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Sheriff: Man Shot 2 on Way to Game COLUMBIA, S.C. - A man killed a 60-year-old woman and shot a store clerk to get cars on his way to see his brother, who was playing football at the University of South Carolina, authorities said Saturday. Demetrius M. Pepper, 24, was arrested outside of the stadium where the team was playing a scrimmage game, Newberry County deputies said. His brother, Nathan Pepper, is a rising junior defensive lineman for the Gamecocks. Deputies said the elder Pepper stole his first car after shooting its owner at a Greenville convenience store around 7:45...

A man found dead on a Homewood street this morning was cut in half when he reached into a car and the driver took off, slamming him into a pole on Hamilton Avenue, police said Pittsburgh Police said the victim, who was identified as Antwon Williams, 45, was selling drugs to the driver of a blue Dodge Neon shortly after 6 a.m. Witnesses told police that the driver accepted crack cocaine but tried to drive away without paying. The seller then reached inside the driver's side window to try to put the car into park, but the driver drove off....

Amid confusion of a new Seminole County Courthouse, 11 citizens were directed to sit in the wrong courtroom to respond to traffic citations. Next door in an adjoining courtroom, an angry Judge John Sloop signed warrants for their arrest for failing to show. The citizens were handcuffed and chained by 15 officers who took them to jail, where they were strip-searched and sat locked up nine hours until 9 that Friday night. On the following Monday, when Chief Judge James Perry asked why he didn’t solve the problem when two judges and a bailiff first alerted him to the mistake...

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Residents of a southern Somalia town who do not pray five times a day will be beheaded, an official said Wednesday, adding the edict will be implemented in three days. Shops, tea houses and other public places in Bulo Burto, about 124 miles northeast of the capital, Mogadishu, should be closed during prayer time and no one should be on the streets, said Sheik Hussein Barre Rage, the chairman of the town's Islamic court. His court is part of a network backed by armed militiamen that has taken control of much of southern Somalia in recent months,...

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Conservation officers who entered the home of a man who sought treatment for a poisonous snake bite found 15 venomous vipers, including cobras and rattlesnakes, inside.

LONDON — A 22-year-old man suffered internal injuries after lighting a small firecracker he had inserted into his buttocks, paramedics said Thursday. The incident took place Sunday, when Britain celebrated Bonfire Night, traditionally marked with fireworks to celebrate the Guy Fawkes' gunpowder plot to blow up Parliament in the 17th century. The man suffered burns and other unspecified internal injuries in the incident in Sunderland, 275 miles north of London. Katherine Shenton, a spokeswoman for the North East Ambulance Service, said a caller had phoned in that the victim was bleeding after the firecracker exploded. Several of the man's friends...

NEW MILFORD, Conn. (AP) - Investigators were trying to determine who tossed a beer keg into a burning barrel at a party, causing a deadly explosion that sent metal shards slicing through a crowd of people, police said. The explosion early Sunday killed Sean Caselli, 22, of New Milford. Seven other people were taken to hospitals with burns and shrapnel wounds, police said. Caselli was struck in the neck by a piece of flying metal. Police Sgt. Lee Grabner said investigators interviewed witnesses Sunday to try to identify the person who threw a quarter-keg of beer into the flames, and...

Dear Friend, I remember when I was back home from Vietnam and veterans were speaking out against the Vietnam war policy, someone yelled at the vets: "You should support the troops." One of those veterans said simply: "Lady, we are the troops." With a war in Iraq gone horribly wrong and a Republican attack machine determined to smear those who speak out, there's nothing more important this fall than electing veterans to Congress who can speak out about Iraq with a special moral authority. And man, do we need them. Recently, John "Randy" Kuhl, a Republican incumbent House member from...

23 September - Support the Troops & Their MissionThe D.C. Chapter of FreeRepublic.com invites all those who support our troops and their mission fighting the war on terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere at home and abroad to join us in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, September 23, 2006, from noon to 3 p.m. on the grounds of the Washington Monument at 17th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW.Announcement here 1 October - Boot MurthaCome to the National VFTT Boot Murtha Rally Sunday, Oct. 1st in Johnstown, PA Location -- Cambria County War Memorial Arena, downtown Johnstown (Murtha's hometown!) Time -- 2:00...

EUREKA, Mont. - A man who committed suicide at a party also killed a 16-year-old girl when the bullet traveled through his head and struck her in the chest, authorities said. Jacob R. Lee, 19, and Lorena Mocko, 16, were found shot to death at around 1 a.m. Saturday, Lincoln County authorities said. Lee shot himself and the bullet passed through him and fatally struck Mocko, Lincoln County Sheriff Daryl Anderson said Tuesday. "It was just a total freak thing," said Jeri Mitchell, a friend of Mocko's mother. Mocko, who lived across the border Canadian border in Fernie, British Columbia,...

Satanists from around the world gathered in Hollywood for a mass to mark June 6, 2006, or "6-6-6," and to mock fears over the date known by dark believers as the number of the beast. The sold-out evening high mass also commemorates the anniversary of the organizing group, the Church of Satan, founded by Anton Szandar La Vey in 1966 who was dubbed "the black pope" by the press. "Satanists from around the globe are converging on that city-of-the-damned known in common parlance as Los Angeles," the group said on its website. The mass, an original three-act dramatic ritual, will...

SEATTLE - Three men are in the hospital with serious injuries after a fireworks accident Thursday. Investigators say the victims were part of a group of 10 or 12 construction workers having a barbeque at the KOA campground off Highway 12 in Lewis County. One of the men came over to the campfire and showed off a powerful firework that was about 5 inches long and an inch thick. Another man tossed it into the fire, but it failed to light, so he reached in to the fire to retrieve it, police say. A family member told KOMO 4 News...

DICKINSON — Police said a woman who ran over her husband with her car Friday night was likely acting in self-defense and that her estranged husband could face criminal charges. The 44-year-old man, who was taken to the hospital after being struck in the driveway of a residence in the 4200 block of Scenic Drive about 8:30 p.m. Friday, was in stable condition Saturday. The incident sparked comparisons to that of Friendswood resident Clara Harris, who ran over and killed her husband in a hotel parking lot in 2002. The outcome of this case appears to be different. Dickinson police...

German police officers are asking for help in tracking down thieves who stole an entire rollercoaster. The 20 ton big dipper, worth more than £13,000, was stolen from a truck that had stopped at a car park in Bischofsheim on its way to a nearby funfair. Local police officer Martin Gruber said: "In all the years on the job I have never heard of a rollercoaster being stolen. "We've no idea what the thieves could possibly want with it, and are appealing to the public for help. The last thing we want is for amateurs to try putting it together."

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Heather Veitch, a tall, shapely blonde, made a career out of baring it all at strip clubs. Now when she walks in a club, it is just to deliver her naked truth about God. ADVERTISEMENT "If you are a Christian, see us in ACTION," she says in a faith-based tease on her website, www.JCsgirls.com, geared toward women in the sex industry as well as men who turn to it. Last month she was introduced on evangelist Pat Robertson's "The 700 Club" as a "holy hottie." At 32, Veitch still has a girlish strain to her voice,...

So maybe it does pay to drive a lot. Back in January, we told you about a Midas contest to see who has the longest commute. Dave Givens of Mariposa, Calif., won the grand prize of $10,000 in gas money for driving 186 miles every day to work. Rick Dow, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Midas, said in a news release that all that gas money sure will come in handy. "Let's face it, he needs all the help he can get," Dow said. Givens, an electrical engineer in San Jose, Calif., drives 372 miles round trip,...

MSNBC reported late Wednesday afternoon that a grand jury would hear evidence against Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-4th Ga.) on Thursday. No word is available on how soon a warrant may be issued against McKinney. The Washington Post reports Capitol police want McKinney prosecuted on a misdemeanor charge of assaulting a police officer. The fourth district congresswoman has said she's a victim of racial profiling and insists she struck the officer after he touched her inappropriately.

CHICAGO - There are far more ads for fast food and snacks on black-oriented TV than on channels with more general programming, researchers report in a provocative study that suggests a link to high obesity rates in black children. The results come from a study that lasted just one week in the summer. Commercials on Black Entertainment Television, the nation's first black-targeted cable channel, were compared with ads during afternoon and evening shows on the WB network and Disney Channel. Of the nearly 1,100 ads, more than half were for fast food and drinks, such as sodas. About 66 percent...

U.S. Representative Cynthia McKinney (D-4th Ga.) is expected to have something new to say about her run-in with a Capitol police officer at a news conference on Monday morning. The incident happened last week. McKinney says she was the victim of racial profiling by Capitol police in the incident. McKinney’s spokespersons say that she will have “something new” to say at a 10:30 a.m. news conference, at the Community Church of Christ on Cascade Road in southwest Atlanta.