'Mr. Christmas' pulls plug on holiday light display

'Mr. Christmas' pulls plugon holiday light display
KILLINGLY, Conn. -- Christmas just isn't the same for this small eastern Connecticut town that was once set aglow during the holidays by one man and his spirit.
Mervin Whipple, known as "Mr. Christmas" to locals, has decided to pull the plug on his brilliant, gigantic holiday light display that once lured viewers from across the nation.
Partly, it was the pricey bills. But mostly, there just isn't enough Christmas spirit, the once-jolly Whipple said.
"It's a changed world," Whipple said while fighting back tears. "The spirit of Christmas is gone."
Whipple had threatened to close down the display in recent years. But now he says it's official: Whipple's Christmas Wonderland is no more.
More than 1.5 million people from across the country visited the display over its 35-year run. Decorated with 110,000 bright lights and 300 moving figures, including everything from Santa Claus to towering angels, Whipple's home was a holiday tradition and a Connecticut landmark.
Whipple said volunteers began to dwindle over the past few years, and the bill -- $19,000 last year -- had grown too costly. Charging visitors was out of the question, he said.
Men watch as crocodilekills friend in Australia
DARWIN, Australia -- A crocodile killed a 22-year-old man and then kept his body in its jaws while his two friends watched in horror from a nearby tree.
Shaun Blowers and Ashley McGough, both 19, recounted today how the reptile snatched Brett Mann at Finniss River, which cuts through a flooded tropical wilderness about 50 miles southwest of Darwin in the Northern Territory on Sunday.
Blowers said the 13-foot saltwater crocodile also lunged at them, but they scrambled up a tree in the swollen stream. A police search party found them still in the tree 22 hours later.
The three friends had been riding quad bikes along a muddy trail, and stopped by the river to bathe.
Mann was swept away by a strong current. As his friends swam out to help, he was taken by a crocodile that had been lurking in the waters. A police helicopter took the two survivors to Darwin, where they were treated for shock and exposure.
Authorities today searched the river for Mann's remains and for the man-eating crocodile.
Man wants finder's fee
BERLIN -- A German who discovered the body of a 5,000-year-old man frozen in the Italian Alps said Monday he is demanding a finder's fee of up to $300,000.
Helmut Simon discovered the iceman, known as Oetzi, near the Italy-Austria border while on a 1991 hiking trip with his wife. Oetzi's well-preserved body, clothing and tools have given scientists a window on the previously little-known world of copper-age Europe.
Oetzi currently is housed at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy.
Simon told The Associated Press he and his Italian lawyer are seeking an out-of-court settlement with the provincial government of Italy's northern Alto Adige region.
Provincial authorities have given no official response to the demand presented to them last month, but talks are continuing, Simon said from his home in Nuremberg.
Rebels release hostages
VALLEDUPAR, Colombia -- Rebels released four Israelis and a Briton to a humanitarian commission Monday after holding them 101 days in the jungle-covered mountains of northern Colombia, where they endured hunger, isolation and the threat of death.
"We're free! We're free," said Mark Henderson, the British hostage, told The Associated Press over a cell phone as he was flown to freedom aboard a helicopter. He lost 29 pounds while he was held captive.
Gunmen from the National Liberation Army, known as the ELN, kidnapped the five along with three other foreign backpackers from archaeological ruins in the northern Sierra Nevada mountains Sept. 12. One of the hostages, a British teenager, escaped days later. Two other hostages -- a German and a Spaniard -- were released to the humanitarian commission in November.
Associated Press