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US, Michigan: Truck Driver Stunned in Bizarre Incident

police car, cop car, sirens
Sheriff: Driver held people at bay with chain saw

A logging truck driver was shot with a stun gun after authorties said he threatened people with a running chain saw.

Iron County, Mich., sheriff's officials were called to a logging truck crash on Highway 2 near Pentoga Trail in Crystal Falls Township around 10 a.m. Thursday. Callers to 911 said the driver was holding people at bay with the chain saw.

When officers arrived, they found the driver in a ditch with the chain saw running, yelling for people to stay back and leave him alone. The truck, which belonged to Shamco Trucking of Iron River, Mich., had hit a large tree and was totaled. Deputies as well as the driver's employer tried to get him to put the saw down.

When the driver refused to put the saw down, two deputies shot him from behind with a Taser. The driver, identified as Shawn Tranti, 40, of Iron River was arrested and taken to a hospital for a mental health evaluation. He was not hurt in the arrest.

Arrow Down

Bizarre Caribbean Airlines Crash

A Caribbean Airlines jet from New York overshot the runway after it arrived in Georgetown, Guyana, and broke apart injuring several dozens of people. None of the 163 passengers on board were killed, officials told The New York Times.

The passengers were aboard a Boeing 737-800 and began applauding the pilot's landing in Guyana just after midnight when things went wrong, accoridng to The Times.

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© Reuters / STR NewCaribbean Airlines jet is seen broken at Cheddi Jagan International airport outside Georgetown July 30, 2011. The packed Caribbean Airlines jet carrying 163 people crashed and broke in two Saturday as it landed in Guyana at night, injuring several passengers but killing no one. The Boeing 737-800 overshot the runway and burst through a perimeter fence after arriving at Georgetown's Cheddi Jagan airport just past midnight from New York. The front of the plane snapped off and it stopped meters from a deep jungle ravine.

Light Saber

US, Tennessee: Mom Arrested at Airport Screening Defends Actions

Andrea Abbott
© unknownAndrea Abbott booking photo
A Clarksville mother charged with disorderly conduct after she berated Transportation Security Administration officers who were trying to pat down her teenage daughter is defending her conduct.

Andrea Abbott provided a statement to The Tennessean through her attorney, Brent Horst.

It reads, "The officer was rude and bullied me. He had no intention of resolving the problem and assisting in the situation, but his solution was to put me in jail and threaten to put my daughter in foster care. I was simply trying to protect my daughter."

According to an account of the July 10 arrest in police records, Abbott first refused a body scan for her daughter and herself, saying she didn't want "someone to see our bodies naked."

People

US, Florida: Rally Calls for Dignity: TSA Screening Violates Citizens' Rights, Speakers Say


Following a wave of press coverage of the 95-year-old woman who was asked to remove an adult diaper in order to board a plane at Northwest Florida Regional Airport last month, radio host Burnie Thompson hosted a rally Thursday to protest passenger screening practices by the Transportation Security Administration.

"The last straw was the 95-year-old woman right here in our backyard," Thompson told about 130 people gathered at the Emerald Coast Convention Center for the American for Dignity rally. "We want no more humiliation and harassment."

Thompson said the TSA's screening tactics violate the Fourth Amendment, which protects citizens from unreasonable searches.

"Buying an airline ticket is not probable cause," Thompson said. "If it is reasonable to search an American who hasn't done anything, what would be unreasonable?"

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© Nick Tomecek / Daily NewsA rally for Americans for Dignity was held at the Emerald Coast Convention Center to protest TSA procedures in airports.

X

Russia: Eight dead, one missing in Moscow River boat accident

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© Photo Denis VoroninMoscow River boat accident
Eight people drowned and one was missing on Sunday after a pleasure boat collided with a barge and sank in the Moscow River, the Emergencies Ministry said.

"Another body has been recovered. The fate of one person is still unknown," the ministry said.

Previous reports put the death toll from the boat sinking at seven.

Ambulance

Africa: Mystery Toxin in Angola Schools

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A wave of mysterious poisonings has hit hundreds over the last two days in Angolan schools.
Luanda - A wave of mysterious poisonings has hit hundreds over the last two days in Angolan schools, but police have yet to identify the toxin that has sown panic in the country, officials said on Friday.

About 300 students from both public and private schools have been hit by symptoms that include vomiting, headaches, sore throats and sometimes suffocation, said Renato Paulata, director of a public hospital in Luanda.

Two children are currently in "critical condition", he added.

Across Angola, nearly 570 cases have been recorded.

National police chief Elisabeth Rank Frank said on national radio that the poisonings were being taken extremely seriously.

"The police are aware of the situation. So far, they have no explanation for the phenomenon. We should take the time needed to conduct an investigation," she said.

Wolf

Cancer-stricken WTC worker gets $0 settlement check

Edgar Galvis
© Angel Chevrestt'I thought it was a joke': Edgar Galvis, a Ground Zero worker who has throat cancer, holds the settlement check he got from a law firm.

Cancer-stricken Ground Zero worker Edgar Galvis has finally received a compensation check -- for zero dollars.

The 51-year-old Queens man, who suffered sinus problems and then throat cancer after months of removing toxic debris from the World Financial Center, was relieved to get a check in the mail for his court settlement with Merrill Lynch, whose offices he had cleaned.

But he was stunned when he saw the amount: $0.00.

Arrow Down

US: Two Planes Collide Over Alaska, 4 Dead

Trapper Creek - Two single-engine float planes collided as they flew near an Alaskan lake and one of them crashed and burned, killing the four people aboard, authorities said. The second plane landed safely despite significant damage.

The Cessna 180 was destroyed by the impact and fire, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor told The Associated Press.

"It was engulfed in flames on the ground," Alaska State Trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters said.

The crash around Amber Lake near Trapper Creek, 80 miles north of Anchorage, came nearly three weeks after another in-flight collision that remarkably left the 13 people aboard the two aircraft unhurt.

The second plane in Saturday's crash, a Cessna 206, sustained significant damage but was able to return to Anchorage International Airport and make an emergency landing, after the collision around Amber lake near Trapper Creek.

Vader

Police kill 4 after blasts, attacks in China's west

chinese soldiers
© Reuters/Peter ParksThis file photo taken on July 10, 2009 shows Chinese soldiers marching behind a flag near the central mosque in Kashgar in China's farwest Xinjiang region. China's Xinjiang region was hit by a wave of violence at the weekend that saw 10 people killed by knife-wielding assailants and another four shot dead by police, state media and authorities said on July 31, 2011.

Police shot dead four "rioters" in China's far west on Sunday after at least three people, including a policeman, were killed in the latest in a series attacks in the region this month, the state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

Four suspects were caught and four others were being sought in the latest violence in Kashgar, in a region long beset by anti-Chinese sentiment from the native Uighur population.

Local sources had earlier said three people were killed on Sunday in an explosion, but witnesses reported that the three were hacked to death by the attackers, Xinhua said. Ten people including pedestrians and police were injured, it said.

Che Guevara

Israeli official resigns amid protests

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Former Israeli Finance Ministry Director-General Haim Shani
Israeli Finance Ministry Director-General Haim Shani has resigned from his post as the Israeli people continue their protests against high costs of living and social inequalities.

"Recent events illustrate the problems I have outlined and support my view that under the current circumstances I cannot fulfill my role as Finance Ministry director as I see fit," Shani wrote in a letter to Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz on Sunday morning, Xinhua reported.

Tens of thousands of Israelis have in the past weeks protested against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's economic and social policies.

The demonstrators say they can no longer afford the sky-rocketing housing prices, which have jumped by 50 percent in recent years. They also call on the regime to curb the high costs of fuel, food and healthcare.

The protests revealed the deep frustration of the country's middle-class over the economy.

Moreover, some 150,000 Israelis marched in more than ten cities on Saturday, making it the largest demonstration being mounted in Tel Aviv. Many of the protesters, however, were arrested during scuffles with the police.