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Coalition forces in Afghanistan say around 60 Taliban militiamen drowned while attempting to cross the Helmand river, one of the country's biggest. They were fleeing military forces in the Kajaki district and had constructed a makeshift raft of tyre tubes and wooden planks.

WASHINGTON – Alcohol-related deaths on U.S. roads rose to their highest level in 14 years in 2006, while the overall number of people killed in traffic crashes declined slightly but still topped 43,000, according to preliminary government estimates Friday. The Transportation Department said that drunken driving deaths rose 2.4 percent to 17,941 after a slight decline in 2005. It was the highest level since 1992 when 18,290 deaths were reported. Alcohol-related fatalities accounted for 41 percent of all traffic deaths, which dropped less than 1 percent last year to 43,300. Annual auto deaths have hovered around 43,000 for the past...

EXPLORERS have found a previously unknown site scattered with artefacts from the Titanic that could shed new light on the final moments of the world's most famous ocean liner. "We found a new debris field about 900 metres south of the stern, which supports my long-standing belief that the Titanic began to break apart and sink further south than where she currently sits," expedition leader G. Michael Harris said today. Mr Harris, whose grandfather led the first wave of expeditions in the early 1980s, made the 4km dive with his 13-year-old son through freezing waters in a three-man submersible. The...

First time on the internet... A newly found photo of Mary Jo Kopechne has been posted at fatboy.cc This is not the standard "yearbook" photo of Mary Jo.

N.J. Rescue teams planned to resume their search Monday morning for the body of a boy scout who fell off a whale watching boat this weekend and is presumed drowned. Nicholas Johs, 14, of Boy Scout Troop 26 of Staten Island, N.Y., fell off the Whale Watcher II at about 2 p.m. Saturday. At the time, the 90-foot boat was about 200 yards off Cape May Point, and the crew encountered some rough seas. Witnesses told police that despite several warnings, Johs and some other troop members were jumping up and down in the front of the boat in time...

FORT WORTH -- More than 1,000 people gathered downtown to mourn the deaths of three youths and an adult who drowned in the city's treasured Water Gardens, where they had gone to cool off because their hotel pool was closed. A massive sunken fountain designed to create a sense of "pseudo-danger" became a real death trap Wednesday evening when a girl fell into the water and the others tried to save her. All four were from the Chicago area and were in town attending a religious convention. "My father told me once that God sends his best into the worst...

WASHINGTON CROSSING, N.J. -- A Christmas Eve downpour after heavy rain and snow made the Delaware River too dangerous Thursday for the annual reenactment of George Washington's bold Revolutionary War crossing, grounding the actors for the second Christmas in a row. Last year, sleet, wind and strong currents prevented the crossing -- conditions similar to what Washington faced as he and his men crossed from Pennsylvania to New Jersey in the dark on Christmas Day 227 years ago. That 1776 maneuver led to key victories in Trenton and Princeton and reversed the Continental Army's fortunes. Even with the crossing reenactment...

CLINTON, Ill. Dec. 11 — A woman accused of drowning her three young children in a car submerged in a lake had asked her mother to take custody of two of them just months before their deaths, the mother said Thursday. Two hours after Amanda Hamm cried as a judge read the first-degree murder charges against her, her mother, Ann Danison, said she couldn't help but wonder if she could have averted the tragedy. "She was my only child. My only grandkids. I don't have any more," Danison said, her voice breaking. "And I'll never have them." Six-year-old Christopher Hamm,...

Do we operate under a system of equal justice under law? Or is there one system for the average citizen and another for the high and mighty?" - Senator Ted Kennedy, 1973 - Ted Kennedy had a record of serious traffic violations. Their nature formed a pattern of deliberate and repeated negligent operation. Particularly bothersome was a June, 1958 conviction for "reckless driving." - On March 14, 1958, Deputy Sheriff Thomas Whitten had been on routine highway patrol outside Charlottesville, Virginia, when an Oldsmobile convertible ran a red light, sped off, then cut its tail lights to elude pursuit. A...

Britain's drowned landscapes New underwater technology to reveal an age when the UK was linked to Europe by plains and forests Robin McKie, science editor Sunday September 21, 2003 The Observer (UK) Herds of reindeer and horses migrated across its plains, huge forests covered much of the countryside and men and women made their homes by rivers and lakes. Then came the deluge, and this ancient Arcadia - which stretched across the North Sea, and covered the Channel - was inundated. All signs of human and animal activity were covered by several hundred feet of water. Only the occasional stone...

The city of Midwest City is investigating the death of a 4-year-old girl, who drowned in a metro pool with 10 lifeguards on duty at the time. The city's parks department said 10 lifeguards were present at Reno Swim and Slide when the girl, Tayana Bowers, went under water. Fifty-six people were swimming in the pool at the time - a lifeguard-to-swimmer staffing ratio that more than meets requirements under state law, Eyewitness News 5 reported. In addition to the lifeguards, an adult was also at the pool with Bowers. But that adult was also watching three other children, which...

Just a reminder folks that on this day in 1969--33 years ago, Ted Kennedy drowned Mary Jo Kopecne and got away with it. Massachusetts keeps sending the oversexed drunk back to the Senate. We need term limits.