■UNITED STATES
Aide gave patient nails to eat
A Pennsylvania mental hospital worker has admitted giving four nails to a patient and getting her to swallow them. Athena Marie Sidlar, 28, a former psychiatric aide trainee at Allentown State Hospital, pleaded guilty on Wednesday in Lehigh County Court to reckless endangerment, according to the Morning Call newspaper. Police say that in January, she showed an 18-year-old female patient how to swallow nails. Four nails had to be removed from the patient’s stomach. Sidlar says she has bipolar disorder and swallows nails and other metal objects. Her attorney, Ettore Angelo of Quakertown, said his client is trying to battle her affliction.
■UNITED STATES
Reactor back online
A suburban New York nuclear power reactor is running again after shutting down because of a leak in an oil pipe. Plant spokesman Jerry Nappi says Indian Point 3 went back in service around 6.30am local time on Saturday. It shut down automatically on Thursday night because of the leak. Nappi said no radiation was released. The episode marked the reactor’s fourth unplanned shutdown since May. Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan says the incident probably will trigger more inspection and oversight, though that won’t be clear until after the Indian Point plant’s next quarterly performance assessment.
■UNITED STATES
Horse gives family wild ride
A spooked horse pulling a carriage with seven people aboard took off through downtown Salt Lake City and didn’t stop until it crashed through a police officer’s bicycle and ran into a parked car. Jami Rodriguez and her family from Idaho boarded the carriage on Saturday. She says the horse soon broke into a trot and finally a run. They initially thought the horse was supposed to be running but then realized it wasn’t part of the show, the Deseret News reported. The carriage clipped a bank building and ran over the bicycle of a police officer who tried to help. After several blocks, the horse finally ran into a car. No one was seriously injured. The horse also didn’t appear to be seriously harmed.
■MEXICO
Mariachis set world record
Guadalajara boasts the world’s biggest mariachi band. A total of 549 musicians got together to win the record for the birthplace of mariachi on Sunday, playing several songs in just over 10 minutes. The old record belonged to 520 mariachis who performed in San Antonio, Texas, in 2007, said Francisco Beckman, an organizer of the record-breaking attempt.
■UNITED STATES
Brazen burglar grabs TV
Police in Florida say a burglar who made off with a man’s valuables returned to the home later while investigators were there and snatched what he couldn’t carry on his first trip: a 45kg plasma-screen TV. The burglar had left the TV in the backyard and investigators were going to dust it for fingerprints. But hours after the first burglary and with a Pensacola Police investigator still at the home, the robber came back and took the TV. “They were all very embarrassed,” the man who lives at the house, Steve Fluegge, told the Pensacola News Journal. Police searched the neighborhood with dogs, but couldn’t find the burglar or the TV. Police have offered to pay for the TV.
RSS