What Is Odd

A pilot wanted on financial fraud charges parachuted out of his plane over Alabama and allowed the aircraft to crash in neighboring Florida in an apparent attempt to fake his death, sheriff's investigators said on Monday.

Authorities launched a manhunt for the pilot, who survived and checked into an Alabama hotel, and then fled, the Santa Rosa County, Florida, sheriff's office said.

The pilot, identified as Marcus Schrenker, 38, was the only person aboard the plane that took off for Florida on Sunday from Anderson, Indiana.

Over Alabama, the pilot made a bogus emergency call, saying the plane's windshield had imploded and he was bleeding profusely. He then put the plane on autopilot and parachuted out, investigators said.

Military jets were scrambled to aid the plane, a Piper PA-46 Turbo Prop, and the military pilots noticed the Piper's door was open. They followed the empty plane to northwest Florida, where it crashed on Sunday night near the city of Milton, in a swampy area within a few hundred yards of some houses, said Sgt. Scott Haines of Santa Rosa County Sheriff's office.

A man believed to be the pilot approached police near the Alabama city of Harpersville on Sunday night, wet up to the knees and seeking help. He told them he had been in a canoe accident, showed them a drivers license identifying him as Schrenker and was taken by police to a hotel, investigators said.

By the time Alabama authorities learned about the plane crash, he had fled the hotel, Haines said.

"After Schrenker paid for his room with cash, he put on a black toboggan cap and ran into the woods located next to the hotel," he said.

Insurance regulators in Indiana had charged Schrenker with misleading consumers and misappropriating hundreds of thousands of dollars, the Indianapolis Star newspaper reported. On December 31, investigators executed criminal search warrants for three wealth management businesses he owned, the newspaper said.

car games to play

A man in Denton, Texas who was expecting a shipment of tools instead received a 30-pound brick of marijuana that police say is worth more than $10,000. Officer Ryan Grelle says the man opened the box Monday night, realized it contained drugs and contacted police.

The package from the Pharr area was handled by UPS in McAllen on Jan. 6. and apparently was intended for a Dallas address.

The Denton Record-Chronicle reports no such address exists in Dallas, so the package wound up 40 miles to the northwest at the similar address in Denton.

NEW YORK - Barack Obama will be "nerd-in-chief" when he takes office as U.S. president this month, according to Marvel Comics, which is putting him on the cover of its next "Spider-Man" comic.

The special edition of the weekly Spider-Man comic features a six-page story about the superhero saving the day when an impostor tries to take Obama's place as president. It is due to hit newsstands next Wednesday.

Marvel editor in chief Joe Quesada said the idea for the "Spidey meets the President!" edition came from a statement from Obama's campaign listing 10 little known facts about the Democrat who will be America's first black president.

"Right at the top of that list was he collected Spider-Man comics," Quesada told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.

"I was inundated with tons of fan mail saying 'Have you read this?'" Quesada said. "I was just floored, absolutely floored, to find out that the future commander-in-chief was actually going to be the future nerd-in-chief."

Excitement about Obama's election has already fuelled a boom in memorabilia, from posters to front pages of November 5 newspapers announcing his victory. The Spider-Man edition, likely to become an instant collectors' item, features Obama on the cover, smiling and giving a thumbs-up.

Spidey hangs upside down behind him whispering in his ear: "Hey, if you get to be on my cover, can I be on the dollar bill?"

The story is set on January 20 in Washington, where Spidey's alter ego, Peter Parker, is on assignment as a photographer covering Inauguration Day.

When an impostor turns up, Spider-Man leaps into action, greeting Obama with the words: "Hiya, prez-elect! Loved ya in the debates."

Quesada declined to specify how many copies of the Obama issue would be printed but said it was probably slightly higher than usual. "Spider-Man tends to sell out anyway on a regular basis," he said.

Quesada said that since the stories are set in the real world, there is a long history of presidents appearing in Spider-Man comics, from Franklin D. Roosevelt through to George W. Bush, who has appeared on several occasions.

But Obama has the honour sooner than most because he made a point of saying he was a fan, Quesada said. "We thought 'He gave us a shout out, let's give him a shout back.'"

Obama told Entertainment Weekly magazine in August that his favourite superheroes were Spider-Man and Batman because "they have some inner turmoil."

Quesada has his own theory.

"I think one of the reasons why Obama would be a huge Spider-Man fan is probably because of the mantra by which he lives, ... that with great power there must also come great responsibility," he said.

"As president of the United States, I think that's a credo that he should live by."

adult dating in

A drunk electrician started a fire at a world-famous Moscow art museum after he fell asleep while smoking a cigarette, a police source told RIA news agency Sunday.

The blaze at Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery started in an engineering building next to the main gallery Saturday and damaged technical equipment but not any of the museum's valuable art works.

A police source told RIA that a 49-year-old workman had caused the fire, but a spokeswoman for the Moscow museum said it was too early to say what started the blaze.

"According to preliminary reports, the man fell asleep with a lit cigarette when he was drunk," RIA quoted the source as saying.
"He is now in a hospital intensive care unit and it is not yet possible to take a testimony on the accident."

The gallery houses some of the best-known Russian art, from 9th century Orthodox icons to 19th century impressionism and portraits of famous Russian writers.

One of its most famous paintings, by the 19th century painter Ilya Repin, depicts a tortured Ivan the Terrible after he killed his son in a violent rage.

успокоить плачущего ребенка

www.spokesmanreview.com

A Spokane family got an uninvited visitor when a moose calf fell through a basement window and into a bedroom.

The Spokesman Review reports that the baby moose was apparently foraging in shallow snow near the house Thursday when it fell into a deep window well. As it tried to get out and join its mother and sibling, the moose kicked in the window and became trapped in the bedroom.

A state wildlife biologist managed to shoot a tranquilizer dart into the moose's rump. Then he and four others used a tarp to haul the 375-pound baby up a narrow stairway.

Wildlife officers tracked down the calf's mother and sibling and trucked the reunited family to a spot near Mount Spokane and released them.

купание младенца

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. A Long Island surgeon embroiled in a nearly four-year divorce proceeding wants his estranged wife to return the kidney he donated to her, although he says he'll settle for $1.5 million in compensation.

Dr. Richard Batista, a surgeon at Nassau University Medical Center, told reporters at his lawyer's Long Island office Wednesday that he decided to go public with his demand for kidney compensation because he has grown frustrated with the negotiations with his estranged wife.

He claimed he has been prevented from seeing their children, ages, 8, 11 and 14, for months at a time.

"This is my last resort; I did not want to do this publicly," Batista said.

He said he gave his kidney to Dawnell Batista, now 44, in June 2001. She filed for divorce in July 2005, although he claims she began having an extramarital affair 18 months to two years after receiving the kidney transplant, his attorney, Dominick Barbara said.

Douglas Rothkopf, the attorney representing Dawnell Batista, did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

Matrimonial attorneys were quick to shoot down any possibility Batista would succeed.

"I've been in this business over 40 years and I've never heard of that," said Seymour J. Reisman, a Long Island divorce lawyer. "It's not marital property, not a marital asset you can put a price tag on."

Manhattan attorney Susan Moss said, "The good doctor is out of luck and out a kidney. This is similar to cases where a husband wants to be repaid for the cost of breast implants and the such. Our judges are not willing to value such assets, so to speak."

Batista, 49, said he has no regrets about donating the kidney, only about the failed marriage. The couple was married in 1990 and lived in a million-dollar home in Massapequa. They met while he was working at a hospital and she was training to be a nurse.

He still recalls the day after the surgery took place.

"There is no greater feeling on this planet. As God is my witness, I felt as if I could put my arm around Jesus Christ. It was an unbelievable; I was walking on a cloud.

To this day I would still do it again."