Coffin Conversations - by dementia

The hole is said to be more than 100m (330ft) deep. Residents said they had felt the earth shaking and heard loud noises before the houses collapsed.

More than 1,000 homes were evacuated in the area. The national emergency agency said there had not been any casualties.

Officials said the sinkhole had probably been caused by a saturated sewer main.


"I was in my house and I started to hear booming and I heard the earth shaking, and then I realised the houses had collapsed [into the sinkhole]," neighbour Maria Rivas was quoted by the Associated Press as saying.

A group of young German women used so much spray deodorant in the bathroom of a North Sea youth hostel that it set off a fire alarm and brought the local fire brigade rushing to the rescue, police said Monday.
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"The fumes of the pleasant-smelling deodorant were so intense that they drifted up to the ceiling and set off a fire detector," said Volker Buttgereit of the Buesum police force.

Local authorities said they were also surprised the heavy use of deodorant could set off the alarm. "Hopefully the girls will get by with a little less spray next time," said Buttgereit.

With monitor lizards, snakes, and bats prowling their parks, residents of tropical Singapore are no strangers to the occasional animal ambush.

However, gangs of long-tailed macaque monkeys have been causing havoc in housing estates bordering nature reserves; stealing food and brawling on the streets.

"They roam the estate in groups of up to 20 _- rampaging the estate and turning over dustbins," one irate local was quoted in local newspapers as saying.

"They enter the house, open cupboards, steal food and soil the premises".

Picnics are spoiled and snacks are snatched from bags while golfers tee off.

Even the British Club has armed staff with brooms to shoo monkeys away from the gourmet buffet.

A Walhalla man might have had a good reason for not responding to officers who surrounded his home: He was asleep in a recliner when the SWAT team found him after a four-hour standoff, authorities said.

“He did not know we were there until we put our hands on him,” Oconee County Sheriff’s Capt. Steve Jenkins said.

The 26-year-old had run his mother from their home Tuesday night by firing several shots, deputies said.

Officers surrounding the home first heard breaking glass and other noise, but then heard nothing from the man, despite making calls on a telephone they were able to get into the house and talking over a patrol car’s loudspeaker, authorities said.

A second SWAT team went around the back of the house after about four hours and saw him asleep in a chair, Jenkins said.

Officers entered stealthily and woke the man up to arrest him. He’s been charged with discharging a firearm into a residence, but could face additional charges, Jenkins said.

No one was injured, but the home had bullet holes in the walls and ceiling, he said. Deputies said they recovered about 15 guns in the house.

A Chinese man was sentenced to death for scamming people out of 3 billion yuan ($387 million). The man created a fake business that supposedly made wine, tea and medical elixirs using black ants.

Ants are thought to be a natural remedy when steeped in tea or soaked in liquor.

A man described as a 'loner' was being questioned last night over a series of letter bomb attacks which have left nine people injured.

Miles Cooper, a 26-year-old school caretaker who does not drive, was arrested at his home near Cambridge early yesterday on suspicion of sending seven letter bombs in the past month, several to the offices of companies with links to traffic regulation enforcement.

A New Zealand lawyer who took to wearing an Alice in Wonderland costume in court to highlight an alleged cover-up by the army has been found guilty of contempt.

AN ADELAIDE printing company is rushing to print and distribute new copies of suicide handbook The Peaceful Pill, in case it is banned.
A decision from the Classification Review Board is imminent, following a referral from Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock on the basis that the book is already a banned import.

A town in Germany has removed every road sign as part of an EU-backed project to encourage responsible driving.

Traffic in Bohmte, which has 13,000 inhabitants, is split into cars, bikes and pedestrians.

A woman from Pittsburgh was surprised to find a package left on her doorstep by her ex-boyfriend. On the plus side, it was nicely wrapped in red bows and pink tissue paper, and came with a note saying 'I love you, Your Ben'.

On the down side, it contained the severed head of a kitten.

Durban - A drunken man was arrested by police in Port Shepstone after he was caught lying on top of a dead 50-year-old man with his pants down, KwaZulu-Natal police said on Monday.

Superintendent Zandra Hechter said police received a call at 06:00 on Saturday about a strange incident on Port Shepstone's Ryder Street.

Chinese police have arrested three men for killing two young women to sell their corpses as "ghost brides" for dead single men, a Chinese newspaper reported, warning the dark custom might have claimed many other victims.