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A 15-year-old Pakistani girl who jumped from a balcony in northern Italy after refusing an arranged marriage says she wants to become an Italian citizen. "I no longer want to be Pakistani," said the girl, named only as 'Piccola' by Turin-based daily La Stampa. An investigation is being opened into Piccola's desperate attempt to escape the future her parents planned for her - marriage to a teenage Pakistani cousin. "They had agreed to marry me to my cousin, a 16-year-old who I don't love," she said. Piccola is currently in hospital with a broken leg after leaping from her family's...

Police have arrested a Norcross man on child cruelty charges that allege he left his 14-year-old daughter locked on their apartment balcony without food or water for much of the weekend. Calvin Anthony Abram, 33, went out Friday night to celebrate his birthday and left his daughter stranded for most of the weekend on the second-floor balcony at Valencia Park Apartments off Peachtree Corners Circle, according to a police report. Investigators charged Abram with first-degree cruelty to children and reckless conduct. He was in the Gwinnett County Detention Center on Tuesday with bond set at $6,800. A probable cause hearing...

BERLIN (Reuters) - A 43-year-old German man was taken to hospital in critical condition after he fell off a second storey balcony during a spitting contest with his 12-year-old son, police said Friday. A spokesman for the police in the eastern town of Cottbus said the man in Forst had apparently lost his balance after thrusting too far forward in his attempt to outspit his son. He tumbled over the ledge and landed on a balcony of the ground floor apartment, police said. He was taken to hospital in a rescue helicopter.

The 9-month-old, left alone by young babysitters, was dangling from a railing before losing her grip. The baby girl's tiny hand was wrapped around the third-floor railing of a Denver condominium complex, her feet dangling over the sidewalk below. Mary Bussey and her son Brandon, who were on their way to his football game Saturday afternoon, saw the baby hovering above their heads. The 9-month-old girl was crying, left alone while she was supposed to be in the care of her 13- and 10-year-old uncles, Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson said Sunday. The baby's teenage mother left the girl with...

<p>KAANAPALI, Hawaii — A weeklong trip that was supposed to celebrate a year of hard work and success for some 500 cheerleaders began on a tragic note with the death of one of their own.</p> <p>Police were investigating how a high school cheerleader invited to perform at the Hula Bowl (search) college all-star game plunged naked to her death from a ninth-floor hotel balcony.</p>

KAANAPALI, Hawaii -- Two California men were arrested in the death of an 18-year-old New Jersey cheerleader whose naked body tumbled from the ninth floor balcony of a Maui hotel. The two men, whose identities were not immediately released, were arrested Tuesday on charges of second-degree murder in the death of Lauren Crossan, of Randolph, N.J., said Lt. Tivoli Faaumu. Crossan was part of a group from the National Association of American Cheerleaders that was on Maui to participate in Saturday's Hula Bowl college football game. Her body was discovered Monday morning on the grounds of the Hyatt Regency Maui...