Strange Deaths of 1999.

January

Hernan Herrera, 36, survived a head-on crash into a tree in Miami Beach, Florida, on 17 January, but died when he got out of his car and was hit by a utility pole. Police speculate that he was warning other drivers of the downed electrical wires when another car hit the dangling lines, causing the pole to snap. Associated Press - 19 January 1999

February

A French hunter was killed by a deer on 14 February in the Loiret region, 50 miles (80km) south of Paris. The 68-year-old pensioner was charged by a stag and gored in the chest. He died instantly. AFP - 15 February 1999

Egyptian government worker Adel Nasim Gerges, 50, who had waited eight years for promotion, died of a heart attack when he saw his name on a noticeboard listing thousands of promotions. "He fell victim to the dream which had finally come true," as a Cairo newspaper put it. Wolverhampton Express & Star, Halifax Evening Courier - 18 February 1999

A man bled to death in New Delhi after his wife stabbed him for demanding a second cup of tea which she was not ready to serve. AFP - 17 February 1999

Michael Sunday Ejume, 26, a native of Cameroon and an experienced skydiver, apparently shot himself to death as he parachuted from 14,000ft (4,267m) near Rome, Georgia, on 20 February. His body was found in woods with a gunshot wound to the chest. A receipt for a 9mm handgun, bought the day before the jump, was found in Ejume's appartment. The gun was not located: "From that altitude, it would probably go a foot deep in the ground," said Detective Danny Logan. Associated Press - 24 February 1999

Harry Cogram. 84, a veteran of the Normandy invasion, who lived in sheltered accommodation in Peckham, south London, hanged himself after his council threatened him with eviction over rent arrears of three-pence. The coroner, recording a verdict of suicide, added that Mr Cogram "did indeed give his all for us." Daily Telegraph - 25 February 1999

A driver in California was killed when a cow smashed through the windscreen of his pick-up truck and hit him on the head. The 750lb (340kg) heifer had wondered on to a road during a storm and was hit by a car. It was hurled into the air and landed on the truck travelling in the other direction. It was then thrown back onto the road and hit by another truck. Reuters - 26 February 1999

March

Paolo Fasano, 71, from Alessandria in northern Italy, killed his 74-year-old wife Piera for having the television turned up too loud as she watched a music festival. He hit her with the iron from the ironing board and then strangled her with a tie from the wardrobe. "Then he didn't know what to do," he siad, "so I sat down next to her in front of the television. But I lowered the volume." Daily Telegraph - 2 March 1999

Francis Buhagiar, 68, didn't like the breakfast his 76-year-old sister Maria gave him one morning last February - so he shot her dead, a court in Malta heard. The row is believed to have been over burnt toast. Rueters - 3 March 1999

A Finnish man blew himself up in court Monday as judges were giving their ruling in a dispute over a will in which he was a party, police said.

Seven other people were hurt, including one who was seriously injured but whose life was not in danger, police chief Kimmo Pekkala from the harbor town of Hamina in eastern Finland told television news.

``One party was equipped with this bomb and in the middle of the reading of the decision he detonated it,'' Pekkala said. The dead man was in his early 50s. Reuters - 9 March 1999

PHNOM PENH, Three Cambodians were killed when they set off an antitank mine during a drunken game at a provincial restaurant, a newspaper reported Sunday.

A local militiaman, a tax collector and another civilian were drinking in a restaurant in the southeastern province of Svay Rieng last weekend when the militiaman placed the 25-year-old mine under the table, Rasmei Kampuchea reported.

``They started playing with it with their feet and stepping on it,'' the paper said.

Other diners and villagers fled and the mine exploded with a thunderous roar minutes later, killing the three men instantly, it said.

After decades of armed conflict, Cambodia remains strewn with landmines and unexploded ordnance. Accidents are common despite warnings by the authorities not to tamper with the devices. Reuters - 18 March 1999

A Kenyan who stole the collection at a Sunday service in All Saints Cathedral, Nairobi, was killed by a bus when he fled with his loot. The middle-aged man was seen stuffing money in his pockets and ran outside when confronted. Reuters - 9 March 1999

Ritsuko Yamada, 64, a Japanese woman held in custody in Narashino suspected of strangling her husband, Takashi, 60, killed herself on 6 March bi ingesting "industrial quantities" of lavatory paper. She was found in critical condition and rushed to hospital, where she died of asphyxiation. Noticias (Moxambique) - 11 March 1999

Mark Anthony McKnight, 19, from the Cardigan area of Wales, fell from his horse and drowned in the fast-flowing River Teifi when a swan swooped low in front of him. The horse was recovered, but paramedics couldn't revive the teenager. Metro (London) - 29 March 1999

April

On 8 April a mother and her three children were picking white wood anemones in the forest of Simlangsdalen east of Halmstad, Sweden. As they returned home at about 6pm, one of the children, a seven-year-old girl, ran up a hill to pick a few more flowers.

At that moment, a boulder weighing about a ton deposited more than 10,000 years ago during the last Ice Age, came loose and rolled down the slope, crushing the girl to death. Expressen, Sydvenskan (Sweden) - 9 Arpil 1999

Atlanta, An abusive husband killed his common-law wife by setting her on fire, then died in an explosion when he appparently yanked out a natural gas line in hopes of making the blaze look accidental.

Police said William Reese, 45, doused Rosemary Flournoy, 41, with gasoline and set her on fire early Thursday.

As the flames engulfed Ms. Flournoy, Reese apparently wrenched a gas line loose, causing an explosion that killed him and blew out a chunk of wall in their four-unit apartment building. Associated Press - 9 April 1999

Truck driver Ling Yiu-hung, 56, stuck in a Hong Kong traffic jam for three hours, ws killed by exhaust fumes. He was found unconscious in his truck on 28 December 1998 after it ground to a halt in the traffic. The windows were open and the air conditioning on fullblast. An hour before Ling died, he had phoned his boss complaining of feeling unwell and having a headache. A post mortem found he had died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Daily Mail; Express - 9 April 1999

A man died when his sweater got caught around his neck as he tried to break into a Brooklyn shop called the Dum Dum Boutique, police said Sunday.

Terrence Adams, 55, of Brooklyn, was attempting to break into the building in the Flatbush neighborhood from the roof when he apparently caught his sweater on a piece of metal and strangled, police said.

He was found dead at the scene Saturday morning. Police are investigating, but consider the case an accidental death. Reuters - 12 April 1999

A Gwinnett County jogger has been killed by a fallen tree limb. The female victim was jogging near Suwanee around two in the afternoon of 12 April 1999 when a gust of wind apparently blew the limb down on top of her. So far, the victim has NOT been identified. States News Service (Georgia) - 13 April 1999

Efrain Gonzales, 43, was tossing trimmings from a lemon orchard into a wood chipper on Reimen's Ranch in Ventura County, California, on 22 April 1999 when he got pulled into the machine's blades and reduced to a pulp. The machine was capable of grinding trees up to 16in (40cm) in diameter. There was a safety lever, but Gonzales apparently couldn't reach it in time. It was thought one of his long sleeves got snagged in the machine. Los Angeles Time - 23 April 1999

May

Thai snake charmer Heiy Kerdchucherd (or Hie Kerdchoochuay), 55, died when a python he had captured from a neighbour's house coiled itself around his neck and strangled him. He was found dead at his home in Uttaradit province, 260 miles (420km) north og Bangkok. Hong Kong Standard; Metro (London) - 5 May 1999

A young Mexican couple sneaked into the back of a hearse to have sex, but died from carbon monoxide poisoning becuase they left the motor running to keep the air conditioning on.

The bodies of Jose Agustin Noh, 23, an employee of the Perez funeral home in Campeche, and Ana Maria Camera Suarez were found by a funeral home employee the next day. Campeche is the provincial state capital, about 550 miles (885km) east of Mexico City. Edinburg Eve. News - 11 May 1999

A woman died under the wheels of her car as she tried to defrost the windscreen. Jane Thomas, 41, a care assistant from Birmingham, had finished her last shift before Christmas at an old person's home in the city and was scraping her car's windscreen when she leaned through the driver's door to switch on the engine and run the demister. The car, which had been left in reverse with the handbrake off, "leapt into life", knocking Mrs Thomas to the ground. It rolled over her, coming to a rest with the driver's side front wheel on her stomach. Daily Telegraph - 15 May 1999

A boy was fishing with his father on a lake in central Tolima province, Columbia, on 22 May was pulled into the water by an Anaconda and crushed to death in its embrace. Toronto Star - 25 May 1999

A 43-year-old Ukranian man was electrocuted when he used a live electric cable connected to the mains in his house to kill fish in the river Tereblya. When the dead fish appeared on the surface, he went to collect his take before turning off the power. According to the Fakty newspaper, he had intended to cook the fish for a meal to mark the first anniversary of his mother-in-law's death. DPA - 27 May 1999

June

A North Carolina man is dead following a single-car accident on a rural road in Kanawha County. Deputies say 66-year-old Dayton Crookshanks failed to stop at a stop sign... and drove head-on into a hillside. It took rescue crews several minutes to free Crookshanks from his car. He was taken to Charleston Area Medical Center, but he died a short time later. States New Service - 15 June 1999

Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers in New York say they've found just about everything you could imagine on New York City subway trains. But yesterday was the first time they found a human body. A five-foot-six Hispanic man in his 40's apparently got onto a Number One subway train in either Manhattan or the Bronx. He died of an apparent heart attack but his fellow passengers thought he was just sleeping. He was wearing a gold polo shirt and blue jeans but had no identification. An autopsy is being conducted today. States News Service - 15 June 1999.

An unknown man is feared dead after jumping off the Bay Bridge. The man reportedly stopped his car in traffic yesterday morning, scribbled two phone numbers on a piece of paper, and jumped. His body has yet to be found. States New Service (California) - 18 June 1999

Andrew Blyth, a 12-year-old boy scout from Berkshire, hanged himself on 28 May with a rope he had been given to practise tying knots. After his pet mouse had died, he told a friend that his life was not worth living. Daily Telegraph - 18 June 1999

A married man and his secretary were killed by lightning while making love in a rubber dinghy in the middle of a lake near Osnabruck in Germany. Tomas Gormann, 32, and Maria Tlek, 22, were found by a forestry worker next day still locked in a naked embrace. Store chief Gormann's wife, Jan, 36, said: "This was God's intervention". The Sun - 21 June 1999.

Andy Connell (38), a father of four, and his friend Kenneth Knapp (23) were found dead at 11am on 19 May in Connell's Dunlop Tower council flat in the centre of East Kilbride, south of Glasgow.

Connell's sister Nancy found them sitting in armchairs, and thought at first they were asleep. The television in front of them was flickering, a video was in the recorder, their heads were propped up against cushions and their legs spread out in front of them. Both had been dead more than 24 hours.

There was no sign of a forced entry and no injuries on the bodies. The flat had no gas supply, so it wasn't carbon monoxide poisoning; and the post mortem ruled out a drugs link. Knapp had worked in a local pub for a while and Connell was a customer. There was no suggestion that the friendship was in any way unusual.

Six weeks later, the deaths remained unexplained. Sunday Post - 27 June; Scotland on Sunday - 4 July 1999

Dennis Verity, of Bridgend, South Wales, who was partially sighted, fried some daffodil bulbs for lunch on his 88th birthday last October, thinking they were onions.

He became violently ill the next day and died in hospital from daffodil poisoning and a malfunction of the heart. Wales Echo - 29 June 1999

July

Kathleen Yeoman, a 46-year-old divorced mother of two, staged an elaborate fake burglary to win back the affection of Paul Cockerhill, her neighbour in Brixworth, Northamptonshire, on 30 October 1998. She ransacked her house, tipping out drawers and throwing jewellery on her bed. She piled electrical goods in the front room, taped her mouth, put a plastic bag over her heard and tied her hands together. Leaving her front door open, she lay across the front doorstep of her former lover. As she waited for his return from a pub, she vomited and, unable to remove the tape from her mouth as her hands were shackled with self-tightening plastic ties, she choked to death. Police at first treated the death as suspicious, but they reviewed the case when they found that nothing had been taken and she still had £918 in her handbag. Times, Daily Telegraph - 1 July 1999.

Maribel Rosa, 15, a student at Bulkeley High School in Hartford, Connecticut, who had no known medical problems, was rushed to hospital at midnight on 28 June after collapsing in her bedroom and was pronounced dead 30 minutes later.

Three months earlier, on 15 April, her schoolmate Melanie Rosado, an 18-year-old star athlete, again with no known medical problems, died under similar circumstances. The two teenagers, who were only passing aquaintances, lived eight blocks apart in the city's South End. Rosado had gone to sleep complaining of nausea, only to rushed to hospital the next morning with no vital signs. No cause of death has been determined. Hartford (CT) Corant - 5 July 1999

James Dinardi, 44, of Columbia, Missouri, went to Maine on 23 June to pursue a relationship with a woman he had met over the Internet. The woman apparently wanted to end the relationship, so he drove up to her home and cut his neck with a chain saw on her front lawn to prove his love. He died in hospital on 5 July. AP - 7 July 1999

The naked body of Daniel O Dukes, a 27-year-old drifter from South Carolina, was found draped across the back of a killer whale in a tank behind Shamu Stadium at Seaworld Orlando on the morning of 6 July. He had apparently hidden in the Florida theme park after closing time and drowned in the cold, salty water of the 26ft (8m) tank.

The 14-year-old whale, named Tillikum after the Chinook Indian word for friend, and at 11,000lbs (4,990kg) the largest in captivity, may have played with Dukes' 180lb (82kg) body as if it were a toy. The post mortem showed one bite - in Dukes' groin - and that occured after death when Tillikum ripped of his green shorts. The shorts were found at the bottom of the rank. Killer whales, also called orcas, are not naturally aggressive to humans. Reuters - 6 July; AP, Knight Ridder - 8 July 1999

A farmer in the southern Chinese province of Jiangxi was mauled to death by a tiger on a mountain road. The mauling was unusual as the South China tiger is thought to be almost extinct. BBC News - 9 July 1999

A polar bear attacked and seriously injured a 66-year-old man and his 10-year-old nephew at a remote campsite on the western shore of Hudson Bay. Hattie Amitnak, 64, went to their aid, but was killed by the bear. All three victims were inuit, the native people of Nunavut. Evening Standard (London) - 12 July 1999

A man illegally parachuted from the top of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, then apparently drowned after diving into a river to evade park rangers.

The body of Frank Gambalie III, 28, was found in the Merced River on July 7, about 300 feet from where he was last seen by rangers on June 9.

Gambalie was an experienced skydiver and BASE jumper - a person who parachutes off cliffs or other stationary objects. The acronym BASE comes from ``Building, Antenna, Span, Earth.'' Associated Press - 16 July 1999

After neighbours complained of the smell, Josepth L Presenza, 45, of Stanton, Delaware, was found dead on 8 June, sprawled on the floor of his appartment which he shared with 15 poisonous pet snakes. Dr Richard T Callery, the state's chief medical examiner, said Presenza had not died from a snake bite or from drugs; he could find no cause of death because of the "advanced decomposition" of the body. Presenza had been dead about four days. The death was ruled "anatomically undetermined". Wilmington (DE) News Journal - 16 July 1999

A dwarf nicknamed Od has died in a circus accident in northern Thailand. According to the Pattaya Mail, he "bounced sideways from a trampoline and was swallowed by a yawning hippopotamus which was waiting to appear in the next act. Vets on the scene said Hilda the Hippo had a gag reflex that automatically caused her to swallow." The vet said it was the first time the hefty vegetarian had ever eaten a circus performer. "Unfortunately, the 1,000-plus spectators continued to applaud widely until common-sense dictated that there had been a tragic mistake." Melbourne Herald Sun - 16 July 1999

James Larry McAnnally was riding his 11-horsepower lawnmower across his back yard in Jasper, Alabama, on 26 July when it exploded, killing him and his dog instantly and hurling pieces of the mower over the roof of his house. Pieces of the mower were found on the roof of his house and the steering wheel was in the front yard. Other pieces were strewn up to 100ft (30m) away on neighbouring gardans. The explosion was heard up to a mile away. Fire chief John Dutton said gasoline fumes could have caused the explosion, which he described as being unlike anything he had previously seen. Associated Press - 27 July 1999

A middle-aged man in Sri Lanka comitted suicide after arranging his own funeral. A day before he shot himself, Piyasena Kumarpeli, 49, bought a coffin, a tent, 50 chairs and 96 bottles of cold drinks, said a police official A Sareth. Eastern Evening News - 28 July 1999

August

A 42-year-old business man was clubbed to death with a beer bottle when he refused to stop using his mobile phone - which played an irritating melody - in a Hamburg beer garden. He received three calls and also used the phone to contact friends, angering other customers who had complained about the ringing. He was dead by the time an ambulance arrived. The attacker turned himself in a few hours later. The German press claimed it was the first example in Germany of "mobile phone rage". Daily Telegraph - 10 August 1999

Ben Pipes, 58, died after being hit in the neck and chest by a large umbrella dislodged from a hotel pool in Bremen, Georgia by strong winds.Daily Record - 11 Aug 1999

Addel-Nassar Nuredeen from the Cairo working class district of Imbaba lost his temper with his wife Zeinab, when she refused to make him a cup of tea because she was watching the solar eclipse of 11 August. He strangled her in the ensuing quarral.

When he discovered that his wife was limp and lifeless, he carried her to a nearby heart institute, but doctors told him she was dead. Reuters - 13 August 1999

Karate fan and self-employed motor electrician Ian Norton, 25, was killed by the punchbag he had set up in his new basement flat in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. When he rewired his gym room with new light fittings, electric cables made contact with the metal chains from which the bag hung. On 7 August 1999, he returned from a night out and gave his cousin a tour of the flat. He put on the lights in the gym, completing a deadly cicuit. When he casually hit the bag, he was flored by 240 volts and died instantly. Western Daily Press - 14 August 1999

Scott Millet, 20, and his sister, Kimberly Millet, an astronomy buff, were watching the Perseid meteor shower - an annual celestial event - through a telescope on the night of 13 August 1999 outside the family's home in the West Bluff neighbourhood of Newport Beach, California. Scott decided to shut off the street light to improve visibility. He used pliers to open an inspection plate at the base of the light, then he cut into the insulation of the 0.75in (2cm) wire - the diameter of a garden hose. He was knocked on his back by 4,000 volts, and died in hospital shortly afterwards. Los Angeles Times - 14 August 1999

Samual Strickson, 39, of Nebraska, tried to stuff more clothes into his top-loading washing machine by stamping on them. He kicked the on-button, trapped his feet, and died during the spin cycle. Mail on Sunday - 22 Aug 1999

A 17-year-old gymanst bouncing on the sofa at her birthday party was killed when she lost her balance and bounced out of the window of a sixth floor flat in Berlin. Daily Telegraph - 24 August 1999

September

A tired basketball player who left his game to lean against a fence to catch his breath was electrocuted because the metal fence was touching live electrical wires.

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported Tuesday that the other players knew something was wrong with Michael Spurlock late Saturday because they ``heard a buzzing noise'' and ``saw smoke coming off his hand,'' according to Christopher Czubachowski, Spurlock's stepbrother.

Czubachowski told the newspaper he knocked Spurlock, 21, away from a fence pole that powered the court lights and tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate him. Reuters - 1 September 1999

A track worker at Churchill Downs was found dead Wednesday morning after apparently falling from a window.

A Louisville police spokesman said the death was still being investigated, but the 29-year-old Hispanic man may have rolled out of the window while sleeping. The window was about 25 feet above ground.

Police withheld the man's identity pending notification of family.

A Churchill Downs spokesman said track security found the man about 3 a.m. EDT outside a barn some workers used for sleeping.

Police said the man was an employee of Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas. It was not immediately known what position he held in Lukas' stable. Associated Press - 8 September 1999

Three Indonesian cult members were beaten to death by fellow cultists when the 9/9/99 doomsday prediction failed to materialize, the Jakarta Post said Monday.

Like many cults across the country, members were told to prepare for the end of the world at 9 a.m. on September 9. They sold their personal possessions and for nine days before the big day, locked themselves up in their homes.

When nothing happened, the cult members lost control, the newspaper said.

``The members were really mad,'' said Saadi Arsam, village chief of Sukmajaya, east Java.

Police are investigating. Reuters - 13 September 1999

Three cult members from Sukmajaya, east Java, were beaten to death by fellow cultists when the 9.9.99 doomsday prediction failed to materialise. Like many cults accross Indonesia, members were told to prepare for the end of the world at 9am on 9 September. They sold their possessions and locked themselves up in their homes for the preceeding nine days. Reuters - 13 September

Jan Gaddes, 70, of Bembridge, Isle of Wight, correctly predicted his death - at 9pm on 9.9.99 - months in advance of his final illness. Sunday Telegraph - 19 September 1999

A tragic car crash and fire claims the life of a 25-year-old man... despite attempts by his passenger to save him. Police say Brian Milliren and 19-year-old Kandra Edmunds, of Frederick, were driving on the Interstate-270 spur near Bethesda when their car crashed into the woods. They were trapped inside... both with broken legs. Their cries for help were drowned out by traffic noise... so they decided to build a fire to signal for help. It got out of control and torched the car. The woman got out. Milliren was killed. ABC Newswire (Maryland - 20 September 1999

A Monrovia man has been electrocuted trying to retrieve a toy rocket from power lines. The 40-year-old man was shooting off the rockets with his children when one ended up on the lines. Witnesses say the man then used an aluminum ladder and a metal pole in his attempt. He caught on fire. A neighbor working nearby was able to douse the fire and rescue the man. He's reported to have second and third degree burns over 65-percent of his body. ABC Newswire (California) - 20 September 1999

Three satanists killed a young woman in a human sacrifice to appease the Devil so he would stop the earthquakes shaking noth-western Turkey, starting with the massive quake of 17 August. Omer Celik (23), Engin Aslan (18), and Mr Aslan's girlfriend, Ms Zinnur Dincer (19) met Ms Sehriban Coskunfirat (21) in a bar on 13 September and took her to have a drink at the Ortakoy cemetary in Istanbul, where she was stabbed and killed by hammer blows to the head. Celik copulated with the corpse "in accordance with Satanist ritual" Reuters - 22 September 1999

Najib Khoury, a thrifty Syrian, stashed his life savings of £15,000 in a box, which he placed in a hole in the wall. Then he dreamed that he had given all his money to charity. He rushed to check his hiding place and found a family of mice nesting in the box, which was comfortably lined with chewed-up banknotes. Mr Khoury had a heart attack and dropped dead. Express - 25 September

October

A Finnish hunter, aged 23, killed his brother, 18, in a freak accident when a bullet from his gun pierced a grouse and hit the brother about a mile away on its downward trajectory, the Ilta-Sanamat newspaper reported. The hunteraimed at a grouse 30ft (9m) up a tree at a distance of 375ft (114m) while the rest of his party were cooking sausages over a camp fire in central Finland. Times - 12 October; Daily Record - 13 October 1999

Thomas Giacometti, 36, of New York, was building shelves to store cages for his 12 pet pythons on 17 October when he fell off a ladder and onto a drill. The drill bit penetrated the right side of his skull, killing him instantly. Associated Press - 19 October 1999

November

A French zoo director was crushed to death on 1 November by a hippopotamus in rut. Jean Ducuing was cycling around the park in Pessac, near Bordeaux, when Komir, a seven-year-old male hippo, charged through an electrified fence after an employee driving a tractor stopped to distribute food. M Ducing, aged in his 60s, had trained Komir. Posters for the zoo feature a picture of Komir with M Ducing's head in his mouth. AFP - 2 November; International Herald tribune - 3 November

December

An enquiry is underway into the death of a commuter who was decapitated by scaffolding after sticking his head out of a train window.

The man, travelling from Victoria to Canterbury West, was killed when his train entered a tunnel at around 11.30pm last Thursday. Witnesses say he looked ill and may have leaned out of the window to be sick. The Evening Standard - 14 December

An old Harrovian (the place I live - Harrow) aged 19 was torn to pieces by lions in Zimbabwe after ignoring one of the cardinal rules of his camp and sleeping with his tent open, an inquest heard today.

David Pleydell-Bouverie, whose father is Sheriff of Hertfordshire and grandfather was the seventh Earl of Radnor, died in one or two minutes after the attack by a pride of around 12 lions. Other safari members heard a scream - suddenly cut short - and saw Mr Pleydell-Bouverie run from his tent into the bush before he was surrounded and set upon. This is London - 15 December

A worker is dead after one day on the job at a food processing company in Kensington. Occupational Safety and Health Administration officials say the 39-year-old man fell into a meat grinder, fracturing his skull and suffering other injuries. OSHA is investigating conditions at Mrs. Ressler's Food Processing Company. ABC Newswire (Pennsylvania) - 16 December

A workman died yesterday after he fell more than 80 feet while dismantling the set for a Spice Girls concert.

The 28-year-old man crashed through a ceiling at the Earl's Court exhibition centre in south-west London.

He fell while working on rigging and died at about 3.50am. The Daily Record - 16 December 1999.

A woman who kept poisonous snakes, piranhas and other exotic animals has been found dead. Authorities say Anita Finch apparently had been bitten by a rare African gaboon viper that she kept in her Van Nuys trailer. A spokesman for the L-A county coroner says whatever happened, happened very suddenly. Finch was trying to get a job with the Los Angeles Zoo and was an avid snake collector. ABC Newswire (California) / Reuters - 17 December, Associated Press - 18 December

An explosion at a village fireworks factory in central China's Henan province has killed 16 people and injured 10, a state-run newspaper reported.

The blast occurred Wednesday in Duanzhuang village, 500 miles south of Beijing, the Yangcheng Evening News said in a report published Friday.

The report gave no cause for the explosion. It said that apart from an 11-year-old girl who was at school at the time, all members of the family who ran the factory were killed in the explosion.

In a separate accident, two villagers were killed and one injured when their three-wheel vehicle overturned as they were rushing to the site of the explosion, the report said. Reuters - 18 December