Johnny Knox Injury: Bears WR Suffers Back Injury, Is Carted Off After Brutal Hit (VIDEO)

Early in the first quarter of the Bears' game with the Seahawks at Soldier Field, Chicago wide receiver Johnny Knox suffered a frightening back injury. Facing a 3rd-and-6 situation during the first series of the team's second drive of the game, Bears quarterback Caleb Hanie fired a pass up the middle to Knox on a slant route. The third-year player reeled it in for a 17-yard gain. However, as Knox attempted to pick up yards after the catch, Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor dislodged the ball. As Knox dove to recover the fumble, he collided with Seahawks defensive end Anthony Hargrove.



The contact with Hargrove bent Knox's back at angle that looked as if very serious injury was a possibility. Initially, the Chicago crowd booed the fumble but soon changed its tune, realizing that Knox may be gravely injured. After being attended to by medical staff on the field for approximately 10 minutes, Knox was placed on a stretcher and carted off the field. He reportedly had movement in his hands and arms as he left the field.

On the play when Knox suffered the injury, the loose ball was eventually scooped up by Seahawks safety Earl Bennet. On the ensuing Seattle possession, Marshawn Lynch would score a rushing touchdown to stake the visitors to an early 7-0 lead.

Runaway Cart: Unmanned Electric Cart At Cowboys Stadium Hits People After High School Football Game (VIDEO)

ARLINGTON, Texas — Seven people suffered minor injuries when a runaway electric cart raced unmanned from an end zone to midfield and plowed into them after a high school football playoff game in Texas.

The incident happened after Spring Dekaney beat Cibolo Steele, 34-14, to win the Texas 5A Division II football title at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington on Saturday night.

Of the seven treated for minor injuries at the stadium, one man with leg abrasions was taken to a nearby hospital for a precautionary examination, Arlington Fire Lt. Darrel Whitfield said Sunday.

The winning head coach was among those bowled over by the cart.

Separately, a Texas sports league official said a male staffer also was injured, not seriously, when the cart raced across field in a matter of seconds during onfield celebrations after the championship game. That official also declined identification.



It was unclear why or how the cart began moving under its own power. Stadium workers were picking up fluorescent orange sideline yard markers and pylons in one of the end zones after the game when the cart unexpectedly took off.

During its race across the field, the cart appeared to roll over the legs of some of those onfield. Afterward, televised broadcasts showed Amendola conducting another interview with a small streak of blood on his left forearm.

Kim Jong Il's Death

The AP has reported that Kim Jong Il passed in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang at the age of 69. He reportedly suffered a stroke in 2008, but had appeared healthy on trips around the Asian continent. The "Dear Leader" was beleived to have diabetes and heart disease, according to the AP.

While the exact future of the North Korean state remains uncertain, Reuters has reported that the country had already begun to transfer power to his son, Kim Jong-un.

While some Twitter users rejoiced over the longtime leader's death, others compared the fate of other remaining dictators, such as Cuba's Fidel Castro. During the last year, the world has seen the demise of Osama Bin Laden and Muammar Gaddafi.

Philippines storm kills hundreds in Mindanao flash floods

Flash floods triggered by a tropical storm in the southern Philippines have killed more than 430 people and left many more missing, officials say.

Many of the victims were asleep when it struck Mindanao island, hitting the cities of Iligan and Cagayan de Oro.

Tens of thousands of people have fled to higher ground, the authorities say.

Benito Ramos, head of the national disaster rescue agency, said reports were still coming in and the casualty figures could rise.

Mr Ramos said the floodwaters had risen alarmingly fast overnight as people slept.

"Massive flooding had been reported over the region, especially in Iligan City and Cagayan de Oro City," he said

Many people in Cagayan de Oro were trapped in their homes as floodwaters rose rapidly
Rivers burst their banks after 25mm of rain fell in 24 hours.



The Philippine National Red Cross Secretary General Gwen Pang said at least 430 people had been killed.

She said 215 people had been killed in Cagayan de Oro and 144 in Iligan.

Large areas were left without power and some domestic flights were cancelled as winds of up to 90 km/h (55mph) swept across the island.

A landslide killed at least five people in the east of the island, the national disaster agency said.

A military spokesman, Colonel Leopoldo Galon, said an entire army division - some 10,000 soldiers - was involved in the rescue efforts around Cagayan de Oro.

Forecasters said the eye of Tropical Storm Washi had passed close to Dipolog City, west of Iligan City, early on Saturday and it was now heading out into the Sulu Sea.

'Ellen Show' Proposal Rejected Video

A man named Jacob Waterdale proposed to his girlfriend live on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" Thursday, but, in an uncomfortable twist, the proposal was rejected.

Between sobs, his girlfriend, Jodie, cried out "I can't!" and "I'm sorry!"



But Ellen's reaction -- awkward laughter -- made viewers question whether or not the proposal was a prank. After the show aired, Twitter buzzed with the question.

TooFab.com reports that the proposal was indeed a hoax, and says "Jacob Waterdale" is actually an "Ellen Show" staffer who helped with a prank last year.

Ellen's YouTube page offers only this confusing explanation: "[The propsal] didn't seem to be going too well, but thankfully, it was the 12 Days of Giveaways!" Maybe the sting of rejection was relieved by the knowledge that Ellen would soon be showering her audience with gifts? Perhaps. But it's hard to tell if the "Ellen Show" proposal was a prank, given the awkwardness of the real-life failed proposals in our slideshow below.

So Cal Edison Shooting: 3 Dead, 2 Wounded, Shooter Confirmed Dead (VIDEO)

IRWINDALE, Calif. — A utility company office worker shot four colleagues Friday with a semi-automatic handgun, fatally wounding two before killing himself in a business park outside Los Angeles, police said.

"As far as we know there was one shooting suspect, period," said Baldwin Park police Capt. Michael Taylor.

The shooting around 1:30 p.m. at Southern California Edison offices forced a lockdown of a large office complex and nearby schools as officers from surrounding cities and the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department's SWAT team responded.

"This is one of the most horrible days in our company's history," said Edison International Chairman and CEO Ted Craver. "We are deeply saddened by today's tragic events."

A man and a woman were wounded by gunfire and were listed in critical condition at local hospitals, said Sheriff's Lt. Holly Francisco.

Three men were killed in the shooting – two bodies were found on the scene and a third died en route to a hospital. Four of the shooting victims were company employees and the fifth was a contract worker.

Craver was careful not to provide identifying details for the victims, saying the company was still working to contact family members.

There was no immediate word on what prompted the gunfire.Cindy Gutierrez, the controller for that company, said employees there didn't hear gunshots and didn't realize anything was amiss until building management announced over the intercom that everyone should stay indoors.

Two nearby schools were locked for about two hours after the shooting and no one on the campuses was hurt.

Irwindale is a small industrial city of about 1,400 residents in the San Gabriel Valley, 22 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. It is home to the Irwindale Speedway auto racetrack and large rock and gravel quarries.

Dutch Catholic church sexually abused thousands of children panel says

AMSTERDAM — Tens of thousands of children have been victims of sexual abuse by the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands since 1945, an independent commission said on Friday, criticising what it called the church's cover-up and cultural silence.
The commission estimated that 10,000 to 20,000 minors were sexually abused while in the care of Catholic institutions such as orphanages, boarding schools and seminaries, between 1945 and 1981, with offences ranging from the very mild to the serious, including rape. After 1981 there were few church-run homes for minors.
It also said that from the end of World War Two until 2010, "several tens of thousands of minors were subjected to mild, serious and very serious forms of inappropriate sexual behaviour in the Roman Catholic Church".



"The (religious) orders were dealing with cases. The idea that people did not know it and administrators did not know it cannot be maintained," said Wim Deetman, a Protestant former education minister and former mayor of The Hague who led the commission.
The report criticised the church for protecting paedophile priests as it tried to put the reputation of the church above care and concern for the victims.
Most of the cases involved mild to moderate abuse, such as touching, but it said that it estimated there were "several thousand" instances of rape.
"Everyone can be shocked that this history has come in this magnitude. Everyone can be taken aback that the Church has lied about this and covered it up," Guido Klabbers from the KLOKK lobby group of child abuse victims told public broadcaster NOS.

Christopher Hitchens Dead Legendary Writer Dies At 62

Christopher Hitchens died Thursday in Houston. He was 62. The legendary writer was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 2010.

His death was announced by Vanity Fair.

Hitchens was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England in 1949. His father, Ernest, a commander in the British Royal Navy, and his mother, Yvonne, a bookkeeper, scrimped and saved so that he could attend the independent Leys School in Cambridge, and later Balliol College, Oxford. They were determined that he would receive a top-notch education and join the upper class, The Guardian reported.

During his time at university, Hitchens studied philosophy, politics and economics, but the more he learned, the angrier he became. Hitchens' disgust with racism and opposition to the Vietnam War led him to the political left. He would eventually join the International Socialists, a faction of the anti-Stalinist left, and participate in political protests against the war.



Faith is the surrender of the mind; it's the surrender of reason, it's the surrender of the only thing that makes us different from other mammals," Hitchens said. "It's our need to believe, and to surrender our skepticism and our reason, our yearning to discard that and put all our trust or faith in someone or something, that is the sinister thing to me. Of all the supposed virtues, faith must be the most overrated."

Even after being diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus in 2010, Hitchens refused to turn to a deity or organized religion for comfort. He made it clear that if anyone ever claimed he had converted at the end of his life, it would be either a lie propagated by the religious community or an effect of the cancer and treatment that made him no longer himself.

"The entity making such a remark might be a raving, terrified person whose cancer has spread to the brain. I can't guarantee that such an entity wouldn't make such a ridiculous remark, but no one recognizable as myself would ever make such a remark," he said.

"There will never be another like Christopher. A man of ferocious intellect, who was as vibrant on the page as he was at the bar," said Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter. "Those who read him felt they knew him, and those who knew him were profoundly fortunate souls."

Minnesota Courthouse Shooting: 3 Injured In Courthouse Shooting, Suspect In Custody

GRAND MARAIS, Minn. -- A local prosecutor is among three people who were injured during a shooting inside a northern Minnesota courthouse.

A hospital spokeswoman says Cook County prosecutor Timothy Scannell was being treated for gunshot wounds Thursday evening at Essentia Health-St. Mary's Medical Center in Duluth. Spokeswoman Beth Johnson says Scannell is in stable condition.

Scannell and two other people were shot earlier Thursday at the Cook County courthouse in Grand Marais (muh-RAY'), a small town near the Canadian border. Authorities say a suspect was quickly taken into custody, though no other details about the shootings have been released.

Another victim also is hospitalized, while the third victim has been treated and released from a local hospital.

Scannell was the prosecuting attorney in a trial this week involving a man accused of criminal sexual conduct.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Three people were shot and injured inside a small northern Minnesota courthouse on Thursday, and a suspect was quickly taken into custody, authorities said.

Gunfire was reported around 4 p.m. at the Cook County Courthouse in Grand Marais, a town about 110 miles northeast of Duluth, State Public Safety spokesman Doug Neville said. No details have been released about the suspect or victims, though no other suspects were being sought.he two-story courthouse, which has just one courtroom, has no metal detectors and visitors aren't searched when they enter the building, Cook County Commissioner Fritz Sobanja said.

"As far as I know, there's no checking for knives or any of that stuff," Sobanja said.

The only proceeding on Thursday's court calendar was a jury trial that began Monday for Daniel Sidney Schlienz, who had been charged with criminal sexual conduct and nonconsensual sex contact. A phone message left at Schlienz's home wasn't immediately returned.

Grand Marais is a town of about 1,300 residents along the shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota's far northeastern tip, near the Canadian border.

Barcelona's Villa fractures leg Video

Barcelona [ Images ] forward David Villa [ Images ] fractured his leg during the Club World Cup semi-final against Al Sadd of Qatar on Thursday, the Spanish champions said.
"Bad news for David Villa and Barca, the striker's left tibia is fractured," Barcelona said on their Twitter feed.
"The player has been taken to the Yokohama Rosa hospital for further tests."
Barca said it was the first injury Villa had sustained since joining the club from Valencia last year.
The news is a blow for Barca coach Pep Guardiola as they pursue titles in the Club World Cup, La Liga [ Images ], the Champions League [ Images ] and the King's Cup this season.
Spain coach Vicente del Bosque [ Images ] will also be concerned as Villa is the country's leading striker looking ahead to the defence of their title at Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine.
The 30-year-old is Spain's all-time top scorer with 50 goals in 81 appearances and played a central role in them winning the World Cup in South Africa [ Images ] last year.



Guardiola, whose thoughts were clearly on the stricken Villa, said he was relishing the chance to take on Santos in Sunday’s mouth-watering final in Yokohama.

“Santos have a great history — they produced Pele,” said Guardiola. “They are still producing great players and will be very dangerous.”

Al Sadd coach Jorge Fossati said: “It was a rewarding experience for my players to play against the best team in the world.

James Harrison Suspended: Steelers Linebacker Out 1 Game For Colt McCoy Hit

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison has carved out a niche as one of the NFL's most feared defenders over the last five years by straddling the line between clean and dirty play.

After one dangerous hit too many, the league apparently has seen enough.

The NFL suspended Harrison for one game following his helmet-to-facemask hit on Browns quarterback Colt McCoy last Thursday, making Harrison the first player to miss game time as a penalty under the league's revamped policy on such collisions.

Harrison's agent Bill Parise said Tuesday afternoon Harrison has already filed an appeal and expects it to be heard later this week by Art Shell or Ted Cottrell, jointly appointed by the NFL and the players' association to hear such cases.

They'll have to determine Harrison's intent when he laid out McCoy late in the fourth quarter of Pittsburgh's 14-3 victory. The 2008 NFL Defensive Player of the Year was penalized for roughing the passer on the play and said Monday he believed the hit didn't warrant further punishment.He's been quiet this season following a turbulent spring in which he took shots at NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, calling Goodell a "crook" and a "devil."

Harrison later apologized, saying his comments were "inappropriate," though both he and his teammates have been critical of the league's crackdown on what it considers dangerous and overly aggressive play.

The Steelers were the only team in the league to vote against the new collective bargaining agreement in August, citing the lack of a proper appeals process regarding fines and suspensions as one of their main concerns.

Now Harrison will need to rely on that process to have his suspension reduced. The odds of a successful appeal are small. Shell declined to reduce the two-game ban given to Detroit Lions nose tackle Ndamukong Suh after Suh stomped on an opponent's arm last month.

Though there has been an emphasis to play by the rules, the Steelers have been fined at least 13 times for illegal hits this season. Safety Ryan Clark was fined $40,000 after being flagged for helmet-to-helmet hits in successive weeks.

Tomlin refused to take issue with the fines or the penalties and doesn't believe it will affect the way the NFL's second-ranked defense plays the game.

Girl In China Gets Run Over By SUV, Still Goes To School (VIDEO)

After reportedly throwing a temper tantrum on her way to school by sitting down in the middle of the street, a SUV ran over a little girl in eastern China, the Associated Press reports.

In an amazing group effort, bystanders lifted the SUV off the 5-year-old child, who was then sent to the hospital. Unfortunately for her, her mother still made her go to school the same day.

Last month, video surfaced of what could be the world's most dangerous to-school commute. According to the Telegraph, the journey is a total of 120 miles, 50 of which cannot be accessed by vehicles. It also includes a particularly dangerous stretch, where the path narrows to only a few inches over a 1,000-foot-high cliff.

Stories like these draw heightened attention to what many like NBC's Rehema Ellis have deemed "a whole culture that really values education."

"Kids there love learning," NBC's Rehema Ellis said. "And in many ways, their success in school is a direct consequence of a whole culture that really values education."

This incident comes after "horrifying" footage surfaced of a 2-year-old girl in China being run over twice, and left to die by passersby. The video shows at least a dozen people walk by the child, clearly noticing her, but not stopping to help. Luckily for the girl in the video above, the two didn't share the same fate.

Justin Bieber Gropes Selena Gomez

The pair were spotted out and about showing their affection for one another in Washington, D.C. today. Justin was in town to perform for President Obama and his family at the 30th annual Christmas in Washington concert. The show will benefit the Children's National Medical Center and also featured performances by Jennifer Hudson, the Band Perry, Victoria Justice and Cee Lo Green.

Tom Brady, Bill O'Brien Argue: Patriots QB Curses At Offensive Coordinator

Setting the tempo with a no huddle offense, the New England Patriots marched down to the Washington Redskins' four-yard line midway through the fourth quarter on Sunday. Already leading, 34-27, the Pats were looking to put the game away when Tom Brady took a third-down snap in the shotgun formation. The two-time Super Bowl MVP dropped back and then threw a pass intended for Tiquan Underwood, who was crossing the back of the end zone. But Redskins cornerback Josh Wilson picked off the pass, giving his offense another chance to level the score.

After the play, CBS cameras caught something even more unusual than a miscue by Brady in the red zone, the New England quarterback lost his cool, erupting at one of his coaches on the sideline. Seemingly in disagreement over the ill-fated pass to Underwood, Brady and offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien got into a heated argument on the sideline. At one point, the Patriots star appears to scream "No sh**!" toward the coach, who didn't back down against the team's star player. In fact, O'Brien brought plenty of his own fire to the exchange as the 34-year-old Brady sat on the bench drinking water. Eventually, head coach Bill Belichick had to intervene and calm everyone down.

After the Pats escaped with a win, the two seemed to clear the air with a hug and Brady accepted the blame during his postgame press conference.

"I threw a pretty bad interception so he wasn't happy about it. It was probably a long line of coaches and players that were pretty pissed at me after that, but Billy got to me first and he let me have it," Brady said. "I deserved it. We're both pretty emotional guys. That's what I deserve. You make bad plays, you're supposed to get yelled at by your coaches."

Double-Amputee Soldier Skydives With Dog

Jumping out of a plane is certainly a memorable activity. Going skydiving with your dog is even more impressive. But one brave U.S. solider trumps both of those feats.

The unidentified soldier in the video, who brought his military working dog Axe along for the ride, is also a double-amputee who lost his feet in combat.

Gizmodo reports the man told DefenseTech, "I am still rocking! For those who haven't heard, I was blown up, with my [military working dog], Axe, Feb 17th of this year. I lost both of my feet, and was back to work in July."

Axe isn't the only dog that goes skydiving. This summer, a pug from California named Otis completed his 64th tandem jump with his owner.

In even weirder skydiving news, a couple in California raised eyebrows for performing a midair sex stunt while skydiving.

Click here for pictures of other heroic military working dogs. Sadly, about five percent of the U.S. military's workings dogs "are developing some form of canine PTSD."

Real Madrid 1-3 Barcelona

X Factor top(5) - Rachel Crow is eliminated! Dramatic ending!