Diamond dog coughs up missing wedding ring

STEVENS POINT, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin woman who lost her diamond wedding ring five years ago had given up all hope of finding it after searching high and low.

It turns out her mischievous dog may have had it all along.

Lois Matykowski (mat-ih-KOW'-skee), of Stevens Point, was eating an ice pop two weeks ago when she noticed her granddaughter's treat was gone. Her dog, Tucker, was smacking his jaws. The 10-year-old mutt the family calls the "food burglar" had struck again, swallowing it whole.

The snatched food soon came back up. Two days later, Tucker threw up again. Matykowski tells WAOW-TV (http://bit.ly/TK6fJ5 ) that this time when she went to clean up the mess, she found her missing ring.

Her veterinarian says the Popsicle stick may have dislodged the ring inside his belly.

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Information from: WAOW-TV, http://www.waow.com

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Missing painting sold in HK for $3.7 million may have gone out with the trash

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Woman finds wedding ring missing for five years was in her dog

Kindergartner beats entire school to become spelling bee champ

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A 6-year-old kindergartner in South Jordan, Utah managed to beat students years older than him to win his elementary school’s spelling bee. As reported by KWTX News 10, Kazim Ali survived round after round of Eastlake Elementary School’s spelling bee to emerge as the school’s champion and the first kindergartner ever in the Jordan School District to earn that honor. “I’m good at reading books, coloring,” Kazim said. “I’m in kindergarten, but I really need to go to first grade because um, kindergarten, I passed already.” The feat is quite impressive but when he was asked why he wanted to compete in the school’s spelling bee he revealed, “It is not my idea, that’s my mom’s idea.” Mothers do know best and her son’s spelling prowess is evident when the youngster is able to easily spell out difficult words like “anthropomorphic.” The definitions however are a bit harder. When Kazim is asked what it means, the little boy said, “Well, uh, I have no idea.” Still, Kazim’s father says that his son knows 600 words and there’s no doubt that list is growing. During the school competition Kazim competed against students from every grade. “There was first grade, second grade, third grade and kindergarten. That’s me,” Kazim explained. “I’m only the one that’s the youngest.” Cindy Tingey, Eastlake’s assistant principal, who has been an educator for 22 years said, “I’ve never even heard of a kindergartner making it past the first round.” The first round started with the word “tag,” something Kazim said was, “Yeah, so easy.” Then as each round passed, more children were eliminated. Kazim recalled that at the end, “It was only me and a third grader.” That student received a big word that she misspelled then it was Kazim’s turn, but not before he gave a quick wave to his fans. “She made a word wrong and my winning word was actually “sapphire” and I did it,” said Kazim. The big win turned Kazim into quite the man at Eastlake Elementary. “Almost the whole school knows me,” said the champion. “If you win the spelling bee everybody in your school knows you.” To all those who are wondering what Kazim’s secret to success may be, he says simply, “I learned the most words than anyone in that spelling bee, that’s how I won.” "It was amazingly cool," said Assistant Principal Tingey. "He’s not only a great speller, he's just a cute kid." What’s next for young Kazim? He says that he wants to compete to be the national spelling bee champion, and he is aware that, “Yeah, but it will be very hard.” The rewards, however, are great. Kazim isn’t too shy to admit with a big smile, that he wants to win, “Because you get a lot of money…and a big trophy.”

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Missing Iowa border collie found stuck in a tree

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — A 7-year-old border collie who was missing from his Iowa home for a few days didn't get very far — he only went up.

Laddy the dog was found Sunday morning stuck up a tree two blocks from his Davenport home, the Quad-City Times reported (http://bit.ly/16eQoa1 ).

"I asked where they found him, and the officer said, 'You'll never believe this,'" said his owner, Cynthia Weeks.

Ron Stevenson was working in the yard of his home when he heard a dog. He had previously heard the dog barking, but he didn't want to complain. However, something was different this time.

"I heard a whining, and I knew something wasn't right. This time, it sounded in distress," Stevenson said.

He followed the sound along his driveway and, counter-intuitively, looked up. There was the dog, at least 10 feet up in the tree.

"He was kind of shielded by leaves on the tree," Stevenson said of the dog, who he thinks maybe ran up the oak tree's gradually sloping trunk but then became too scared to run back down.

Stevenson told the newspaper that he called police and accepted one dispatcher's skepticism.

"They got here pretty fast, but I was getting impatient," he said. "I didn't know if the dog would bite me, but I just sort of shimmied up the tree. I grabbed him by the collar and sort of pulled him. I said, 'It's time for you to get out of this tree.'"

A responding police officer had seen fliers about Laddy and knew where the dog lived. He was reunited with Weeks a short time later.

Weeks said she believes Laddy escaped Friday from an invisible electronic fencing system thanks to a non-working battery in his collar. She said his love for squirrels and chasing things probably led him up the tree. Despite a few abrasions on the pads of his feet, he's otherwise fine.

"He was pretty subdued when he got home," she said. "He's been doing a ton of sleeping."

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Information from: Quad-City Times, http://www.qctimes.com

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Remains of New York woman missing for 28 years found in wall

By Francesca Trianni

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The remains of a New York schoolteacher who disappeared nearly 28 years ago have been discovered hidden in a false basement wall in the house where she lived with her husband, police said on Tuesday.

JoAnn Nichols was 55 years old when her husband James reported her missing in 1985, police in Poughkeepsie, New York, said. He died in December of natural causes, they added.

The remains were found when a contractor was asked to clean out the wood-frame house in Poughkeepsie, about 65 miles north of New York City. The house was filled with hoarded items and garbage, they said.

The remains were identified as belonging to the missing woman on Monday through dental records.

James Nichols told detectives he last saw his wife when he left for work at IBM in December 1985, according to Poughkeepsie Journal archives.

Her body was discovered wrapped in a sheet and plastic bag, tied with rope and placed in a fetal position inside a plastic container that was found in a false wall, said Kari Reiber, the county's medical examiner.

The location where she was found was enclosed, which might have helped hide the body's existence, she said.

"There might have not been any odor, even if she was there for a long time," Reiber said.

An autopsy revealed that Nichols, who taught first grade, died of blunt head trauma, Reiber said.

"She was struck in the head," she said. "It is being ruled a homicide."

After Nichols went missing, her husband was never ruled out as a suspect, said Poughkeepsie Police Captain Paul Lecomte.

Nichols taught her last class on December 20, 1985, when school let out for the winter holidays. The next day, she failed to show up for a salon appointment, according to the local newspaper's archives.

The couple had one child, who drowned at age 25, three years before Nichols' disappearance.

(Reporting by Francesca Trianni; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and David Brunnstrom)

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Missing man walks up to news crew reporting on … missing man

A local television news crew reporting on a missing Maine man found him as they were about to shoot a live update near his home.

Robert McDonough, a 73-year-old who suffers from dementia, had been missing for more than 14 hours when he walked past the WMTW News 8 crew camped out on the side of his road in rural Limington.

News 8 reporter Norm Karkos was preparing to deliver a live report on "News 8 This Morning" early Tuesday when McDonough walked into the frame. Karkos did not immediately recognize McDonough, who then identified himself to the stunned TV crew. They notified the Maine Warden Service, which had been searching for McDonough since late Monday afternoon.

The game wardens said they were just about to ramp up their search for McDonough when he returned home.

The man appeared to be in good condition, although Karkos said he spotted "some blood on McDonough's hand."

Robert McDonough (background) approaches the WMTW News 8 crew. (WMTW)

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Back in the USSR? Soviet key document is missing

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — The powerful Soviet Union may still exist after all, at least on paper.

Former Belarusian leader Stanislav Shushkevich says a historical document of 1991 that proclaimed the death of the Soviet Union is missing from the archives.
Shushkevich discovered that the document had gone while working on his memoirs. He said he believes that has been stolen, possibly by a former Belarusian official — probably with the intention to sell to a collector.
"It's hard to believe that the disappearance of a document at a level, but this is a fact," Shushkevich told the Associated Press.
Officials with the Government of Belarus and Russia-dominated Alliance of ex-Soviet Nations confirmed late Wednesday that only have copies.
"We don't know where the original is," said Vasily Ostreiko, head of the archive Department of the Commonwealth of independent States, which has its headquarters in Minsk, the Belarusian capital. "We have a copy of that document. Is certified in accordance with international standards, but it's still a copy. "
Disappearance of the document reflects the chaos that surrounded the 1991 demise of the Soviet Union, a superpower of 300 million people sprawled over nearly a dozen spindles and included what is now in 15 countries.
On December 8, 1991, Shushkevich has hosted Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk to secret talks at a Government hunting lodge near Viskuli in Belovezha forest. The trio signed an agreement stating that "the USSR ceased to exist as a subject of international law and the geopolitical reality", defeating the attempts of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to hold together the Soviet Union.
The agreement also announced the creation of the Commonwealth of independent States, a loose alliance joined by nine other Soviet republics that month.
Gorbachev resigned on December 25, 1991, the Soviet Communist empire that ruled with an iron fist for nearly 70 years has ceased to exist.

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