A sweet-16 party for a police officer's daughter turned sour when celebrants clashed with party crashers and 200 people began brawling in the street, throwing punches and firing guns. Police officers from six agencies responded to the 911 call placed by the father.

Scientists from the Institute of Food Research in the U. K. may have found an explanation for the healthier bodies of people who eat regularly fruits and vegetables. A fragment of pectin, found in both veggies and fruits, binds to and likely inhibits galectin 3, a protein that has a major role in all stages of the spread of cancer. Professor Vic Morris of the IFR said claims of anti-cancer effects of food are based on population studies. To go beyond it, the institute tried a molecular mechanism and proved it was viable. He explained, quoted by the U. K. Telegraph, "The treatments used by the food industry to modify pectin would emphasize the release of the fragments we've identified. "

A Central Florida woman who was carjacked at gunpoint is still getting over the experience that included the gunman dangling her 10-month-old daughter upside down by her feet outside the vehicle window. The carjacking happened Friday shortly before noon when a gunman ambushed Alyssa Gould in her SUV at an intersection. The carjacker opened the driver's side door and put a gun in her face, then unbuckled her baby and dangled the infant by her feet.

The Golden Gate Bridge, known as much for its beauty as for its notoriety as the bridge from which suicidal people jump, is destined for change. San Francisco officials have decided to put a $50 million stainless steel net under the bridge to catch, or thwart the efforts of would be jumpers.

A four-year-old boy from Watertown City, New York is developing an extra skeleton because of a rare disease and will eventually become stiff for life. Kimberley Hayes, a 4th-grade teacher at Watertown City School District's Knickerbocker Elementary School, revealed to Watertown Daily Times on Thursday that his son, Shane, has been diagnosed with fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP), which affects only 600 people worldwide.