Man shoots at firefighters

Sunday, August 20, 2006 Man shoots at firefighters KINGMAN, Ariz. — A man angry at firefighters who refused to rescue a cat from a tree was arrested after he started shooting at the fire crew, officials said. Jeffrey Cullen, 58, was charged with four felony counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, Mohave County Sheriff's spokeswoman Trish Carter said. A three-person fire crew went to Cullen's home Thursday when he reported a tree fire, but found no blaze, Hualapai Valley Fire Department spokeswoman Sandy Edwards said. Instead, Cullen told firefighters he wanted a cat rescued from his tree and knew they would only respond to a fire call, Edwards said. A battalion chief told Cullen to call animal control or wait for the cat to get hungry and come down. Cullen apparently didn't like the response, Edwards said. "He went back into the house, got a small black revolver and came outside shooting," she said. The firefighters and a 12-year-old boy who had come to see the firetruck ran for their lives, Edwards said. No one was injured. Deputies arrested Cullen after a brief standoff and struggle. Fighting kills at least 80 COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Two days of heavy artillery and mortar fire have killed more than 80 Tamil Tiger rebels, Sri Lanka's military said Saturday, and the U.N. warned of an impending humanitarian crisis in areas cut off by fierce fighting. Sri Lanka's air force destroyed a strategic Tamil sea base in the north, killing an unknown number of rebels, said military spokesman Maj. Upali Rajapakse. Despite the continuing violence, Sri Lanka's president told United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan the doors were still open for peace talks with the rebels, the government said. Rajapakse said the separatist Tigers had been using the sea base to launch recent attacks on government positions in the Jaffna Peninsula, which the Tigers claim as the cultural homeland of the country's 3.2 million ethnic Tamils. About 800 rebels and security forces have been killed in fighting in Jaffna since Aug. 11, when rebels made a major push to retake the government-held, Tamil-majority peninsula. Ex-nurse donates kidney TRENTON, N.J. — The former nurse who admitted killing 29 patients in New Jersey and Pennsylvania has donated a kidney to a dying New York man. Surgery on Charles Cullen was performed early Saturday, his court-appointed attorney Johnnie Mask told The Star-Ledger of Newark. Mask said the surgery went well and the kidney is a perfect size because Cullen is so healthy. The kidney is expected to be brought by helicopter to Stony Brook University Hospital on Long Island where it will be donated to a relative of Cullen's friend. Cullen has been waiting about a year to give the organ. He said last year he would skip his sentencing hearing unless he was allowed to donate the organ. In February, a judge agreed to allow the transplant and Cullen appeared before the victims' families the next month. 'Miracle' icon sought ATHENS, Greece — Police set up roadblocks and launched helicopter searches Saturday for a 700-year-old religious icon that was stolen from a monastery in southern Greece. The Icon of The Virgin Mary, which is credited with miracles, was reported missing Friday at the Orthodox Christian monastery of Elona, near the town of Leonidio, 185 miles southwest of Athens. "This is the worst thing that could happen to us, our church and our religion," said Metropolitan Bishop Alexandros of Mantineia and Kynouria. Alexandros described the icon, which measures 16 by 20 inches, as "priceless." Alexandros said he believes the robbers had used climbing equipment to reach the monastery, which is built into the face of a cliff. Destroying mustard gas SALT LAKE CITY — The Army has begun draining and incinerating thousands of containers of mustard gas held in storage at a facility in the Utah desert. The project at the Deseret Chemical Depot, begun Friday, will last six to 10 years. It involves burning about 6,200 tons of liquid blister agent and is complicated by the presence of an estimated 800 pounds of toxic mercury. At one time, the depot housed more chemical weapons than any other U.S. storage site. To comply with the international Chemical Weapons Convention, the U.S. government began weapons destruction there in 1996. The destruction of the mustard gas is the final phase in the project. Mustard gas, which is a liquid at room temperature, causes severe blisters, internal and external bleeding, and strips mucous membranes from airways. Associated Press