TAMPA — The first time Jacqueline Wimbush got into a fight and lost a fingertip, doctors managed to save it.

Not this time.

Wimbush, who has a history of brawling, lost the tip of her left ring finger to another woman at a busy East Tampa meat market Monday.

“Right now it’s gone, and there’s nothing I can do,” she fumed Wednesday. Read more »

A special meeting about Dallas County traffic tickets turned tense and bizarre this afternoon.

County commissioners were discussing problems with the central collections office that is used to process traffic ticket payments and handle other paperwork normally done by the JP Courts.

Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield, who is white, said it seemed that central collections “has become a black hole” because paperwork reportedly has become lost in the office.

Commissioner John Wiley Price, who is black, interrupted him with a loud “Excuse me!” He then corrected his colleague, saying the office has become a “white hole.”

That prompted Judge Thomas Jones, who is black, to demand an apology from Mayfield for his racially insensitive analogy. Read more »

GARLAND, Texas (AP) - A Texas man is facing hate crime charges, accused of randomly shooting at motorists in suburban Dallas over a three-day period.

Several people were injured in the incidents in Garland, Mesquite, Richardson and Plano.

Garland police say the suspect is a native of Vietnam. They say he told detectives he was targeting Asians and Hispanics because he had been involved in two altercations with those two ethnic groups months earlier. But not all of the shooting victims were Hispanic or Asian.   MORE>>>

WASHINGTON - More than 1,000 people now are confirmed ill from salmonella initially linked to raw tomatoes, a grim milestone Wednesday that makes this the worst foodborne outbreak in at least a decade. Adding to the confusion, the government is implicating some types of hot peppers, too.

Certain raw tomatoes — red round, plum and Roma — remain a chief suspect and the government stressed again Wednesday that people should avoid them unless they were harvested in areas cleared of suspicion.

But people at highest risk of severe illness from salmonella also should not eat raw jalapeno and serrano peppers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged Wednesday. Those at highest risk include the elderly, people with weak immune systems and infants.  MORE>>>

Meanwhile, behind the facade of this innocent-looking bookstore…. 

NABLUS, West Bank - Israeli troops stormed the shopping mall in this West Bank city Tuesday and ordered it to close, saying the popular facility is linked to the militant Islamic Hamas.

The overnight move was the latest in a widening crackdown on the militant Islamic group in the West Bank, even as Israel observes a cease-fire with the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip. Israel kept a vital Gaza cargo crossing open though Palestinians fired three mortar shells at Israel on Tuesday, violating a three-week-old truce.

Hamas condemned the Nablus operation as “provocative.” Palestinian witnesses said the troops surrounded the Nablus Mall after midnight, sealing the building and posting closure orders in shop windows.   MORE>>>

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran test-fired nine missiles on Wednesday and warned the United States and Israel it was ready to retaliate for any attack over its disputed nuclear projects.

Washington, which says Iran seeks atomic bombs, told Tehran to halt further tests. Iran, the world’s fourth largest oil producer, says its nuclear program is only for electricity.

Iran later announced night-time missile maneuvers, and its missile tests rattled oil markets, helping crude prices to rebound about $2 a barrel after recent falls. Read more »

If Aribert Heim is alive, the Nazi known as Dr.Death may be hearing footsteps. Investigators are chasing leads that suggest the 94-year-old physician, who is accused of murdering prisoners at a concentration camp during World War II, is living near his daughter in Patagonia, Chile. “In the last few days we’ve received information from two different sources, both relating to Chile, which we think has very good potential,” Efraim Zuroff, director the Simon Wiesnthal Center in Jerusalem, tells BBC News. SOURCE>>>>

The debate surrounding the impending Berlin visit of US Presidential candidate Barrack Obama refuses to abate. Even as government of German Chancellor Angela Merkel is skeptical (more…) about allowing the democratic politician to hold a major foreign policy address at the Brandenburg Gate in the heart of Berlin, many other politicians, including some from her own Christian Democrats, are in favor of the idea.

Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit (Shown here with his boyfriend) said he would love to see the candidate hold a major speech in the heart of Berlin. “We will prepare a warm welcome and will undertake all measures necessary so that he can deliver his message in Berlin,” Wowereit said on German television. Many have accused Wowereit, an ambitious Social Democrat politician, of being primarily interested in the rub-off effect of being seen together with Obama, who is immensely popular in Germany. Story>>>>>

Die Kanzlerin und der Vizekanzler liegen über Kreuz - wegen Barrack Obama. Der Us-Präsidentschaftskandidat ist zum Streitthema der Großen Koalition geworden. Denn die Regierungschefin sieht einem solchen Auftritt des Demokraten mit einem “gewissen Befremden” entgegen, sagte Vize-Regierungssprecher Thomas Steg. Merkel sei skeptisch, ob der US-Wahlkampf vor das Brandenburger Tor getragen werden solle. Und nicht nur der US-Wahlkampf: Im vorfeld der Bundestagswahl 2009 darf der Koalitionspartner SPD daruf hoffen, dass sich mit Barrack Obama in Begleitung von SPD-Granden am Btrandenbuger Tor starke Bilder produzieren lassen. (Mehr…)