Small Bits of News

Stuck in railings for two days
An Italian pensioner got her head stuck in railings in the garden behind her home for two days.
Francesca Bellucci, 78, was only freed when a local greengrocer reported she had not come in to collect her shopping.
She was cut free by fire fighters from the railings which run alongside the stairs outside her home in the southern Italian town of Camerota.
Her local grocer called the emergency services because he was worried about her.
She said she slipped as she went down the stairs and had got her head caught in the railings. None of her neighbors heard her calls for help.
Grocer Alberto Pattacinni said: "She comes in every day without fail to buy food and I was worried something had happened to her."
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Cops make surprise find following call
Restrained man is found in bare essentials
This is one way you don't want anyone to find you: In an abandoned building bound with pantyhose and gagged, wearing women's intimate clothing and with a foam ball in your mouth.
But that happened Saturday at 1 a.m. in Key West when police responded to a call of a “suspicious incident” at an abandoned Staples Avenue house from a nearby resident.
A report says that upon arrival, police found the 32-year-old man tied to a chair. They untied the panty hose around his head that was being used to keep the foam ball firmly in his mouth, and his hands and legs were unrestrained by rescue personnel.
Once the man, who a report says was “falsely imprisoned,” was able to talk, he said he wasn't hurt.
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Vandals Release 600 Hogs
COLLINS, Iowa -- The Story County sheriff's office said Wednesday that nearly three-dozen hogs were killed or injured over the weekend near Collins.
Deputies and farmers said that what happened near Collins was not an accident.
They said that sometime late Saturday night, gates were opened and more than 600 hogs were set free from the Struthers family farm northeast of Collins. Then, they believe whoever set them free, used their vehicle to chase the hogs through nearby farm fields, hitting and killing several of them.
In all, more than 30 animals have been killed or euthanized because of the injuries they sustained, adding up to several thousand dollars in losses for the Struthers family.
A $1,500 reward is now being offered.
Deputies are following up on some clues in the case, including parts of the vehicle that were found.
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Court Drops Case of Peeping Tom; Victim Was Not in Private Place
OKLAHOMA CITY — A man accused of using a camera to take pictures under the skirt of an unsuspecting 16-year-old girl at a Tulsa store did not commit a crime, a state appeals court has ruled.
The state Court of Criminal Appeals voted 4-1 in favor of Riccardo Gino Ferrante, who was arrested in 2006 for situating a camera underneath the girl's skirt at a Target store and taking photographs.
Ferrante, now 34, was charged under a "Peeping Tom" statute that requires the victim to be "in a place where there is a right to a reasonable expectation of privacy." Testimony indicated he followed the girl, knelt down behind her and placed the camera under her skirt.
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Fight over Bruce Springsteen leads to fatal stabbing
A fight over being allowed to listen to the music of Bruce Springsteen has been named as one of the reasons an Australian woman stabbed her boyfriend fatally.
Karen Lee Cooper has pleaded guilty at the Supreme Court in Brisbane today, and has received a sentence of eight years in prison.
Cooper's lawyer told the court she experienced a "brain snap." It added, she ran to the kitchen, grabbed a knife and stabbed boyfriend Kevin Watson, after he said he didn't want her to listen to a Springsteen CD.'
Cooper, in a formal police interview, she repeated her claims: "I mean, who doesn't like Bruce Springsteen? I am 49 years old and I want to play my own music."
"Cooper regretted the stabbing and did not think her boyfriend deserved to die."