Odd News:Rover, call me an ambulance — dog calls 911

Odd News:Rover, call me an ambulance — dog calls 911

By AMANDA LEE MYERS, Associated Press Writer


PHOENIX - "Man's best friend" doesn't go far enough for Buddy — a German shepherd who remembered his training and saved his owner's life by calling 911 when the man had a seizure.

And it's not the first time Buddy has been there for owner Joe Stalnaker, a police officer said Sunday.

On a recording of the 911 call Wednesday, Buddy is heard whimpering and barking after the dispatcher answers and repeatedly asks if the caller needs help.

"Hello, this is 911. Hello ... Can you hear me? Is there somebody there you can give the phone to," says the dispatcher, Chris Trott.

Police were sent to Stalnaker's home, and after about three minutes Buddy is heard barking loudly when the officers arrived.

Scottsdale police Sgt. Mark Clark said Stalnaker spent two days in a hospital and recovered from the seizure.

"It's pretty incredible," Clark said. "Even the veteran dispatchers — they haven't heard of anything like this."

Clark said police are dispatched whenever 911 is called, but that Stalnaker's address was flagged in Scottsdale's system with a notification that a trained assistance dog could call 911 when the owner was incapacitated.

Clark said Stalnaker adopted Buddy at the age of 8 weeks from Michigan-based Paws with a Cause, which trains assistance dogs, and trained him to get the phone if he began to have seizure symptoms. Buddy, now 18 months old, is able press programmed buttons until a 911 operator is on the line, Clark said.

Clark said Buddy has made two other 911 calls when Stalnaker was having seizures.

He said Stalnaker's seizures are the result of a head injury he suffered about 10 years ago during a military training exercise.

Stalnaker was not listed in the phone book, and he did not immediately respond to a request through police for an interview.

(This version CORRECTS name to Trott, sted Scott.)


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Stupid News-Spanish town blushes with annual tomato fight

Stupid News-Spanish town blushes with annual tomato fight

By FERNANDO BUSTAMANTE, Associated Press Writer

BUNOL, Spain - Spanish revelers have pelted each with 113 tons of ripe tomatoes in an annual food fight. Town hall says an estimated 40,000 people took part in the hour of messy fun in the village of Bunol near Valencia. The ritual dates back to the 1940s.

Some warriors in Wednesday's battle wore swimming goggles to protect themselves from the acid sting of projectiles in the form of pear-shaped tomatoes. Others swatted them away with tennis rackets.

Afterward, many washed off in a nearby river while crews hosed down a town painted red.

Odd News-Army opens prep school for dropouts to fill ranks

Odd News-Army opens prep school for dropouts to fill ranks

By SUSANNE M. SCHAFER, Associated Press Writer

FORT JACKSON, S.C. - Austin Swarner left high school to care for his mother while she fought a losing battle with cancer. Tony Brown wanted to begin supporting himself and left two classes shy of a diploma. Haelee Holden got tired of trying to make it through school while flipping burgers until 1 a.m.

But the U.S. Army, eager to fill its ranks amid wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, doesn't see them as dropouts. They are recruits who only need a GED before they're ready to begin basic training.

And so, the Army formally opens its first prep school Wednesday.

"It's academic immersion," explained Col. Jeffrey Sanderson, chief of staff at Fort Jackson, home of the Army's largest basic training school. "Our studies show that with only three out of every 10 people of military age being capable of joining the Army, we are going to have to do something different."

That includes turning six World War II-era buildings at the base into a mini-campus of spartan classrooms and barracks. Under the yearlong pilot project, classes of about 60 soldiers will enter the monthlong program every week.

Their day begins in uniform at 5 a.m. with physical training. Then they attend about eight hours of academic review classes, followed by homework each evening. An hour of marching drills and military discipline is thrown in for good measure.

"It's a tough, structured day. Some of them have sat on the couch for 18 years, but I haven't heard any howling yet," said social studies instructor John Solis, one of 14 certified teachers on hand. "By and large, they are chomping at the bit; they are ready to go."

The soldiers work in small classrooms outfitted with simple desks, chairs, and dry-erase boards. In-desk computers are used for test-taking. Grouped three to four to a class, the students hunch over special GED preparation books, working on basic math, social studies and reading selections.

Recruits must score in the top half of the Army's aptitude test to qualify for the prep school and get two tries at a General Educational Development certificate. If they still can't pass, the Army will release them from their contract, Sanderson said.

He said the Army prefers those who graduate from high school on their own, because it demonstrates "tenacity." But the reality of current graduation rates has the Army pressed to find an alternative, Sanderson explained.

Holden, 18, of Medford, Ore., is racing through her first week of practice tests before taking a formal GED exam soon. She left home at 16, one of nine children of a mill worker, and wants to be a military police officer.

"There's no jobs out there, nothing. It's just horrible. And it got hard just trying to support myself and go to school at the same time," Holden said.

Swarner, a native of Baton Rouge, La., left school in the ninth grade. Now 20, he dreams of becoming a combat engineer.

With the small classes, hovering teachers and a disciplined schedule, Swarner said he's learning quickly.

"The teachers here are helping a lot. My best class is English, the hardest is probably the math," he said.

With the GED behind them, Swarner and his classmates will enter basic training at Fort Jackson, where more than half of all incoming male soldiers and more than 80 percent of female recruits go through basic combat training. Others will go to one of the Army's three other basic training sites.

Those entering prep school have signed on for a two- to four-year stint, just like any new recruit.

"We have two missions: get the GED and prepare them physically and mentally for basic training," said the school's commander, Capt. Brian Gaddis.

Last October, Army officials said they intended to expand the force by adding 74,000 soldiers by 2010, with the active duty force growing to a total of 547,000.

But Sanderson said the Army's own studies show that only 3 in 10 people ages 17 to 24 are eligible to enlist, with the remainder barred by health or legal issues, or the failure to earn a high school diploma or equivalent.

A study issued by the National Priorities Project released in January found that while the Army has a goal that 90 percent of recruits be high school graduates, it hadn't met that percentage since 2004. In the 2007 budget year, the Project found that only 71 percent of soldiers entering the service had graduated.

Gaddis said he knows his students might have quit high school, but believes that shouldn't be held against them. He added that the school is a move to reach those who have been left behind, not to attract those who are less qualified or lower than the Army's standards.

"These kids may have quit at some point, but the big thing is, a lot of people have quit on them," Gaddis said. "We are not going to allow them to quit."


Now if Uncle Sam Looked like this! Everyone would join!

Stupid News-Italian priest organizes beauty contest for nuns

Stupid News-Italian priest organizes beauty contest for nuns

ROME - An Italian priest and theologian said Sunday he is organizing an online beauty pageant for nuns to give them more visibility within the Catholic Church and to fight the stereotype that they are all old and dour.

The "Miss Sister 2008" contest will start in September on a blog run by the Rev. Antonio Rungi and will give nuns from around the world a chance to showcase their work and their image.

"Nuns are a bit excluded, they are a bit marginalized in ecclesiastical life," Rungi told The Associated Press after Italian media carried reports of the idea. "This will be an occasion to make their contribution more visible."

Rungi, a theologian and schoolteacher from the Naples area, said that visitors to his site will have a month to "vote for the nun they consider a model."

Nuns will fill out a profile including information about their life and vocation as well as a photograph. It will be up to them to choose whether to pose with the traditional veil or with their heads uncovered.

"We are not going to parade nuns in bathing suits," Rungi said by telephone from his town of Mondragone. "But being ugly is not a requirement for becoming a nun. External beauty is gift from God, and we mustn't hide it."

Rungi said the idea was first suggested to him by nuns with whom he regularly prays and works. He hopes there will be dozens of submissions once the Web site is started.

The contest drew criticism from the association of Catholic teachers.

"It's an initiative that belittles the role of nuns who have dedicated themselves to God," the group's president, Alberto Giannino, told Italy's ANSA news agency on Sunday.

Stupid World News - Iranian leader: US military is Iraq's top problem

Stupid World News - Iranian leader: US military is Iraq's top problem

Iranian leader: US military is Iraq's top problem
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer
Mon Jun 9, 7:52 AM ET

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's supreme leader told the visiting Iraqi prime minister Monday that the U.S. military presence is the main cause of Iraq's problems, according to Iranian state television, making clear his opposition to a U.S.-Iraqi security pact.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's talks with Iranian leaders during his three-day visit here have focused on the proposed security agreement that Iran fears will keep the American military in neighboring Iraq for years.

Al-Maliki has tried to push Iranian leaders to back off their fierce opposition to the proposed pact, promising that Iraq will not be a launching pad for any attack on Iran.

But the agreement has become a point of contention as Baghdad tries to balance its close ties to rivals Washington and Tehran.

Iran, which has repeatedly said the way to end instability in Iraq is for U.S. forces to withdraw, believes the proposed pact could lead to permanent U.S bases on its doorstep amid fears of an eventual American attack.

"Occupiers who interfere in Iraq's affairs through their military and security might ... are the main problems," Iran's state television quoted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying Monday.

Khamenei said Iraqis have to "think of a solution to free" themselves from the U.S. military. Though he did not explicitly mention the security agreement, he said Iraqis — not Americans — must decide the fate of their country.

"That a foreign element gradually interferes in all Iraqi affairs and expands its domination on all aspects of life is the main obstacle in the way of progress and prosperity of the Iraqi nation," the TV quoted Khamenei as saying.

Khamenei, who has the final say in Iran over government decisions, said the U.S. will fail to achieve its goals in Iraq.

"We are certain that the Iraqi people, through unity and effort, will get past these difficult conditions. For sure, America's dream for Iraq will not come true," Khamenei was quoted as telling al-Maliki.

Al-Maliki's visit to Tehran, his second this year, appeared aimed at getting Iran to tone down its opposition and ease criticism within Iraq. Followers of anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr — who has close ties to Tehran — have held weekly protests in Iraq against the deal.

The proposed security pact also faces strong criticism from members of al-Maliki's own Shiite-dominated coalition.

Two Iraqi officials familiar with the negotiations warned on Sunday that a deal is unlikely to be reached before the end of President Bush's term in January unless Washington backs off some demands seen as giving American forces too much freedom to operate in Iraq and infringing on Iraqi sovereignty. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the secrecy surrounding the negotiations.

Though both Iraq and Iran are Shiite-majority countries, the two were hostile to each other throughout Saddam Hussein's regime. Their eight-year war after Saddam invaded Iran in 1980 cost about 1 million lives.

But when Saddam's Sunni-dominated regime fell and Iraq's Shiite majority took power after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, long-standing ties between the Shiites of both countries improved, though the two neighbors have yet to sign a peace treaty.

Stupid People - Reports: Tokyo rampage suspect warns, 'It's time'

Stupid People - Reports: Tokyo rampage suspect warns, 'It's time'
More proof that people suck!


By JAY ALABASTER, Associated Press Writer
Mon Jun 9, 5:17 AM ET


TOKYO - A man suspected of killing seven people in a knifing rampage foretold the mayhem in a series of messages posted on the Internet, including one just before the attack saying, "It's time," police and media reports said Monday.
Tomohiro Kato, the 25-year-old man accused of ramming pedestrians with a truck and then stabbing 17 bystanders in Tokyo's popular Akihabara district on Sunday, posted the messages on an Internet bulletin board from his cell phone, a police spokesman said.

The police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing protocol, refused to release the Internet messages, but news reports said they were posted in a message board thread titled, "I will kill people in Akihabara," hours before the stabbings.

"I want to crash the vehicle and, if it becomes useless, I will then use a knife. Goodbye, everyone," Kyodo News agency quoted one message as saying.

That was followed several hours later, the report said, by a chilling message sent via cell phone that read: "It's time." The attack began 20 minutes later.

The reported messages gave Japan a limited glimpse into the mind of a man accused of the deadliest knife assault in Tokyo in recent memory.

According to police, Kato said he had "gotten sick of the world," but investigators were trying to find out his motives, why he chose Akihabara and whether he had planned the criminal act over the past few days as reported.

Police say Kato — reportedly a factory worker — rammed a rented two-ton truck into a crowd of afternoon shoppers in Akihabara, a prime shopping area for electronic goods and a hangout for young people, particularly comic book fans.

Kato himself reportedly had a penchant for computer games and anime — like vast numbers of Japanese youths. Kyodo said he listed a female computer game character as his "favorite person" in his junior high school yearbook.

After ramming the pedestrians, the man jumped out and began stabbing the people he had knocked down with the truck before turning on horrified onlookers, police said.

The rampage shocked Japan, which boasts a low crime rate compared to other industrialized nations. Tokyo, with a population of 12.7 million, is considered relatively safe, with guns tightly restricted and shootings rare. The exception is gang violence, but gangsters do not generally attack the general public.

Takashi Kiuchi, who was on a high school judo team with one of the victims, said many Japanese live with the assumption that their country is safe, but that assumption was under attack.

"It's gotten so you can't even walk down a crowded street," he said.

On Monday, the scene of the attack was covered with flowers, comic books and soft drinks left for the souls of the dead. The offerings were shielded from the rain by a small white tent.

"Everyone says that Japan is a safe country, but I'm not sure if that's true anymore," said Sayaka Itoda, a young woman who had come to leave flowers.

On Monday, local television broadcast agents at Kato's apartment in Shizuoka, about 100 miles southwest of Tokyo.

Government officials scrambled to respond. The ruling coalition held an emergency meeting with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to come up with ways to secure crowded public spaces, and the government is considering limiting access to large knives like the one used on Sunday.

"Obviously, the suspect possessed the knife without a legitimate reason," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said. "I think we have to seriously consider what we can do to step up the restrictions."

Compared to gun violence, stabbings are less rare in Japan.

In March, one person was stabbed to death and at least seven others were hurt by a man who went on a slashing spree with two knives outside a shopping mall in eastern Japan. In January, a 16-year-old boy attacked five people in a shopping area, injuring two of them.

A spate of knife attacks also has occurred in schools, the worst being June 8, 2001, when a man with a history of mental illness burst into an elementary school near Osaka killing eight children. He was executed in 2004.

Stupid News - Stranded Scuba Drivers Chased Off By a Komodo dragons!

Stupid News - Stranded Scuba Drivers Chased Off By a Komodo dragons!

By ALI KOTARUMALOS, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jun 8, 2:14 PM ET


JAKARTA, Indonesia - Scuba divers swept away in strong currents survived 12 hours in shark-infested waters before scrambling onto a remote Indonesian island where they faced yet another threat: a Komodo dragon.
The divers — three from Britain and one each from France and Sweden — came face-to-face with the giant, carnivorous lizard on Rinca's palm-fringed beach, and fought it off by pelting it with rocks and pieces of wood, Pariman, a port official said Sunday.

"Luckily, they were able to chase it away," said Pariman, who, like many Indonesians, goes by only one name.

The beasts have sharp, serrated teeth and often come out when they smell something new, including humans — whom they've been known to kill, Pariman said.

The divers encountered treacherous currents after plunging from their wooden boat off Tatawa island on Thursday afternoon. They drifted 20 miles from their dive site before swimming to Rinca, their last chance to avoid being swept into the open ocean.

"We struggled against the current for several hours, but eventually stopped," Laurent Pinel, 31, of France, told The Sunday Times of London. The group tied their diving vests together to preserve energy, he said. Once on the island, they scraped mussels from the rocks for food, he said.

The divers ran into the Komodo dragon on Friday afternoon. The next day, rescuers aboard one of 30 boats searching the waters spotted them waving frantically on the shore and took them to Flores island for medical treatment.

The area where the diving trip took place is famous for its rich marine diversity, including sharks, manta rays and sea turtles. But it is also known for its treacherous and unpredictable seas.

Recommended only for experienced divers, it is in a place where the Indian and Pacific Oceans meet, creating currents that converge and separate. Whirlpools and eddies can pull divers downwards.

"We're safe, but absolutely exhausted and dehydrated," Charlotte Allin, a 25-year-old British diver, was quoted by The Sunday Times of London as telling her parents from the hospital where the group was taken.

Komodo dragons, which can grow up to 10 feet long and weigh as much as 365 pounds, are only found in the wild on Rinca and Komodo island. There are believed to be 4,000 left in the world.

Thousands of tourists visit the area in eastern Indonesia each year to see the lizards in their natural habitat. They are normally shown around the arid and rocky island by guides who carry large, forked sticks to ward off the animals.

Breaking News-Crane Collapse in New York The Associated Press

Breaking News-Crane Collapse in New York The Associated Press

PlusRaw Video: Crane Collapse in New York Raw Video: Crane Collapse in New YorkThe Associated PressA construction crane has collapsed on New York's Upper East Side, damaging the top floor of a nearby high-rise apartment building. The Fire Department says it has pulled people out of the wreckage. (May 30)This video contains ONLY natural sound.