AP - A New York Police Department rookie just couldn't wait to get started. One of the NYPD's newest officers has made his first arrest just minutes after graduating from the Police Academy in a ceremony at Madison Square Garden. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly says 23-year-old Officer Dariel Firpo is "off to a great start."
AP - It must rank among the easiest fires ever to put out. Zurich authorities say police and firefighters were called to the house of an elderly woman early Thursday after she reported her television set was burning. When they arrived, they discovered no signs of fire or smoke.
AP - A northwestern New Jersey man said he was mugged in his driveway by a sandwich-craving bear. Henry Rouwendal said he was packing his car last Friday when he was hit from behind and knocked to the ground. He said the culprit was a black bear who took his Italian sandwich.
AP - A 16-year-old girl thought she heard her mother being assaulted by her boyfriend and rounded up some friends who beat him up, only to learn later that the couple actually were having sex, the woman and police said. The girl misinterpreted the woman's amorous screams, and she and four other teens went to the woman's bedroom in the Torrington home on June 6, police Lt. Bruce Whiteley said Thursday.
AP - Workers at the Frederick County Landfill were surprised by what they found in a large trash bin trucked in from a Goodwill Industries store: a woman who had apparently gotten trapped. "They opened the door and she got out," said landfill manager Ron Kimble.
AP - The Iron County sheriff's office said an inmate tried to escape from a correctional facility by fashioning a fake bomb. Sheriff's Deputy Aaron Pallesen said the 28-year-old inmate cornered an officer in a lobby while holding what looked like a silver device with a red detonator.
AP - A Connecticut woman's close encounter with the mythical beast, Sasquatch or Big Foot, turned out to be nothing more than a boy in a costume. Fairfield police said a woman driving last Tuesday night called police to report that she "almost hit Sasquatch," which was standing in the middle of the road.
AP - Police used a Taser on a pastor and pepper spray to disperse his congregants Wednesday after the pastor allegedly interfered with a traffic stop in the church parking lot. Congregants say they were in the Iglesia Profetica Peniel church for an early morning prayer when pastor Jose Elias Moran went to assist the stopped driver, a church member, by asking the police what had happened.
Reuters - The British military is mystified after what was first announced as a major haul of opium poppy seeds amounted to nothing more than a hill of beans.
Reuters - A housewife from Sleaford in Lincolnshire will be the first of thousands of people to stand for one hour on top of a plinth in London's Trafalgar Square as part of a 100-day "live sculpture" exercise.
Reuters - Europe's highest court on Thursday upheld the right of Dutch and Italian brewers to sell their 'Bavaria' beer in Italy, rejecting a bid by a company making a rival beer with the equivalent name in German to stop them.
Reuters - Air New Zealand has hit on a novel way to make sure even the most jaded flyers keep their eyes glued on its flight safety briefing.
Reuters - After supervising around 3,000 re-strings during the Wimbledon fortnight one might think Roger Dalton could put his feet up with a bowl of strawberries on Sunday and watch the men's singles final in peace.
Reuters - Independence day fireworks sent terrified Congolese sprinting for cover Tuesday in fear that war had broken out again in their eastern city.
Reuters - Spanish police have arrested a man whom they suspect hired a contract killer to murder his boss in a desperate bid to avoid being laid off, newspaper El Pais reported on Tuesday.
