Homeless man loses his life helping woman being attacked

By Calvin Palmer
Two homeless men did the noble thing when they saw a woman being attacked under a southwest Houston overpass and rushed to her assistance.  But one of them paid for his gallantry with his life, police said today.
“These two guys just take it upon themselves as Good Samaritans to get involved,” said homicide [...]

New Jersey fishing boat sinks leaving two dead and four missing

By Calvin Palmer
A fishing boat sank off the coast of New Jersey this morning, killing at least two people.  Four other crew members are missing.
When rescuers reached the Lady Mary, a 71-foot scallop boat based at Cape May in southern New Jersey, one crew member was dead and a second critically ill.  He later died.
A third [...]

Former sheriff gets 79 years in prison for sexual abuse of female inmates

By Calvin Palmer
A former Oklahoma sheriff was today sentenced to 79 years in prison for sexually abusing female inmates and drug court defendants.
Mike Burgess, 56, the former Custer County Sheriff, was convicted in January on 13 counts, including forcible oral sodomy, kidnapping, sexual battery and rape. But jurors acquitted him of 23 other counts, including [...]

Police find baby girl taken from mother by bogus immigration official

By Calvin Palmer
Police in Florida have found a two-month-old girl who was taken from her mother at a baby clinic yesterday.
Authorities were today interviewing a woman who brought the child, Sandra Cruz-Francisco, to the sheriff’s office in Manatee County, which is south of Tampa.
Capt. Darrell Wilson of the Plant City Police Department said detectives were [...]

Oakland police officer taken off life support

By Calvin Palmer
Oakland police officer John Hege who was gunned down after a routine traffic stop on Saturday has been taken off life support.
Hege, 41, of Concord, was pronounced brain dead on Sunday but was kept on life support so his organs could be donated, in accordance with his family’s wishes.
Spokeswoman Andrea Breaux of Alameda County [...]

Crocodile stalks woman and daughter at Darwin beach

By Calvin Palmer
A seven-foot crocodile followed a 22-year-old woman and her daughter after a failed attempt to attack their dog at a beach in Darwin today.
The woman had thrown a ball into shallow water at Casuarina Beach and the crocodile pursued the black Labrador.
The dog managed to escape the attack outside the front of the [...]

Two Komodo dragons maul Indonesian fruit-picker to death

By Calvin Palmer
Two Komodo dragons attacked an Indonesian fruit-picker and mauled him to death, police said today.
Muhamad Anwar, 31, was attacked by two of the giant lizards after he fell out of a sugar-apple tree yesterday on the island of Komodo, said police Sgt Kosmas Jalang.
Anwar suffered bites to his hands, body and legs, and [...]

British man ‘beaten to death by pirates’

By Calvin Palmer
A British man was allegedly beaten to death and thrown overboard by men trying to steal a dinghy off the coast of southern Thailand, police said today.
Malcolm Robertson, 64, and his wife, Linda, were attacked yesterday on their yacht anchored off the coast of Satun, a southern province bordering Malaysia.
Thai police say that the [...]