An elderly woman is alive after crashing 920 feet into a ravine in New Zealand's North Island, then waiting three days to be rescued. Shirley Loft was discovered sitting under a tree after one of her neighbors launched a search and noticed scuff marks at the edge of a road. Loft, in her 70s, had managed to crawl out of her vehicle, and survived by drinking water from a nearby stream. She was rescued by helicopter and taken to a hospital, where she was treated for minor injuries.
Read more at ... Read More
The lawyer for jailed thief Colton Harris-Moore says that his client has been held in solitary confinement at Washington's Walla Walla State Penitentiary since April 11. The Department of Corrections confirmed Friday that Harris-Moore, 21, who is also known as the Barefoot Bandit, is being held in the intensive management unit for his own protection, a claim disputed by his lawyer. Harris-Moore was apprehended after a high-speed boat chase in July of 2010 and sentenced to 6.5 years in prison. ... Read More
A soccer ball that was carried out to sea in the March 2011 Japanese tsunami has washed up in Alaska and will soon be returned to its owner. A radar-station technician in the Gulf of Alaska discovered the ball, which officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration traced to the Osabe School in Iwate Prefecture on Sunday. The ball is the first piece of tsunami debris found to be salvageable and contains identifying information. Earlier this month, the Coast Guard sunk a drift... Read More
Scientists from the United Kingdom on Friday published a study in the journal Environmental Research Letters showing vast groundwater reserves in some of Africa's most arid regions. That water, according to researchers from the British Geological Survey and University College London, could be used to dampen the effects of global warming and aid some of the continent's 300 million people who lack access to clean drinking water. The reserves are 100 times larger than the continent's available su... Read More
On Friday, Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano erupted violently, sending skyward a cloud of ash that was visible from Mexico City 40 miles away. Residents of the town of Xalitzintla, which sits at the foot of the 17,886-foot mountain, awoke on Friday to rattling windows and ash and rocks that shot more than half a mile downhill. Authorities have readied 50 buses and alerted the town's 2,600 residents to stand by for evacuation should mud and ash flood the village, which sits in a ravine. In a porte... Read More
