VICTORVILLE — With candy sales banned on school campuses, sugar pushers are the latest trend at local schools. Backpacks are filled with Snickers and Twinkees for all sweet tooths willing to pay the price.
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BERLIN — A long love story is over at a German zoo: Petra the swan and her swan-shaped paddleboat are parting ways.

Petra, a black swan, became a minor celebrity in 2006 when she became so attached to the boat — which is shaped like an oversized white swan — that she refused to leave its side.
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When Jeff Lewis had trouble buttoning his trousers recently, he didn’t go on a diet or hit the gym. He reached for a new device: “bodyshaping” underwear. Basically, a girdle.

“It took an inch-and-a-half off my waist,” says Mr. Lewis, a 26-year-old events coordinator in Phoenix. “It gave me an instant ego boost.”
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NEW YORK – Heath Ledger’s will leaves nothing to his former girlfriend and their 2-year-old daughter because it was never updated after they became part of his life.
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LONDON – A Buddhist monk from Japan was killed after slipping and falling under the blades of his runaway tractor lawnmower, an inquest into his death has found.
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LONDON (Reuters) – A hearse overturned when the horses pulling it to a south London cemetery stampeded, dragging the carriage and coffin past appalled relatives and sending floral tributes flying.
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Firefighters have called for more protection after a new report revealed a shocking catalogue of attacks against crews who face the daily threat of being ambushed, shot at, stabbed and abused.
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