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Spiders are the most feared pest, although people increasingly have phobias about hornets, rats and wasps, a new study has revealed. Spiders topped a "fear index", with two-thirds of those questioned saying they were spooked by them, a survey of 2,000 adults by home emergency firm HomeServe found. Hornets and rats were closely behind, with foxes sneaking into the top 10 ahead of mice, fleas, slugs and snails, while moths, flies and ants were the least feared.

BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. -- A man from Erie, Colo. died after getting bitten by a black widow spider. Health experts say it's a rare for someone to die from black widow bites. Jeff Seale, 40, noticed 19 bites on his foot two weeks before he died. His sister says he worked at a horse stable, and she wonders if that's where her brother might've encountered the spider...

Police say a man stalked his ex-girlfriend and her current boyfriend, even going so far as to place black widow spider eggs in their mailbox. 65-year-old Michael R. Burcum faces stalking charges after Hernando deputies say he harassed her after the two broke up earlier this year. Investigators say Burcum briefly dated 47-year-old Kimberly Sonnenschen for about three weeks in March, before they broke up and Sonnenschen went back to her long-term boyfriend, 52-year-old Stephen Boyce. Since that time, Burcum has allegedly written harassing letters to Boyce and Sonnenschen, and also tried to get access to Boyce's social security number....

...Betty Neumar, 79, was free on $300,000 bond on first-degree murder charges in the death of her fourth husband, Harold Gentry, in 1986 when she died late Sunday or early Monday in Louisiana...

A "Black Widow" suicide bomber planned a terrorist attack in central Moscow on New Year's Eve but was killed when an unexpected text message set off her bomb too early, according to Russian security sources. The unnamed woman, who is thought to be part of the same group that struck Moscow's Domodedovo airport on Monday, intended to detonate a suicide belt on a busy square near Red Square on New Year's Eve in an attack that could have killed hundreds. Security sources believe a spam message from her mobile phone operator wishing her a happy new year received just hours...

35 people have been killed in an explosion at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport according to the airport spokesperson. Up to 168 are said to have been injured in what the Investigative Committee believes to be a terror attack.Eighty-six people have been taken to nearby hospitals, 46 of them are reported to be in critical condition. Some reports say there are foreign citizens among the victims, including those from the UK, Italy, France, Serbia and Slovakia. *************************snip************************************ FSB knew about possible terror attack – reports Russia’s Federal Security Bureau had known about a suicide bomber in the city, but their information was...

Students in a San Diego elementary school are getting a lesson in arachnophobia. Dozens of venomous black widow spiders have been found infesting classrooms in Pete W. Ross Elementary School, San Diego's KGTV reported. "The spiders... are coming out now from the bookshelves and the doorways and even up in the rafters," April Robertson, a third grade teacher at the school, told the station.

The continued cooperation of Najibullah Zazi with the investigation into his attempt to carry out terrorist attacks in New York City has led to the arrest of a fourth suspect, a Pakistani citizen, two days ago, and has shed some new light on the details of the case and the specific targets Zazi and his co-conspirators intended to hit. Few developments in the case have come out of Pakistan, where the fourth suspect, who has not been named, was arrested. Authorities say he will be extradited to the United States soon, but that "he may not ultimately be charged in...

The 17-year-old bride of an Islamist militant was named today as one of the “Black Widow” suicide bombers who killed 39 people in the Moscow Metro. Investigators believe that Dzhennet Abdurakhmanova blew herself up at the Lubyanka station, close to the headquarters of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), in revenge for the killing of her husband, Kommersant newspaper reported. It published a photograph of the teenager exuding childish defiance as she brandished a pistol in black Islamic dress next to her husband, Umalat Magomedov. He was killed on New Year’s Eve in a shoot-out with police in his native Dagestan....

At least 25 people are reported to have been killed in an explosion on the Metro system in central Moscow, with a second blast coming shortly afterwards. The first blast happened at the city's central Lubyanka station, reports quoting security sources said. A second explosion happened at the Park Kultury station, Russian news agency Tass reported. Ten people were injured in the first blast, Tass said, quoting the emergencies ministry. The number of casualties at the second blast is not yet clear.

Michelle Obama has been spicing up First Lady fashion all summer with bold colors and chic patterns. Check out the roundup of her smashing summer looks... Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/fashion/galleries/michelle_obamas_summer_style/michelle_obamas_summer_style.html#ixzz0QYlDfvRv

The night deputies said Delores Laster shot her husband in the back of the head, she recruited his two young children to help move his near-lifeless body, according to newly released discovery in the case. Laster, 61, who was an Orange County Public School teacher for 40 years, was indicted on a first-degree murder charge last month for the shooting death of her husband, Clarence Laster, in March 1988.

America’s new First Lady Michelle Obama wowed the crowd election night with her red-and-black Narciso Rodriguez dress from the designer’s spring 2009 collection. She accessorized with a black cardigan, kitten heels, diamond bangles and earrings.

CALDWELL - An email that compares Michelle Obama to a black widow spider is circulating the Internet. CBS 2 received a copy of the email from a concerned viewer. The email was forwarded by Canyon County commissioner Steve Rule. "The female has a very wide backside, is Black, and has a red hour glass shaped marking on her belly," the email says. The email continues, "You can find this spider in Closets, Wood piles, Under beds, And soon... THE WHITE HOUSE!!!!!! Following the comments is a photograph of Michelle Obama wearing a red and black dress. The president of the...

~Rover's Top 10 proofs that liberals are brainwashed/mentally ill/completely insane~For those of you who have ever wondered how Democrats came to be known as the Jack@$$ Party... #10: Many Obama supporters have praised Michelle Obama's "great" taste in clothes (According to Barack Obama, she does NOT hire a fashion consultant). Vanity Fair even ranks her on its "international best-dressed" list. Fans liken her to Jackie Kennedy. Are they crazy?! Many people, including me, do NOT find a black widow suitable to be First Lady. But then, I suppose that's racist.

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (April 6) - A man who received a heart transplant 12 years ago and later married the donor's widow died the same way the donor did, authorities said: of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. No foul play was suspected in 69-year-old Sonny Graham's death at his Vidalia, Ga., home, investigators said. He was found Tuesday in a utility building in his backyard with a single shotgun wound to the throat, said Greg Harvey, a special agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Graham, who was director of the Heritage golf tournament at Sea Pines from 1979 to...

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, SC (AP) - Terry Cottle and Sonny Graham never met, but the two men shared two very important things - a heart and a wife. They also died the same way: Cottle, 12 years ago from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the Summerville home he shared with his wife, Cheryl; the 69-year-old Graham died the same way last week outside his Vidalia, Georgia, home that he shared with his wife, Cheryl. When Cottle died at age 33, his organs were donated. Graham got Cottle's heart and nine years later, he married Cottle's widow. (More at source...)

Still in Control Pervez Musharraf was calm, confident and—despite a flurry of rumors—not about to announce his resignation. Instead, the Pakistani president's "concession" to his troubled nation was an announcement that he would allow Britain's Scotland Yard to help local law enforcement agencies with their investigation into last week's assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Speaking in a nationally televised address two hours after Pakistan's election commission announced the postponement of the ballot to Feb. 18, six weeks later than had been scheduled, Musharraf was notably deferential in his remarks about Bhutto, often invoking her "martyrdom" and extolling...

A 62-year-old woman known as the "Black Widow" is being held in a North Carolina jail on $1.5 million bond for relatively petty charges, while police race to unravel a web of mysteries — including the deaths of her two husbands and a female "best friend" — before time runs out and "she's outta here."

A man spent three days in hospital after being bitten by a venomous spider now spreading across the country because of global warming. The false widow spider, a relative of the black widow, bit Jason Fricker, 34, three times on the chest and stomach after it fell down the front of his shirt a week ago. By Sunday, after treatment as an outpatient the previous day, Mr Fricker, a father of two from Dorchester, was admitted as an emergency by doctors who believed the venom was attacking his nervous system, causing a heart attack. The creature that caused such damage,...