Botanists are baffled with the discovery of a new species of giant self-destructing palm tree in Madagascar which is said to flower only once in its 100 year life. According to botanist from the Kew Gardens in London, the 60-foot palm which has 16-foot leaves, because the moment it does, it spends so much energy that it dies.

Police in Bethlehem, New York found the bodies of two suicide victims and a woman who failed to kill herself with drug overdose on New Year's Day. The fatalities are believed to be a 73-year-old man and his mother-in-law in her 80s. Both died from overdose of different prescription medicines. The survivor is believed to be the man's 58-year-old wife. They are believed to be have made a pact to commit suicide on Jan. 1 at their house along Stony Brook Drive.

A hundred years after an Edwardian won a bet to travel the world in an iron mask while pushing a baby carriage, his great-grandson is saying he could have lied about the feat. In his 1908 wager with John Pierrepoint Morgan, the founder of JP Morgan Bank, and Lord Lonsdale for the equivalent of $2. 97 million today, Harry Bensley had to travel 30,000 miles across 19 countries while finding a wife.

A plane bound for Jamaica on Tuesday returned to Miami International Airport half an hour after taking off because a passenger argued with a flight attendant. Upon landing, the pilot and crew of the American Airlines Flight 838 referred the passenger to the police, who did not arrest him because he has no criminal record and no physical altercation happened. The man did not reboard the plane when it took off again for Montego Bay.

Police and customs agents in Salt Lake County, Utah on Thursday announced they confiscated 431 pounds of an African drug called khat. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, authorities said they arrested two men connected to the contraband, which consisted of leaves packed in plastic bags. The two men will face federal smuggling charges.