At first, the amateur video shows a normal evening in the seething valley town of Apatzingn, in Mexico's western Michoacn state. But as residents and stall owners mix jovially on the sidewalk, the calm is broken by the sudden, sinister appearance of masked men gripping machine guns mounted on more than 50 pickup trucks, Hummers and Jeeps. The gangsters cruise openly down Apatzingn's main drag, a frightening show of force even by the brutal standards of Mexico's ...

In January 1992, deep within a tempestuous stretch of subarctic sea, a Taiwan ship on its way from Hong Kong to the U.S. was beset by foul weather and lost several steel containers overboard. One of these cracked open upon hitting the water, liberating its cargo: 28,800 plastic children's bathtub toys in the shapes of turtles, frogs, beavers and ducks. Several months and many untold thousands of sea miles later, the figurines began to bob ashore along the coasts of Alaska ...

Five years ago, on the night of June 1, 2003, a Phoenix housewife named Stephenie Meyer had a dream: a young woman was talking to a beautiful, sparkling man in a sunlit meadow. The man was a vampire. They were in love, and he was telling the girl how hard it was for him to keep from killing her. Meyer had not written anything much before then. Her main creative outlets were scrapbooking and making elaborate Halloween costumes. ...

Police say guilt was written all over their faces."They probably were just not thinking straight and figured we'll go out and scare the guy or whatever," Cayler said. "[They were] being dumb and combine that with alcohol and it was the perfect storm." Both men were charged with attempted burglary, and McNelly was charged additionally with operating a vehicle while intoxicated. Lawyers for the two men could not be reached for comment. Cayler said he's been fielding calls about the ...

Make a few easy changes around the house for substantial savings. Seal sneaky leaks Seal electrical outlets in the exterior walls of your house. Foam insulating gaskets (less than $1 each) "act as a barrier so conditioned air stays in, rather than leaking out," says Jonathan Passe of the Environmental Protection Agency. Just unscrew the outlet cover, install the gasket, and replace the cover. RealSimple.com: 8 legitimate Earth-friendly seals Go with the flow Install a high-performance showerhead. ...

England soccer fans will only be able to watch Saturday's World Cup qualifier in Ukraine on the Internet after negotiations to broadcast it on television collapsed. Failed sports channel Setanta had been due to televise the game, but following its demise other channels such as Sky, the BBC and ITV, do not want to pay the rights fee, particularly as England have already sealed their place in the finals in South Africa. International sports rights agency Kentaro, who hold ...

A giant oil-trading company is offering to pay thousands of Africans a settlement after a contractor illegally dumped toxic waste in West Africa three years ago. The United Nations says the 2006 dumping in Ivory Coast killed 15 people and sickened about 100,000 others. Trafigura is offering $1,536 (or 950 British pounds) per person to settle a lawsuit stemming from the dumping of 500 tons of toxic waste off Ivory Coast, or Cote d'Ivoire, a company spokeswoman said ...

The owner of a taxidermy school in Blanco, Texas, says he's been receiving more phone calls and attention than he'd like over the identity of a dead roughly 30-pound, mostly hairless coyote-like creature. "I don't know what it is. ... I do know that I have an odd animal," Jerry Ayer said Thursday. He said word spread quickly that he was in possession of an unknown animal -- often speculated in his region to be chupacabras, or mythical creatures, he ...