Despite being in sunny California, two polar bears at the San Francisco Zoo celebrated their birthdays this month in true, really chilly style.
Pike, 30, and Ulu, 32, got a very special sub-zero treatment Nov. 15 when the zoo had 10 tons of fresh snow blown into their habitat.
The big celebration was the zoo's way of honoring the bears' old ages, because the average life span of their species is only half their ages. This makes Pike and Ulu among the oldest bears of their kind to live in an accredited zoo within the United States.
"As the worldwide symbol of climate change, the presence of polar bears both in the wild and in zoological educational programs is a vital tool in carrying the messages of conservation," the San Francisco Zoo said in a statement.
The zoo even got a little sports action involved in the celebration. San Francisco Bulls hockey players Hans Benson and Chris Frank partied with the polar bears by shooting fish pucks into the bears' enclosure. Pike and Ulu sure enjoyed the tasty birthday treat.
To see more pictures of the polar bears partying in the snow, click here.
The 33-year-old right-wing fanatic killed 77 people in twin attacks last year in Norway's worst peacetime massacre. He detonated a car bomb outside government offices in Oslo killing eight people and then drove to the island of Utoya where he massacred 69 in a shooting spree at the summer camp of the governing Labor Party's youth wing.
Ellen Bjercke, spokeswoman at Ila Prison where Breivik is being held, said the prison had not lifted any security restrictions on Breivik in response to his letter, although he had recently been allowed a normal pen instead of a rubber safety pen, which he had also avidly used during the 10-week trial to make notes.
Breivik said the experience of having to use the stab-free pen was as "an almost indescribable manifestation of sadism."
The self-confessed killer described numerous prison practices as "degrading" in his letter, including that he is watched when swallowing his vitamin pills, that he's not allowed a mop to clean his cell and that he is subjected to daily strip searches, sometimes by female prison guards.
Keeping up his personal hygiene is also a challenge, he said.
"Use of a toothbrush and electric shaver is always under supervision. One is therefore under mental pressure to finish quickly as the guards are tapping their feet outside the cell ... This limits brushing to once a day and shaving to once a week in order not to have to go through the mental ordeal more often than necessary," he wrote in the letter.
NEW YORK (AP) — A balding garment salesman was arrested Wednesday for systematically killing three shopkeepers as they worked alone in their clothing stores and had been poised to strike again, police said.
Salvatore Perrone, 63, was taken into custody after a pharmacy worker recognized him as the man shown in surveillance footage leaving the scene of the most recent shooting, last Friday, with a duffel bag, police said.
Another shopkeeper came forward and said Perrone had gone into his store and questioned him on whether he worked alone and when he closed, police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. Police devoted scores of detectives to the case, he said.
"It's reasonable to assume he was going to keep doing this, and, by arresting him, we saved lives," Kelly said at a news conference.
Perrone, of Staten Island, was arrested on charges of murder. He was in custody Wednesday and couldn't be reached for comment. A message left on his cellphone was not returned, and it was unclear if he had an attorney.
Detectives said they found the duffel bag at his girlfriend's home. Inside, they said, was a sawed-off rifle used in the killings, along with .22-caliber ammunition, black gloves, women's clothing, a bloody knife and a bottle of bleach.
NEW YORK, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Three-time world boxing champion Hector "Macho" Camacho was seriously wounded on Tuesday in a drive-by shooting in Puerto Rico, according to reports in the Puerto Rican press.
Camacho, 50, was a passenger in a vehicle fired on by unknown gunmen in the Bayamon region of the island, just southwest of the capital, San Juan, according to reports in El Nuevo Herald and El Nuevo Dia.
The reports said Camacho was taken to San Juan Medical Center. It attributed information about the shooting to Bayomon district police captain Reinaldo Santiago.
(Reporting By Chris Francescani; Editing by Mary Slosson and Peter Cooney)
Young man dies in shooting; suspect still on the loose
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TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - Tucson Police are looking for two people involved in the killing of an 18-year-old.
Sgt. Maria Hawke with TPD tells KGUN9 that Andrew Liska died Monday as a result of his injuries.
Hawke says that on November 16, officers responded to the 3300 block of South Grady Avenue to reports of a shooting.
Officers found two adult males in the middle of the street with gunshot wounds.
Officers learned that the two victims were in the backseat of a car when the driver shot both of them while the car was moving.
The driver then stopped and pulled both victims out onto the street.
The vehicle left in an unknown direction but the driver was described as a Hispanic male with short spiky hair.
There was also a woman in the passenger seat who is described as Hispanic and heavy set with dark hair.
The car is described as a silver passenger car.
Anyone with information about this case is asked to call 911 or 88-CRIME.
Posted: Nov 20, 2012 4:45 PM by Ashraf Oz Amin Updated: Nov 20, 2012 4:54 PM
TUCSON - On Monday, an 18-year-old man died in the hospital after being shot along with another man Friday night; police are seeking the public's help locating the person responsible.
On November 16, officers responded to the 3300 block of south Grady Avenue where they found two men shot in the street.
Investigators say the men had been riding in the backseat of a car when the driver shot them. The driver then stopped and pulled the men into the street before taking off.
Both men were taken to the hospital, where Andrew Liska later died from his injuries on November 19.
The suspect is described as a Hispanic male with short spiky hair. There was another passenger described as heavy-set, dark-haired Hispanic woman riding in the passenger seat. The vehicle was described as a silver passenger car.
Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or 88-CRIME
New York has had to bounce back from a lot of tragedy, including the recent devastation that Hurricane Sandy left behind. But when news gets out that the city has an unknown killer lurking in their midst, it’s difficult for even the most hardened New Yorker to wrap their mind around.
Police are now searching for a man they believe is responsible for the shooting deaths of three shopkeepers, which began in July with 65-year old Mohammed Gebeli and left off with 78-year old Vahidipour Rahmatollah last Friday. 59-year old Isaac Kadare was shot in the head in his 99 cent store in August. As more and more evidence points to the murders having been committed by the same person, a motive has so far eluded investigators. While they have acknowledged that each shooting has similar characteristics, officials don’t want to erupt the city into panic by dubbing the killings the work of a serial killer.
“The same gun was used in all three murders…it’s too soon to tell,” Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said. “There are similar things in each case, but that determination hasn’t been made yet.”
Each victim was covered up and moved away from the windows of their respective stores, possibly to buy more time for the killer. However, there are factors in each murder which don’t seem to add up to serial killer: one victim was stabbed in the neck as well as being shot in the head; two of the victims were robbed, while police say they aren’t sure yet if Rahmatollah was missing money from the cash register. Those inconsistencies could add up to a break in the case. For now, investigators have released a sketch of a suspect they found on surveillance cameras, saying he is a person of interest and that they would like to talk to him.
A Tucson man was detained at the Nogales border crossing after a U.S. Customs and Border Protection dog sniffed-out marijuana inside a truck carrying a load of piñatas, officials said.
Juan Marcelo Armstrong, 24, of Tucson, was crossing the border Friday afternoon when he was pulled over for an additional inspection, a news release says. Bundles of marijuana weighing about 425 pounds were found in the wall lining of the truck’s cargo area, the release said.
Armstrong was turned over to the agency’s Homeland Security Investigations.
Enlarge GallerySecurity officials surrounding Rimsha Masih, (C, green scarf) a Christian girl accused of blasphemy, move her to a helicopter after her release from Adyala jail in Rawalpindi September 8, 2012. A Pakistani …
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A Pakistani court dismissed on Tuesday a blasphemy case against a Christian girl which had drawn international condemnation and concern about the rights of religious minorities in the predominantly Muslim country.
Rimsha Masih, believed to be no older than 14, was charged with burning pages of the Koran in August but was granted bail in September after a cleric was detained on suspicion of planting evidence to stir up resentment against Christians.
Masih's lawyer, Tahir Naveed, said the Islamabad High Court's decision to throw out the case was based on the fact that no one had seen her burning pages of the Koran.
The case provoked international concern and she could, in theory, have faced execution under Pakistan's blasphemy law despite her age and reported mental problems.
Muslims consider the Koran the literal word of God and treat each book with deep reverence. Desecration is considered one of the worst forms of blasphemy.
The blasphemy law enjoys widespread support among ordinary Pakistanis even though critics say it is often abused by people involved in disputes or against members of religious minorities.
Over the past two years, two senior government officials who had suggested reform of the law were shot dead, one by his own bodyguard. Lawyers threw rose petals at the killer and the judge who convicted him was forced to flee the country.
The number of blasphemy cases brought under the law is rising. Since 1987, there have been almost 250 cases, according to the Center for Research and Security Studies think-tank.
Convictions are common, although the death sentence has never been carried out. Most convictions are thrown out on appeal but mobs often take the law into their own hands.
The think-tank said 52 people had been killed after being accused of blasphemy since 1990.
(Reporting by Mubasher Bukhari; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Web Producer: Ina Ronquillo
TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - Tucson Police are asking for the help of the public in locating a missing adult female.
Sgt. Maria Hawke tells KGUN9 that Victoria Delgado, 37, was last seen on the evening of September 8, 2012 at a residence in the 2400 block of North Haskell.
Delgado was last seen at approximately 9:30 p.m. and was in the company of a male known as "Dizzy" or "Drake." She is described as a Hispanic female, 5'03" tall, weighing approximately 110 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes.
Tucson Police have made efforts to located Delgado, but have been unsuccessful.
As time has passed, concern for Delgado's welfare has increased due to the fact that she has not had any communication with her family, has not used her cellular telephone, and has not used her bank or credit card accounts. The lack of these activities is very unusual.
Anyone having information about Delgado's whereabouts is asked to call 9-1-1 or 88-CRIME
A Tucson Police sergeant was shot in the head near Broadway and Alvernon early today and the shooter is still on the loose, police say.
Sgt. Robert Carpenter underwent surgery at University Medical Center and is responding to questions. Tucson Police Chief Roberto Villaseñor said during a press briefing this morning.
Police gave the following account:
Villaseñor said officers responded to a triggered residential alarm at a house in the 4000 block of East Elmwood at 1:43 a.m. There, a man described as Hispanic, between the ages of 20 and 30, fled from the scene on foot from the neighborhood, near Broadway and Alvernon.
He is described as 5-feet, 8-inches tall, weighing 160 pounds and was wearing a dark blue jersey with a red number 43 on it.
After police left the scene, another alarm call came in from the same house at 5:15 a.m. This time, officers found signs of forced entry, Villaseñor said
( This is my cousin who is in coma ) 18yrs old and his friend also shot 3x in serious condition.
TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - Two men were injured during a shooting that took place on the southside Friday night.
Tucson police responded to the 3300 block of south Grady Avenue at around 10:30 p.m. Friday after reports of shots fired in the area, according to Lt. Matt Ronstadt with the Tucson Police Department.
Ronstadt tells KGUN9 that once officers were on scene they discovered two men in serious condition, suffering from what appeared to be gunshot trauma.
The men were transported to a local hospital for treatment.
Tucson police are investigating the events that led to the shooting.
KGUN 9 On Your Side will have more on this as the story develops. Stay with us.
My cousin was shot last night on the Eastside of Tucson . The Tucson Police refuse to comment on the shooting. My cousin was shot (3) times once in the chest and twice in the head DREW is on life support with little brain activity. The second victim (his friend ) was also shot (3) times and is at UMC hospital.
There was several suspects seen running from the crime scene,
this case is breaking. No local news people have covered this story.
A handgun lies at the scene of the shooting by a Pima County sheriff's deputy at North Oracle and East Prince roads. The Sheriff's Department said a motorist pulled a gun on Deputy Nicholas Norris after a traffic stop Friday.
2012-11-17T00:01:00Z2012-11-16T23:09:05ZDeputy kills man during traffic stopArizona Daily Star Arizona Daily StarArizona Daily Star
A Pima County sheriff's deputy fired in self-defense at a man who pointed a handgun at him during a traffic stop Friday afternoon, a sheriff's spokesman said.
The man who was shot was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, said Deputy Tom Peine, a sheriff's spokesman. His name was not released.
Peine gave the following account:
The deputy, Nicholas Norris, who has been with the department since 2004, had pulled over the man near the intersection of Oracle and Prince roads.
The man drove his four-door silver Nissan in between two cars near the front door of O'Reilly Auto Parts, northeast of the intersection, about 5:20 p.m.
Norris pulled in behind the Nissan and got out of his vehicle. The man pointed a handgun at him, and Norris fired in self-defense.
It wasn't known how many shots Norris fired.
The deputy wasn't injured.
Norris was questioned and put on administrative leave, as is normal procedure after a deputy is involved in a shooting.
November 6th 2012: Two brothers were found murdered in Tijuana, on the 'free road' to Tecate, from Tijuana. The first Alberto Galeana, known as 'Aldo', 20 years old. A little up the road, and not known until later, was the body of his older brother, Antonio Galena. Both bodies were wrapped in black tape, with the 'Looney Tunes' logo, adorning the tape, which covered the brothers completely. Bruises were visible on both of the bodies, amidst other signs of torture, or interrogation, Aldo's front teeth had been wrenched out, forcefully, and not surgically removed.
The two lifeless bodies found on the road, on the Sunday afternoon, were in a sense two more anonymous corpses, found with all the pre requisites of a narco related murder, wrapped in plastic, signs of torture, dumped on a road, coldly, like an afterthought. Two more, that will garner a brief mention in the local papers, and in a sense, that's all there will be.
This is not to slander the dead, or accuse the innocent, just a closer look at two brutal, yet, almost run of the mill executions, in a land where debt settling, and lines of credit will leave family members wrapped in plastic and tape, on the side of the road.
Alberto Galeana was 3 weeks away from graduating from the Autonomous University of Tijuana, (UBAC), with a degree in computer science, he was also an intern at 'El Mexicano', the prime contributor to this article, and one of the most well read newspapers in Tijuana, and San Diego, along with Zeta, and Frontera. Aldo held a 9.5 grade point average, was considered by classmates and employers to be a good student. His brother, Antonio, was involved in drug trafficking, and smuggling, going back at least eight years. He was arrested by San Diego police in Chula Vista, with an amount of drugs, which he was imprisoned for, sometime in 2004, or 2005.
This time, Antonio lost, across the border again, in San Diego, another car of drugs, which he was either delivering, or received on credit. Reports state that tried to work out a deal, by giving up another vehicle, and partial payment, but it didn't work out, one way or the other, and he and his brother were kidnapped, tortured, and killed. Then, thrown on the side of the road. The scenarios may not matter to some, and least of all to the family and friends of the victims, but here are a few different paths of what may have happened.
The Drugs: Roughly estimating, 25,000-50,000 worth of product, which is roughly 150 pounds of marijuana, cost, 35,000, somewhere in the realm of 300 per pound, depending on when he came into possession, and other factors. Or maybe 2 kilos of cocaine at 20,000 per kilo. Or 3 kilos of crystal, at 15,000 a kilo. Enough product that someone wanted their money made up, wouldn't have been less then 20,000, to have two people picked up and murdered. And not retail sales in Tijuana, but shipments that crossed the border. This wasn't someone killed for selling to the wrong customers or in the wrong place.
Reuters/Reuters - A worker at Pakistan's lone beer maker, Murree Brewery, checks the quality of bottles at the factory in Rawalpindi November 10, 2012. Murree Brewery, established in 1860 by British colonial …more rulers to supply beer to their troops, is desperately looking for business overseas to hedge against its uncertain domestic market. Prohibition was imposed in Pakistan in 1977, and non-Muslims and foreigners must obtain a government permit to purchase alcohol at designated retailers, which are mainly upscale hotels. Picture taken November 10, 2012. A worker at Pakistan's lone beer …
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (Reuters) - What have Demi Moore, Bruce Willis, underage drinking and Pakistan's only beer maker got in common?
It was the arrest of the Hollywood stars' daughter in New York with a can of Murree Brewery's beer last June that propelled the company out of obscurity and into the spotlight.
Inundated with emails asking about its beer, Murree Brewery seized on the free publicity to launch expansion plans outside the Muslim nation, where alcohol is banned and those that do drink can become targets of Taliban militants and other Islamist fundamentalists.
Five months since the arrest, the 150-year-old company says it has lined up distributors that could see its flagship beer arrive on liquor store shelves in the United States and Dubai as early as the first quarter of next year.
"Demi Moore and Bruce Willis' daughter gave us multi-million dollars worth of publicity by default. We plan to go to the United States and make a queue to hug both the daughter and the mother," Sabih ur Rehman, special assistant to the chief executive, joked with Reuters.
SAN DIEGO (AP) - A former San Diego veterinarian who once performed cataract surgery on a rescued sea lion pup has been found dead in a burning car in Arizona.
His former wife tells U-T San Diego (http://bit.ly/PVPI0Y ) that Anthony Basher was in a borrowed Mercedes that caught fire last Friday north of Tucson. Kim Basher says the fire was accidental.
The Pima County Sheriff's Department says the official cause of Basher's death is pending.
His ex-wife says the 54-year-old vet was fired from a San Diego animal hospital several months ago but was working at other California clinics.
She says he also worked two days a week in Tucson, staying at a colleague's home north of town.
Basher was a specialist in ophthalmology and helped animals at SeaWorld and the San Diego Zoo.
Straight out of the X Files comes this clip from Denver's Fox 31. Last week, a viewer sent the station a video of something ... something spooky. A flying object was buzzing in the sky, and it looked like maybe it was carrying little green men.
Was it really a UFO? Suspecting the clip was a prank, the TV station sent out its own photojournalist to see if he could document the same weirdness on his own. Guess what? He did.
Fox 31 aired the footage and interviewed several experts in the field. None could identify the flying object. Aviation expert Steve Cowell told Fox 31's investigative reporter Heidi Hemmat, "That is not an airplane, that is not a helicopter, those are not birds, I can't identify it." Cowell, while mystified, did come up with a less mysterious possibility. "Perhaps there is some sort of debris that is being raised by atmospheric winds."
Associated Press/Tony Dejak - Shena Hardin walks back to her car after holding up a sign to serve a highly public sentence Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2012, in Cleveland, for driving on a sidewalk to avoid a Cleveland …more school bus that was unloading children. A Cleveland Municipal Court judge ordered 32-year-old Hardin to serve the highly public sentence for one hour Tuesday and Wednesday. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak) less
CLEVELAND (AP) — A Cleveland judge who sentenced a woman to hold an embarrassing sign in public plans to personally supervise the second day of the punishment after being unsatisfied with the woman's demeanor the first day.
Shena Hardin was caught driving on a sidewalk to pass a school bus unloading children in September.
Judge Pinkey Carr had ordered her to spend part of two mornings holding a sign that says, "Only an idiot would drive on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus."
Hardin puffed on a cigarette, wore headphones and ignored passers-by while standing with the sign on a street corner Tuesday. The judge tells WKYC-TV (http://on.wkyc.com/T2hkly ) she feels Hardin wasn't sufficiently holding up the sign and was "missing the point."
An exotic dancer from Tucson was arrested Friday night on suspicion of human smuggling.
Maria Bustamante, 33, was stopped just before 8:30 p.m. along Interstate 10 near Picacho, for several traffic violations, said Tim Gaffney, spokesman for the Pinal County Sheriff's Office. She was driving a 2004 Oldsmobile minivan with six men as passengers.
Bustamante told deputies she was on her way to visit the father of her children who is incarcerated in Texas. As a favor to a friend, she agreed to drive the men to Phoenix on her way to the Lone Star State, Gaffney said. All of the men were in the United States illegally and had paid for the ride to Phoenix.
Bustamante was booked into the Pinal County jail on six counts of human smuggling.
The men were turned over to the U.S. Border Patrol.
Despite being in sunny California, two 
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