Daily Weirdness

The Daily Rotten outdoes itself today:

"A Tacoma woman put a handgun to a firefighter's head and pulled the trigger several times yesterday as he tried to rescue her from a fire she'd set in her own home, authorities said. But the gun was empty because the woman had apparently already used the bullets to shoot her boyfriend to death, Tacoma police said."

"Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe said he may have been a target of an al Qaeda kidnap plot in early 2001, part of a bid by the militant network to 'culturally destabilize' the United States.

"The family of Belfast murder victim Robert McCartney have rejected an IRA offer to shoot his killers. The IRA offered to shoot those directly involved in the 33-year-old's death after a row in a bar on 30 January, and has given the family their names... Both these men have been expelled by the IRA."

"Turkey has said it is changing the names of three animals found on its territory to remove references to Kurdistan or Armenia. The environment ministry says the Latin names of the red fox, the wild sheep and the roe deer will be altered. The red fox for instance, known as Vulpes Vulpes Kurdistanica, will now be known as Vulpes Vulpes... The ministry said the old names were contrary to Turkish unity."

"As Hispanic teens shed the language of their native countries and immerse themselves in American culture, they become dramatically more sexually active, a new study shows... The study... adds evidence to the so-called healthy immigrant paradox, that Hispanics coming to the United States are healthier than second- and third-generation U.S. residents from the same countries.