Other News

Nearly a week after it began, the standoff in Midland City, Ala., where a 5-year-old-boy has been held captive in an underground bunker, has come to an end.

Citing a U.S. official, CBS News reports the "kidnapped child is alive [and the] kidnapper is dead."

CNN reports that an "explosion" was followed by "gun shots" shortly before the standoff came to an end.

State Rep. Steve Clouse said the boy is at a hospital seven or eight miles away from Midland City and he is "relatively healthy."

Remains found under what's now a parking lot in the English city of Leicester have been confirmed to be those of King Richard III, researchers at the University of Leicester announced Monday.

Years of criticism and even a U.S. Supreme Court challenge couldn't force the Boy Scouts of America to admit openly gay members and leaders. But money talks, and after the defections of major donors, the 103-year-old organization is poised to lift its national ban.

Just last summer, the Boy Scouts reaffirmed the ban after a lengthy internal review. Several incidents since then have tarnished the organization's image and fueled an aggressive nationwide protest led by an Eagle Scout.

A few months back, Google released a few of its engineers into the wild with a camera called the Google Trekker.

Maybe that New Zealand environmentalist we told you about — the one who wanted to rid the country of cats because of all the birds they kill — was on to something: A new study published in journal Nature Communications found that cats are some of the most efficient and successful killers.

In all, the study found, cats kill a median of 2.4 billion birds and 12.3 billion mammals a year.

The Boy Scouts of America are considering lifting a national ban on gay scouts and leaders, the organizations spokesman announced.

USA Today reports:

"If this policy shift is approved by the national board meeting at their scheduled meeting next week, it will be a sharp reversal of the Scouts' decade's old national policy banning homosexuals.