Old Lady Fights Rabid Raccoon And Wins

If somebody told me that my sweet grandma had been involved in an altercation with a rabid raccoon, I must admit that as tough as I know her to be, I would probably be instantly praying that she hadn’t been hurt. However, not for a second would I consider the raccoon’s welfare. I am sure you are all the same but we may have to rethink such scenarios if recent events are anything to go by. It seems that grandmas just got more badass.

Seventy-five year old Cas Overton was attacked by a raccoon on Saturday in the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden near Richmond, Virginia in the United States. Potentially the worst thing about the whole incident could have been that the raccoon had rabies. It didn’t seem to trouble Cas though, who sealed the pesky procyonid’s fate with her bare hands; wringing it’s neck and strangling it death.

There must have been some sense of regret for the lady who described herself as a “terrific animal lover” by Newser. Overton had been in the park engaging in her hobby of bird-watching at the time of the attack. She said that whilst examining some birds in a tree, the raccoon surprised her from a bamboo thicket. She tried to shake off the animal but it soon became clear that this would not be possible. So she went Plan B on that poor raccoon; it picked the wrong grandma to mess with.

Overton said that the small beast "grabbed a hold of my pant leg and bit me at the same time”. This made the old lady angry it seems.

"As I moved backward away from it, I grabbed its neck and I knew that I couldn’t get away from it," she said, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. "If I ran, it would be faster than I would and would just tear me to pieces. So I threw it to the ground and I strangled it—with both hands”……as you do.

“It’s the last thing in the world I would have ever wanted to do, but you know self-preservation kicks in, and I guess a primitive part of my brain just went into operation and that was it,” she added.

When she knew that the raccoon was dead and would no longer fight back, Cas Overton then sought help in case she had contracted anything from it. She was taken in an ambulance to nearby Bon Secours St. Mary’s Hospital where she received her first series of rabies shots.

Reports said that this incident was the first rabies case of the year for the area however, there were several throughout the course of last year, and it is not necessarily an uncommon occurrence.

“We know that these types of incidents do occur in our communities and that we’re prepared to respond,” said Chesterfield Health District director, Dr. Parham Jaberi.a

Flight Forced To Land Due To Stinky Faeces

Have you ever been on board a flight when the smell form the bathroom became so intense that the plane was forced to make a landing for the comfort and safety of its passengers? That would have to be some pretty intensely pungent faeces indeed, but it happened recently to a British Airways flight.

The flight was scheduled to leave London last Thursday night and arrive in Dubai about seven hours later however, just a mere half hour in to the flight, it was turned back for an emergency landing where it began its journey due to what The Mirror reported as being a "smelly poo". Apparently, the smell from the toilet was so bad that it made containing the smell and continuing the flight to its intended destination impossible.

Metro reported that as the stench permeated the plane, passengers began to complain of the uncomfortable smell. The general public first got wind of the incident thanks to a British politician who happened to be on board and subjected to the stench.

Tory political faction councillor Abhishek Sachdev tweeted of what eventually became something of a health and safety issue; “Insane! Our BA flight to Dubai returned back to Heathrow because of a smelly poo in the toilet! 15hrs until next flight… #britishairways” he wrote.

The same councillor later told The Daily Mail that he was not the culprit and could not identify who it was, but he did offer insight in to how the pilot dealt with the situation. “About 10 minutes later he said ‘you may have noticed there’s a quite pungent smell coming from one of the toilets,’” Sachdev recalled. “He said it was ‘liquid faecal excrement’, those are the words he used. He said it’s not a technical fault with the plane, and he was very adamant about that,” explained the councillor.

The plane was said to have made it as far as the airspace over Brussels before it had to turn around and go back to Heathrow Airport. The British Airways flight was forced to return to London and its passengers had to stay in the city for another night. “We’re very sorry for the discomfort to our customers,” a British Airways spokeswoman told Metro.co.uk. “We provided them with hotel accommodation and rescheduled the flight to depart the next day”.

Abhishek Sachdev told The Daily Mail that originally, the passengers on board were informed that their delay would only be a short three-hour wait before another plane would be scheduled to take them to Dubai however, it eventually turned in to a nineteen-hour wait. The councillor, who was travelling with his pregnant wife and two-year old daughter, said that the airline did offer an apology as well as accommodation and food vouchers however, he did say that originally, the ground staff did not appear to be prepared and had told passengers to contact the Civil Aviation Authority for compensation.

Today Is The International Day Of Happiness

It’s only been a couple years since the United Nations General Assembly established an official International Day of Happiness, but it’s already proving to grow in popularity each year.

Today, all kinds of organizations use the opportunity to launch various campaigns involving making sure that the people around you (as well as yourself) are happy, healthy and fulfilled.

Some people share their “happy track”, others post photos with the hashtag of what #HappySoundsLike to them, and there are even numerous flash mobs arranged in major cities all over the world.

At a time where all kinds of political, international, and even environmental tension has got people anxious and stressed, the International Day of Happiness is a chance to remind everyone of the good in people.

The UN has unveiled the “world’s happiest playlist” this year (choosing happy songs for a playlist has surely got to be the best and most fun job at the United Nations, right?) with typical songs like Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” and Jackie Brown’s “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher”.

Popular media site Mashable, on the other hand, has suggested its playlist of sad songs is much more satisfying, albeit depressing.

Various sources are encouraging people to go out and commit random acts of kindness to others, while other sources are offering tips and tricks to achieve true happiness in life.

There are also plenty of mental health quizzes floating around the Internet today, for those of you who feel the need to test yourselves.

Above all though, a common and growing theme for the UN’s International Day of Happiness appears to be that on this day, when someone asks “how are you?”, people should actually stop and think about it for a moment, and answer truthfully, rather than just shooting back with a “good thanks, how are you?”

In any case, it’s uplifting to see that people are taking the spirit of this day seriously, and the annual event is steadily becoming recognized by the entire world in just the few years that it has existed.

Dead Businessman Gets Arrested

If you thought someone you knew was dead and then two years later, you heard a report that he is not dead at all and has just been arrested, how would that make you feel? I guess it would all hinge on your particular relationship to the man. What if he was a businessman who happened to owe you, and a few other people, some money?

This is the situation surrounding a Jacksonville businessmen who was reported to have passed away in Venezuela two years ago. As afar as anybody knew, sixty-two year old Jose Lantigua. Lost his life whilst on vacation in that country in 2013. SO how did he get found and subsequently arrested only recently?

Jose Lantigua was arrested on alleged fraud charges in North Carolina after his life-insurance companies filed a lawsuit which suggested that he was in fact alive and so they should not be having to make payments. At this stage, the specifics of the charges and allegations remain a little unclear however, one thing that has been cleared up is the fact that he is not dead. This follows speculation ever since his disappearance as to whether he had faked his own death or not, after leaving his business millions of dollars in debt.

The lawsuits filed by bot Hartford Life and Annuity Life Insurance Co. alleged that not only is the businessman alive and well (they appear to be correct on that part), but also that a worker was bribed by Lantigua to falsify documents that stated his body had been cremated.

According to The Jacksonville Business Journal, Lantigua’s son accused one of the insurance companies of falsifying their investigation in to his father’s death. The son is reported to have claimed the company lied about his father’s death certificate being revoked by the Venezuelan government.
Interestingly, the insurance company did admit that a lawyer in Venezuela had altered documents to make it appear as though the Venezuelan government had rejected the death certificate. A judge ruled accordingly, saying that the documents had been faked but could not point the finger at who might be responsible.

So Lantigua was stopped in North Carolina recently in the car with his wife. As it turns out, there had been a warrant for Lantigua’s arrest issued about one year ago although there was never an arrest warrant issued for his wife as, up until now, the police couldn’t prove that she knew whether her husband was alive or not.

Lantigua faces insurance fraud charges in Florida involving policies worth $9 million from seven companies.

Bystander Captures Footage Of LAPD Shooting Homeless Man Dead

This video spread across the Internet like wildfire early March, and now people are receiving a bit more insight into what actually happened that day in downtown Los Angeles.

According to recent reports, the policemen present arrived at the scene due to a 911 call regarding a possible robbery. Upon arrival, the officers focused their attention on the victim and he began resisting arrest, provoking one of the officers to use his Taser, which didn’t seem to have much of an effect.

It’s difficult to see clearly in the video, but the authorities are claiming that the man reached for one of the officer’s weapons and a struggle followed, which ended in one of the other officers shooting the man dead.

Five gunshots can clearly be heard on the video, which seems excessive… and there is plenty of debate over whether the man made any kind of attempt to retrieve one of the officers’ guns at all.

Investigators are now using voice enhancement software on this footage to try and ascertain what the police said before the shooting, and this could be eventually be used as evidence if it is decided that the officers did not act in accordance with their professional training.

What do you make of this video? Admittedly, it’s hard to make an appropriate assumption when it’s so out of context, but do you think the police acted accordingly? Or do you think shooting the man dead was more excessive than necessary?

Man Shoots Friend During Argument Over Favourite Beer

Don’t you hate it when you ask your buddy to hand you a beer and he gives you the wrong type? I mean, it’s almost enough to infuriate you to the point where you could shoot him! Hang on, no it isn’t.

As it turns out, it is. A man in New Orleans was arrested last week after an altercation with a friend who had allegedly committed the awful crime of handing his pal the wrong type of beer. The sixty-four year old man is reported to have requested his friend hand him a Budweiser however, the other guy gave him a Busch instead. An altercation is said to have resulted which ended when the unhappy recipient pulled a firearm and shot his friend in the arm whilst the two were drinking in a parking lot in the New Orleans suburb of Harvey.

The man brandishing the gun, Clarence Sturdivant, shot his sixty-six year old neighbour, Walter Merrick. Merrick was shot in the arm and luckily, did not sustain any serious or life-threatening injuries, spokesman for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, Colonel John Fortunato, according to the HuffPost. Fox 8 reported that Merrick was taken to hospital for treatment on his injured elbow.

The shooter left the scene and was pulled over by police a short time afterwards. The deputies found a discharged 20-gauge shotgun cartridge at the scene which matched the cartridges they also found in his truck. It was then that Clarence Sturdivant confessed to the shooting of Merrick.

Various sources say that witnesses have told of how the incident began with an argument over the merits of differing brands of beer and appears to have escalated as a result of differing opinions. Sturdivant told police that it was Merrick who had originally drawn a weapon first by pointing a gun at him, and so he then drew his shotgun in self-defence.

When all was said and done, Sturdivant was not actually charged as a result of the incident however, he was arrested due to an unrelated charge, whilst Merrick received a charge of aggravated assault despite not being found to have a weapon on him whatsoever. Colonel Fortunato also said that no weapons were recovered during the incident.

Sturdivant was taken in to custody by police due to the unrelated charge which stemmed from an earlier failure to appear in court over charges including resisting an officer and interfering with police back in September of 2013. The New York Daily News later reported that the man was released from the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center with a $1000 bond.

Vladimir Putin Emerges After Mysterious 10-Day Absence To Boast About Crimea

There have been some pretty wild rumours flying around in the last week or two since Russian President Vladimir Putin mysteriously disappeared from the spotlight early March, and they were growing wilder by the day.

At 62 years old, some people were questioning his health, others suggested it had something to do with his opposition leader being gunned down only days earlier, and some bolder theories involved some kind of elaborate coup to take over the country!

When he did make his first appearance in 10 days reports said he looked rather pale and definitely had bruises on his face – the latest rumour is that he was hiding away from the cameras until the effects of a botched botox injection had subsided… you can make your own decision on that one.

Anyway, he was certainly present on the one-year anniversary of his nation annexing Crimea, as he made a big public announcement outside the Kremlin in Moscow while tens of thousands of Russian citizens watched on with pride, patriotism, and general happiness that Crimea has apparently been returned to its motherland.

It seems that the West’s sanctions and disapproval of Putin’s decision to take back Crimea haven’t had the slightest effect on Russia’s attitude towards the incident, which continues to be an ongoing conflict in Eastern Ukraine a full twelve months later.

80% of Russians reportedly support Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and view it as a victory over the West, who are persistently trying to push their boundaries into Russia and suppress their way of life.

That being said, many of the people present at the “celebration” seem to have been there only because the bosses at their various workplaces had insisted on it, and the crowd grew significantly smaller within half an hour of the public event commencing.

All in all though, there was huge support for Putin’s statements that Russia is invincible, taking back Crimea was essential to the nation’s “historical roots of our spirituality and our state” and “it’s what makes us one people”.

But enough about Crimea – the important thing is that Vladimir Putin is alive and well!

Or is he…? People are already suggesting that Putin is still gravely ill, and the man speaking to tens of thousands of people on March 18 is simply a robot constructed to maintain the attitudes and values of Russia and its people!

…You can make your own decision on that one too.