Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Tornadoes Hit Virginia; 200 People Injured

· Three destructive tornadoes tore through central and southeast Virginia late Monday, smashing houses, piling cars on one another and injuring more than 200 people.

The city of Suffolk in the southeastern part of the state was hit hardest -- a twister cut a zigzagging path 25 miles long through residential areas.

Injuries and damage were also reported in Colonial Heights in central Virginia and in the Lawrenceville area in Brunswick County, near the North Carolina border.

· A Portland, Oregon, high school is raising eyebrows with its brow-grooming policy: Shave 'em off or go home.

Some students at Centennial High School have shaved vertical lines into their eyebrows in a trend recently made popular by teen hip-hop artist Soulja Boy. School officials say the mark looks like a gang symbol and that students with the lines can't return to school until they shave off their eyebrows.

Four students have been sent home. One returned with a bandage covering his shaved brow.

· A pair of dinosaur droppings about 140 million years old will go on the auction block today in New York. The rusty-brown mounds, known in scientific circles as coprolite, are expected to fetch more than $350.

"Most people think of dino dung and think, 'Why would I want to have that on my shelf?' " said Thomas Lindgren of Bonhams auction house. "The appeal is that it's from a dinosaur. It's just a great conversation piece."

In case you're wondering, he said the dung "no longer smells."