Preliminary studies of the latest outbreak that killed at least 38 Warao Indians in northeastern Venezuela indicate that it may be a type of infectious rabies transmitted by bites from bats, according to indigenous leaders and researchers from the University of California at Berkeley. Though laboratory investigations have yet to confirm the cause, but the symptoms include fever, body pains, tingling in the feet followed by progressive paralysis point to rabies, said the husband-and-wife team of anthropologist Charles Briggs and public health specialist Dr. Clara Mantini-Briggs. The victims also had an extreme fear of water coupled with convulsions before death.

A six-year-old Texas girl whose brain had been partly removed through surgery to save her life from a rare neurological disease returned home for good Thursday. Jessie Hall walked out of Cook's Children's Medical Center, where she had been undergoing therapy after her operation at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland in June. She will continue her therapy at her family's house in Aledo.

The daring mountain lion that entered an Idledale couple's home and killed their dog early Sunday morning was trapped and killed Tuesday. Reports say the lion entered the home through French doors that were left open. Two dogs slept in the bedroom with Mack and Jacquie Anderson, and Jackquie awoke upon hearing a scuffling to see a dark shape she knew was an animal that was not her own.

"Please kill me. " These were the only words muttered in court Tuesday by the man who stabbed to death a bus passenger in Manitoba before beheading the victim and eating his flesh. Vince Weiguang Li uttered the words after shaking his head in response to a judge's question if he wanted an attorney. The judge ordered another hearing on Friday.

The Italian mountain climber who has been rescued after an avalanche hit the world's second highest peak Friday is under the care of a rescue team and waiting for a helicopter to take them out of K2. Marco Confortola, 37, was the last rescued among the 22 mountain climbers washed away by the avalanche. Some of the mountaineers fell to their deaths, others froze, while 11 are still missing and presumed dead by now.