An appeals court said a Pennsylvania police department was justified in firing an officer because he lost his sense of smell in an off-duty motorcycle accident.
The court said the Collier Township firing was valid because police need their sense of smell to detect substances like drugs, alcohol, hazardous materials, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruled.
David Agostino, 44, suffered anosmia, a partial or full lack of sense of smell, due to head trauma suffered from a 2004 crash in Ohio. Officials in Collier Township, a Pittsburgh suburb i
On Friday, a dam burst in a southwestern suburb of Jakarta, Indonesia, killing at least 52 people and displacing a further 1,490. Officials, however, warn that the death toll will likely increase.
The cause of the accident appears to be due to heavy rains that night, which overfilled the Situ Gintung lake behind the broken dam. "The dam was an old dam, 16 metres deep. Last night, because of heavy rain, the dam could not hold back the water so it broke," said the governor of the Banten province, Ratu Atut Chosiyah.
The breach occurred at appro
The 108-floor central component of the new World Trade Center in New York City has been officially renamed 1 World Trade Center, ending the Freedom Tower moniker it had sported since 2003.
Freedom Tower was envisioned as a symbol of America's victory over terrorism. It is currently on track for completion in 2013, with 10 floors partially finished so far.
Port Authority Chairman Anthony Coscia commented on the change, "It's the one that is easiest for people to identify with — and frankly, we've gotten a very interested and warm reception t
Fourteen have died and four more have been injured after a bus and a truck collided near Moscow, Russia. The bus caught fire in the accident.
"According to our latest information, 14 people died -- the driver of the truck and 13 people on the bus," said a spokeswoman for the Emergency Ministry. The crash occurred in Petushinsky, a district 100 kilometres (60 miles) to Moscow's east.
The crash occurred on the Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod-Ufa highway, and the death toll may yet rise as the burnt-out wreckage makes identifications difficult. The death
Almost 100 cats and one dog were found living in a feces- and filth-ridden New Jersey house, in what local authorities are calling among the worst cases of animal cruelty they have ever seen.
Authorities had to wear masks in order to help them breathe through the stench of urine as they removed cats from the million-dollar, two-story brick house in Chester Township.
"The conditions were absolutely horrific," said Rick Yocum, a lieutenant with the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "There wasn't one inch of that house
Richard Jenkins, an engineer from the United Kingdom, broke a record for the fastest speed attained in a wind-powered land vehicle on Friday.
Jenkins managed to reach a speed of 126.1 miles per hour (202.9 kilometres per hour) in his Greenbird car along the plains of Nevada's Ivanpah Lake.
Jenkins said that he had worked for ten years to break the record, and that "things couldn't have been better" on the day he broke the record. "It's great. It's one of those things that you spend so long trying to do and when it actually happens, it's almos
Relics of 39 saints were found by staff of the British Museum today in a 12-century German portable altar. The altar had been donated in 1902, but had not been opened until today.
It had been opened for a cleaning and a check on its condition, prior to being scheduled for display in a new medieval art gallery at the Museum tomorrow. When it was opened, James Robinson, the curator of medieval antiquities, found a linen cloth which itself contained several dozen bundles of cloth, each of which was labelled.
The back of the altar contained a l
Michael Misick, the Premier of the United Kingdom overseas territory the Turks and Caicos Islands, resigned Monday from his post in the West Indies territory. He is accused of corruption. Oliver Galmo Williams, a member of Misick's Progressive National Party, has been sworn in to replace him as Premier.
Misick had previously announced plans to resign on March 31 but says he wants to allow his successor more time to form a government, even though the UK intends to suspend most of the constitution. A retired British judge is leading a Commission
North Korea may be planning to launch one of its Taepodong-2 missiles in the next few days, having announced earlier that it intends to put a communications satellite into space.
U.S. intelligence officials announced Wednesday that a missile had been rolled out to a pad at its Musudan launch facility. It is unknown whether the missile is in fact carrying a satellite, or if a warhead may be in its place. The missile is reported to be capable of carrying either. Only after a post-launch analysis will officials be able to determine what the miss
Earth Hour 2009 takes place Saturday, March 28, 2009 between 8:30 to 9:30 pm local time when communities will participate by turning out their lights starting in New Zealand and progressing along time zones around the world.
Earth Hour began as a symbolic initiative against global warming by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). "[It is] The largest demonstration of public concern about climate change ever attempted." Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General said.
Earth Hour began in 2007 with around 2 million participating, and increas
United States secretary of state, Hillary Clinton stated in an interview on Mexican radio that Americans are helping to fuel the illegal drug trade between the U.S. and Mexico. Clinton was on a two day tour of the nation.
"Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade. Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the death of police officers, soldiers and civilians. I feel very strongly we have a co-responsibility," said Clinton.
Clinton also gave thanks to and
Two stud bolts of the Sikorsky helicopter that crashed recently off the coast of Canada broke causing first a loss in oil pressure followed by a deadly crash landing on Thursday March 12, 2009 killing 17 of 18 people on board.
"I can safely say now that the stud broke in flight and the loss of oil pressure was a result of that," Mike Cunningham, the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) of Canada's lead investigator said, "So far, we cannot find any other anomaly that would account for that loss of oil pressure. There is further analysis and work
