Watercooler Stories

Victim's brother says leave shark alone

PERTH, Australia, July 12 (UPI) -- The brother of a surfer killed in a shark attack off western Australia appealed Monday for authorities not to hunt down and kill the maneater.

A helicopter and boat have been hunting for two sharks involved in Saturday's attack on Bradley Smith, 29, but his brother, Stephen, said killing them would be "an act of senseless revenge," The Times of London reported.

"We're still in the process of coming to grips with what's happened," the brother told reporters. "But I don't believe the shark should be killed for the sake of what's happened."

The shark attacked Smith as he was surfing near the town of Margaret River, about 100 miles south of Perth.

The creature described by witnesses as "as big as a car" knocked him off his board and then bit him while he struggled in the water a couple of hundred yards from the shore. Another shark was seen circling nearby.

Wildlife officials suspect it was either a great white shark, or possibly a smaller bronze whaler shark. It was the sixth fatal shark attack in Australian waters since 2000.

Neighbors get in a tiff over batting cage

OVERLAND PARK, Kan., July 12 (UPI) -- A Kansas City neighborhood has voted to form a committee to settle a dispute over whether a batting cage violates deed restrictions.

Keith Hockenberry says his cage, which is 70-feet-by-14-feet, is essentially no bigger than many play structures on his Overland Park neighbors' yards, the Kansas City Star reported Monday.

After a number of neighbors complained about his cage, the homeowners association told him to get rid of it.

He refused and eventually hired a lawyer. The association issued new bylaws that seemed -- to Hockenberry -- to single him out, unfairly.

On Thursday members of the homeowners association met and decided that the board had too much power. Members also voted to create a committee that would work with a law firm on developing more acceptable bylaws.

Anarchists seek to foil Homeland Security

NEW YORK, July 12 (UPI) -- Anarchists have decided to create mayhem at the Republican National Convention in New York, the New York Daily News reported Monday.

Internet chatter on how to bring the city and convention, from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2, to a halt has city, state and federal agencies bracing for false alarms.

And the prospect of having to protect against false alarms by U.S.-based anarchists as well as Muslim extremists enrages law officers.

"Where is the legitimate protest in trying to endanger the public?" Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly asked. "It is the height of irresponsibility."

Among anarchists' Internet suggestions: throw marbles under the hoofs of police horse, use slingshots to sting bomb-sniffing dogs and spend time at a shooting range to absorb the smell of gunpowder to be "detected" as a suicide bomber -- something that could halt trains and force the evacuation of parts of the city or convention.

"It is important that the police call in all possible resources to investigate the situation," said one anarchist posting. "This will result in the maximum disruption. With any luck, Madison Square Garden will be evacuated."

Report: Terror could postpone U.S. vote

WASHINGTON, July 12 (UPI) -- The U.S. government is exploring the steps that would be needed to postpone the November election in the event of a major terrorist attack.

A report in the July 19 issue of Newsweek said the Department of Homeland Security asked the Justice Department last week to determine what the legal mechanism for calling a halt to a national election would be.

While a local primary election in New York was postponed during the Sept. 11 terror attack, federal election officials have told the Homeland Security Department that no agency currently has the authority to put the brakes on a national vote.

DeForest Soaries, the chairman of the newly created U.S. Election Assistance Commission, has suggested Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge ask Congress to pass legislation giving Ridge the authority to make the call in the event al-Qaida follows through with its suspected desire to disrupt the elections.