SEATTLE Seattle police say a man who thought he was ninja was impaled on a metal fence when he tried to leap over it. An officer who was looking for an assault victim nearby Monday night heard the man screaming for help. Police supported him to prevent further injuries until medics arrived and took him to a hospital, where he was in serious condition in intensive care on Tuesday.

COLUMBIA, S.C. The recession is downsizing everything - even South Carolina's Statehouse Christmas tree.

TAMARAC, Fla. Authorities in Florida are searching for an alleged bank robber with "notably bad breath" who asked a teller to fill an orange Halloween bag with cash. The Broward County sheriff's office says the man wore sunglasses when he held up the TD Bank branch in South Florida on Monday morning.

KITTANNING, Pa. Hundreds of rotting deer carcasses in a southwestern Pennsylvania yard are causing a stink among the neighbors. Randy Good of North Buffalo Township has a contract with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to remove the animal carcasses from roads in five counties.

NEW YORK What word sums up 2009? How about unfriend?

WELLINGTON, New Zealand A beverage company has asked a team to drill through Antarctica's ice for a lost cache of some vintage Scotch whisky that has been on the rocks since a century ago.

HENDERSON, Nev. Authorities say they have arrested five people who allegedly tried to rob a Nevada bank by presenting a false federal search warrant which demanded all of the money in the vault. The FBI says that when the Wells Fargo bank manager refused to comply Friday, he was handcuffed and threatened in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson.

CINCINNATI An Ohio man was accused of striking a repo man with his car when he tried to take it back after it was repossessed. Police said 41-year-old Charles Alexander was arrested late Saturday near his home in the small town of Silverton, near Cincinnati. He was held without bond Monday on a felony charge of attempted vehicular assault.

CARLE PLACE, N.Y. Police said a Long Island man upset about a speeding ticket tried to get even with a state trooper by making a prank phone call to his mother. Authorities said Lawrence Demaio, of Carle Place, called the woman about a month after the ticket was issued and told her her son had been badly hurt in a car accident.

DRIGGS, Idaho An 11-year-old boy shot a black bear on his family's front porch after he said it wouldn't leave. The boy was at his home near Driggs, just west of the Idaho-Wyoming border, with his younger sisters last Wednesday when the bear showed up. The youngster said he couldn't shoo it away, so he went and got his gun and shot it.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. Sue Stenhouse spends her days figuring out how Rhode Island officials should calmly deal with disaster. But when a rat scurried through her office, her natural response was to jump on a chair, snap it with rubber bands and threaten to spritz it with Obsession.

TRENTON, N.J. Authorities have stopped trying to capture a wild turkey that calls Interchange 14B on the New Jersey Turnpike home. The bird has been causing havoc for toll collectors and motorists as it runs across toll booths, plays in traffic, and sits atop toll collectors' parked cars.

MIAMI A traveler who arrived at Miami International Airport earlier this month must pay a $300 penalty for trying to smuggle fresh sweet potatoes from Bolivia into the United States by disguising the vegetables as a candy. According to a news release, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists discovered the 18 small sweet potatoes in early November.

PHOENIX A high school librarian in Phoenix says a former student at the school returned two overdue books checked out 51 years ago along with a $1,000 money order to cover the fines. Camelback High School librarian Georgette Bordine said the two Audubon Society books checked out in 1959 and the money order were sent by someone who wanted to remain anonymous.

BELLINGHAM, Wash. Police have arrested a man after he allegedly stole a pencil from a Bellingham store even though he was carrying $600 in cash. The man, 44, was booked into the Whatcom County Jail after police learned he had an outstanding warrant from Everett.

TOLEDO, Ohio An Ohio jeweler says thieves who smashed their way into his store and got away with rings are in for a surprise when they try to sell them. Henry Triplett of Henry's Jewelers in Toledo says what appeared to be thousands of dollars in gold rings in his display cases were actually rings made of brass and worth barely 25 cents apiece.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand A beverage company has asked a team to drill through Antarctica's ice for a lost cache of some vintage Scotch whiskey that has been on the rocks since a century ago.

WASHINGTON An urn containing the ashes of a decorated Korean War veteran has been stolen from a van the soldier's family rented to attend his burial at Arlington National Cemetery.

TORONTO When Canada's transport minister decided to name his cat Thatcher, he likely never thought it would cause quite the stir it did during a gala dinner earlier this week. During a tribute to Canada's military in Toronto, some 1,700 luminaries, including Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, were in the middle of dinner Tuesday night when smart phones throughout the room began to buzz with the news: "Lady Thatcher has passed away."

CARACAS, Venezuela Call it the Bolivarian battle of the bulge.