Author: Darren Smith

A 68-year-old Minnesota woman who had been missing for three days was found alive but trapped up to her ears in mud beside a remote trail, after two friends on ATVs took an unplanned detour and stumbled across her by chance. Kathryn Woessner disappeared on 3 June without any personal belongings near Akeley, Minnesota, around three hours north of Minneapolis, according to the Cass County Sheriff’s Office. Police had classified her as endangered and raised concerns for her safety given her medical conditions. Three days later, friends Adam Sandbeck and Mike Gravalin set out on their ATVs to explore a…

Police in Peru disguised themselves as World Cup mascots to ambush a wanted drug dealer in Lima, exploiting his obsession with football to catch him completely off guard before storming his apartment and seizing a gun, a knife and a stash of drugs. Officers from the force’s Green Squad dressed as Maple the Moose and Clutch the Bald Eagle — the official mascots of World Cup co-hosts Canada and the United States — after intelligence revealed the suspect was, in the words of a police spokesperson, “a die-hard football fan, living and breathing the World Cup fever.” The spokesperson said:…

A man has been jailed for four and a half years after stabbing a fellow holidaymaker three times in the abdomen during an unprovoked attack at Flamingo Land Resort in North Yorkshire, leaving the victim’s family describing the ordeal as “mental torture” that continues to affect them months later. Joshua Donnelly, 22, of Duxford Road, Middlesbrough, plunged a four-inch kitchen knife into the 38-year-old victim’s abdomen shortly after 1am during a chaotic early-hours incident. The victim, a father who was staying nearby with his family, had attempted to calm a domestic dispute involving Donnelly and his partner when Donnelly grabbed…

A major new exhibition tracing 80 years of artistic exchange between South Korea and Japan has opened at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, in Gwacheon, marking the 60th anniversary of normalised diplomatic relations between the two countries and bringing together around 200 works by 43 artists and artist teams. “Road movie: Art between Korea and Japan since 1945” was jointly organised by the Korean museum and the Yokohama Museum of Art, where it first opened late last year and drew approximately 37,000 visitors before travelling to Gwacheon. The exhibition spans the period from Korea’s liberation in…

A family-run department store that has served Warrington for more than a century will close its doors next month, as rising costs, online shopping and the growth of out-of-town retail parks finally bring an end to a business that survived two world wars and a terrorist bombing. Hancock & Wood first opened on Bridge Street in 1914 and has remained on the same site for 112 years, run throughout by four generations of the Hancock family. Director Christopher Hancock said the decision to close had brought “sleepless nights” as he considered how to break the news to staff, but that…

Switzerland goes to the polls on Sunday to decide on a proposal that would impose a hard cap on the country’s population at 10 million — a measure unprecedented among democracies, which has split the country down the middle and reignited a fierce national debate over immigration, identity and Switzerland’s place in Europe. The proposal is backed by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, which frames it as a “sustainability initiative” designed to ease pressure on housing, public services and the environment. It has been opposed by the Swiss government, every other major party, business leaders and trade unions, who have…

Gene Shalit, TODAY Show Film Critic, Dies Aged 100 Gene Shalit, the film critic whose walrus moustache, colourful bowties and love of wordplay made him a fixture of NBC’s TODAY show for four decades, has died at the age of 100, his family confirmed on Friday. “He passed away peacefully today after 100 years of an amazing life,” his family said in a statement to NBC News, adding: “The TODAY show was an extraordinary era for him.” Shalit joined TODAY as a part-time contributor in 1970 before moving into a full-time role three years later, going on to become the…

A 17-year-old girl is in hospital after being stabbed in the neck in a broad daylight attack on a residential street in Brierfield, near Nelson, with armed police swooping on the scene and a 30-year-old man arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. Lancashire Police said officers were called to Wood Street at 3.06pm on reports of a stabbing. A force spokesperson said: “We were called at 3.06pm today to Wood Street, Brierfield, to a report of stabbing. It was reported that a 17-year-old girl had been assaulted and suffered a stab injury to her neck.” The girl’s injuries are not…

Former USA international Alexi Lalas left World Cup viewers stunned after using a crude British slang term to describe Fox colleague James Corden during live coverage on just the second day of the tournament. Lalas, who earned 96 caps for the United States and serves as one of Fox’s main analysts for the World Cup, made the comment during build-up coverage ahead of the opening match between Canada and Bosnia. Host Rebecca Lowe steered the panel — which also included football legends Thierry Henry and Zlatan Ibrahimovic — towards a promotional segment for Corden’s new late-night World Cup show, “After…

A 17-year-old girl has died after the car she was driving veered off the road and crashed into a tree in Kent, leaving two teenage passengers injured, with police now appealing for dashcam footage to help establish what happened. The collision occurred last night when a blue Seat Ibiza Xcellence left the road at a junction between Headcorn and Staplehurst and struck a tree. Emergency services, including paramedics and Kent Fire and Rescue Service, were scrambled to the scene, but the teenage driver was pronounced dead on arrival. Her next of kin have been informed. Police said the two passengers…