David
Yahoo! News - Oops-Bank Hands Woman $48.7 Million Check: "Thu Aug 7,10:40 AM ET
MIAMI (Reuters) - A Florida woman thought she was getting a certified check for $85 but her bank mistakenly made it out for more than $48.7 million.
Letha Schmitt of Pensacola walked around for three days with the check, unaware of the error, until the bank called on Wednesday to tell her of the mistake, the Pensacola News Journal reported on Thursday.
'I just thought it was a hoot,' Schmitt, 50, told the newspaper.
The Bank of Pensacola said the teller entered the check number in the space for the check amount. The check could not have been cashed, officials said.
Schmitt said she wouldn't have tried. 'I believe in karma. What you sow, you reap.' "
