4 injured when balloon gets stuck over Baltimore
4 injured when balloongets stuck over Baltimore
BALTIMORE -- A balloon ride turned into a scary ordeal for 20 people Saturday when the aircraft got stuck high above the city, then was tossed around by high wind like a pi & ntilde;ata for an hour and a half before rescuers brought it down.
Four people suffered minor injuries in the mishap, which authorities said occurred when wind from an approaching storm caused a winch to fail as it retracted a cable attached to the balloon, authorities said.
"You really needed to hang on," said Kevin Phelps, who was on the balloon with his wife and 6-year-old daughter. "I thought the cable was going to break many times."
Phelps said everyone on the balloon was relatively calm as it swayed wildly from side to side.
The balloon was stuck 350 feet in the air near Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Rescuers were able to get the winch to work slowly -- about four feet a minute -- to bring the balloon down.
Nagasaki pilot dies
MILTON, Mass. -- Charles W. Sweeney, a retired Air Force general who piloted the plane that dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki in the final days of World War II, has died at age 84.
Sweeney died Thursday at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, hospital spokeswoman Christine Johanson said. She did not disclose the cause of death. The Associated Press left messages Saturday at phone numbers listed to the Sweeney family in the Boston suburb of Milton.
Sweeney was 25 when he piloted the B-29 bomber that attacked Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, three days after the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and six days before Japan surrendered.
About 70,000 people were killed in the explosion of the bomb, dubbed "Fat Man." It was the first bomb Sweeney ever dropped on an enemy target.
Sweeney was an outspoken defender of the bombings, appearing on CNN and speaking at colleges and universities.
Sweeney also wrote a book, "War's End: An Eyewitness Account of America's Last Atomic Mission," to counter what he considered "cockamamie theories" that the bombings were unnecessary.
Man accused of assaultinggirlfriend with alligator
PORT ORANGE, Fla. -- A man hit his girlfriend with a 3-foot alligator and threw beer bottles at her during an argument in the couple's mobile home, authorities said.
David Havenner, 41, was scheduled for a bond hearing Saturday on misdemeanor charges of battery and possession of an alligator.
The alligator, which Havenner had been keeping in his bathtub, was turned over to Florida wildlife officials.
Nancy Monico, 39, told investigators that Havenner beat her with his fists, then grabbed the alligator and swung it at her as she tried to escape, sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson said. She said the animal hit her at least once. She also told authorities that Havenner threw empty beer bottles at her, Davidson said.
Havenner's version of the story differed. He told investigators that Monico bit his hand because she was upset that they had run out of alcohol.
Stamp honors Arnold
VIENNA, Austria -- California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is getting a birthday gift in his home country: a stamp in his honor.
The Austrian post office announced on its Web site that the $1.25 stamp will be released on the actor-turned-politician's birthday, July 30. Schwarzenegger, who will be 57, was born in the Austrian village of Thal near the southern city of Graz.
The stamp -- which shows Schwarzenegger in a suit and tie with the American and Austrian flags in the background -- is part of a collectors' series called "Austrians living abroad," the post office said.
Schwarzenegger moved to the United States in 1968 to pursue a career as a body builder and movie star. He made his first visit to Austria as California governor last weekend, when he represented the United States at the state funeral of President Thomas Klestil.
Separatists killed
GAUHATI, India -- At least 25 Indian separatists were killed in an attack by gunmen at a hotel in Dhaka, capital of neighboring Bangladesh, police in India said.
Dhaka's Police Commissioner Ashraful Huda said, however, he had no report of the attack.
"A group of Indian insurgents were apparently holding a meeting at a hotel in Dhaka's Segun Bagicha area when gunmen attacked and killed up to 25 of them," said G.M. Srivastava, police chief of the northeastern Indian state of Tripura.
Tripura shares a 530-mile porous border with Bangladesh. Indian security forces say several separatist rebel groups in the country's northeast have bases inside Bangladesh, from which they stage hit-and-run attacks on Indian targets. Bangladesh has denied such claims.
Associated Press