Two Swedes expecting the golden beaches of the Italian island of Capri got a shock when tourist officials told them they were 650 km (400 miles) off course in the northern town of Carpi, after mistyping the name in their GPS. "It's hard to understand how they managed it. I mean, Capri is an island," said Giovanni Medici, a spokesman for Carpi regional government, told Reuters Tuesday. "It's the first time something like this has happened."
Flight grounded by coffee maker aroma
NEW YORK - The electrical smell that caused a Southwest Airlines Co flight to make an unexpected landing Sunday was caused by a coffee maker in the back of the aircraft, a company spokesman said on Monday. The coffee maker was in the back galley of the Boeing 737 plane. The aircraft was examined and put back into service by 12:30 p.m. EDT Sunday, said Southwest spokesman Chris Mainz.
Stanford and sun?
HOUSTON - Allen Stanford, the Texas financier accused of a $7 billion fraud, should be transferred to another detention facility because there has been no air conditioning in the jail cell where he is being held, his lawyer said in a court filing. "For at least a week, during the hottest part of the summer, with outside temperatures of 100 degrees (38 Celsius) or more, the place where Allen Stanford is being held as a pretrial detainee has had no air conditioning and for part of that time was without power altogether," Stanford's attorney, Dick DeGuerin, said in a court filing on Sunday.
German official under fire for taking limo to Spain
BERLIN - Germany's Social Democrat (SPD) health minister came under pressure Sunday to explain why she took her official limousine, complete with chauffeur, to Spain where the vehicle was stolen. Opposition politicians demanded Ulla Schmidt provide more details about the affair, which could damage the SPD who trail Merkel's conservatives by more than ten points in opinion polls in the run-up to a September 27 federal election.
Teen escapes jail over bomb hoax
LONDON - A British teen-ager who phoned the White House and claimed as part of a "drunken prank" that there was a bomb in the center of New York, escaped jail on Monday. Thomas Hutchinson, 19, from Sheffield, northern England, made a "giggling" call to the White House switchboard after drinking with friends at a barbecue last May, and claimed there was a bomb in Madison Square Garden.
Dillinger pistol sold at auction for $95,600
LOS ANGELES - A small pistol belonging to 1930s gangster John Dillinger has been sold at auction to a private collector for $95,600 -- more than double the pre-sale estimate, the auction house said on Sunday. The Remington .41 caliber Double Derringer was said to have been found hidden in one of Dillinger's socks when he was arrested in Tucson, Arizona in January 1934, said Dennis Lowe of Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas.