NEW YORK – A painting stolen 20 years ago was found lying in trash along a street, and now it could fetch up to $1 million at auction.

Elizabeth Gibson didn’t know anything about the brightly colored abstract work she spotted on her morning walk four years ago on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Sotheby’s auction house will be selling the work next month for the now-widowed original owner.
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PERTH, Australia – An Australian man wearing only his underpants survived a 98-foot fall from his ninth-floor apartment after trying to walk to a neighbor’s balcony while balancing on a plank, police said Tuesday.
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OLYMPIA, Wash. — The owner of a stolen boat took to the air to find his $180,000 pleasure craft.

An hour and a half after Steve Boone rented an airplane and took off from Olympia Airport, he spotted the 34-foot boat, then followed it from above as it was towed along a highway until two people were stopped and arrested Thursday.
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A grandad has just discovered he has been living with a broken neck for 59 years.John Richards, 74, did not know he had fractured vertebrae when he fell from a tree while stealing apples as a 16-year-old in 1948.
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Ed O’Neill’s bank account just got a lot bigger, thanks to a co-worker who told him some “idiot” hasn’t claimed an $800,000 Powerball lottery prize.

O’Neill, 58, who works for the Clinton Chamber of Commerce, bought the ticket for a Jan. 6 Powerball drawing. He told Iowa Lottery staffers he didn’t think to check the results until a couple days afterward when a chamber receptionist pointed out an article in the local newspaper.
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SAN JOSE, Calif. Alarmed by indicators of student stress like cheating and substance abuse a handful of Bay Area schools are reducing an education staple: homework.

Oak Knoll Elementary in Menlo Park has mostly banned homework – except reading, special projects or catch-up work. Palo Alto’s Addison Elementary and the Berryessa School District in San Jose are discussing the issue.
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MAPLEWOOD, Minn. – An airline pilot from Maplewood won a $25,000 lottery jackpot — two days in a row. Raymond Snouffer Jr. matched the winning numbers 11-14-23-26-31 to win Saturday’s Northstar Cash drawing with odds of about 170,000 to 1, Minnesota Lottery officials said.
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