Man looking for birth mother finds her in the same shop

For people who are adopted, there is a quest to try and locate their natural parents; sometimes it is successful, sometimes not. In many cases, you have to go great distances in this quest. Here is a case where the natural mother was a colleague, and the child only discovered after some amount of intensive searching:

PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. --
Steve Flaig's long search for his birth mother ended at an incredible place: the checkout line of the home-improvement store where he works. Flaig had met Christine Tallady after she started working at Lowe's several months ago, but it was only recently that the 22-year-old delivery driver figured out she was the woman who had given him up for adoption. It took him a few weeks, and some help from the adoption agency, to give her the news.
Tallady, head cashier at the Lowe's, was astonished to learn that the son she had given up for adoption 22 years earlier was a co-worker. "I started crying," the 45-year-old said. "I figured he would call me sometime, but not like this."

This is a good story for a time like Christmas, and shows the strong emotions due to human bonds.

Woman found in car after car towed away

Mighty strange occurrence this. One day after a car had been towed away from the scene of an accident, the body of an elderly woman was found under the deployed air bag of the car. Rescue services had already been through the car, and her injured son had been picked from the car earlier, so it is all the more strange as to how she came to be missing:

The presence of the body of Shirley Lee Williams, 72, came to the attention of investigators Sunday after family members said two relatives were missing, not one.
"We conducted a follow-up to the tow yard, and we discovered the woman inside the vehicle," said police Officer Mike Lopez. "She was dead."
Doctors will investigate whether Williams died instantly or was alive when the car was towed away, an official said.

This incident could get much serious if it was found that she had not died during the accident, but was alive when the car was towed away; in that case, she could have been saved if she had been found.

Eight-limbed girl getting operated upon

The normal human body has 2 hands and 2 legs. Any more, and people see a person as a freak. However, once in a while, the development of fetuses inside the human womb can lead to strange conditions. In the case outlined below, a girl was born with 4 hands and 4 legs. She actually had a twin conjoined with her inside her mother's womb, but the development of the twin stopped, so there were limbs and torso that was developed, but the head for the twin was not there. Doctors believe that unless these excess limbs are removed, the girl will not survive into adulthood, and are hence doing a marathon 40 hour operation to separate them.

Surgeons in India said a mammoth 40-hour operation on a 2-year-old girl born with four arms and four legs was going according to plan. Patil told reporters the team of 30 surgeons had begun the process of severing Lakshmi from her conjoined twin, which stopped developing in the mother's womb and has a torso and limbs but no head.
He said the spinal cord had been successfully separated and that body tissues vital for the girl's survival had been isolated and retained.
When Lakshmi was born into a poor, rural Indian family, villagers in the remote settlement of Rampur Kodar Katti in the northern state of Bihar believed she was sacred. As news of her birth spread, locals lined up for a blessing from the baby.

This is an mammoth undertaking, given that the life of the girl is at stake. 40 hours means that the operation needs to have multiple doctors, and with multiple teams for each shift so as to make sure that her condition does not suddenly sink.

Sinkhole in Guatemala

*GUATEMALA CITY**, **Guatemala* - A 330-foot-deep sinkhole killed at least
two teenagers as it swallowed about a dozen homes early Friday and forced
the evacuation of nearly 1,000 people in a crowded Guatemala City
neighborhood. Officials blamed the sinkhole on recent rains and an
underground sewage flow from a ruptured main.

The pit emitted foul odors, loud noises and tremors, shaking the surrounding
ground. A rush of water could be heard from its depths, and authorities
feared it could widen or others could open up.

Rescue operations were on hold until a firefighter, suspended from a cable,
could take video and photos above the hole and officials could use the
documentation to decide how to proceed.

The dead were identified as Irma and David Soyos, emergency spokesman Juan
Carlos Bolanos said. Their bodies were found near the sinkhole, floating in
a river of sewage.

Their father, Domingo, was still missing, according to disaster coordinator
Hugo Hernandez.

Squirrel on rampage

One is afraid of big animals such as wild dogs, lions, tigers, snakes, etc. It is far easier to live in a city as such dangerous animals are not present in the city, and the only thing you need to be afraid in the city are other humans, whether the are muggers, careless drivers or junkies. You do find very cute animals in the city, such as small birds, puppies, cute cats, and even wilder animals such as squirrels and racoons. However, even such a small animal such as a squirrel can become dangerous:

An aggressive squirrel attacked and injured three people in a German town before a 72-year-old pensioner dispatched the rampaging animal with his crutch.
The animal then entered a building site and jumped on a construction worker, injuring him on the hand and arm, before he managed to fight it off with a measuring pole.

It takes a lot for a small animal such as this one to become agitated; doubtless there must have been some of irritation caused to the squirrel for it to become violent like this one did.

Firefighters on high

Imagine taking a drug test of people on government rolls, and finding that most of them tested positive; further imagine that this drug test was held after they had completed a job, and still they tested positive. Indignation would go high, and there would be screams of investigations, suspensions and firing of these people.
Now imagine that people got high on a job. Well, that has happened. Firefighters reporting to a fire in a wareouse also had around 2,000 pounds of marijuana burnt, and the fumes of these drugs were so strong, that even after protective masks, the fire fighters inhaled enough marijuana fumes to reach a condition where they would have failed drug tests:

Firefighters who spent half an hour fighting a blaze in which 2,000 pounds of marijuana went up in smoke breathed so much of it that they would have failed a drug test, a fire chief said.
Snider said Thursday the firefighters were exposed to so much marijuana smoke that they would not be able to pass a drug test, despite wearing air packs to prevent them from inhaling toxic or hazardous fumes.

This is also another sign of how much people are dedicated to doing the jobs that make us safe. Firemen have volunteered to enter fires from which people are desperate to escape, in order to do their duty of rescuing people trapped, and to put out the fire.

British Man jailed in Slovakia for jumping nude into a fountain

Well, he was actually jailed in May end, sentenced to 2 months in prison for jumping naked into a fountain during drunken revelry, was released early (after 10 days).
What happened earlier ? Well, this guy was due to be married on June 15, so during some pre-marriage celebration in Bratislava near the end of May, he obviously had too much to drink, and then jumped naked into a fountain. This sort of display was obviously not appreciated by the Slovakian police, who arrested him, and he was then sentenced to a 2 month prison sentence.
He looked all set to miss the marriage date, and then his parents rushed to Slovakia to help him, and the British Foreign Office intervened as well, and he was finally released a few days ago; presumably his marriage date stands.