WhiteBoard News for Monday, May 19, 2003

London, England (Reuters):

An adventurer -- dubbed "the Human Icebreaker" for his no-nonsense approach to reaching the Geographic North Pole -- has claimed a new first. 

Towing his buoyant sled behind him, Briton Pen Hadow skied, walked, clambered and swam the 478 miles (770 km) from Canada's northern coast to the pole, arriving on Monday and apparently becoming the first man to complete the feat alone and unaided. 

"The overwhelming immediate feeling is utter relief," he told The Times newspaper, which has been following his expedition, at Resolute Bay in the Canadian Arctic. 

"But I am exhausted. Exhausted," he said. 

Hadow's technique of swimming the frozen waters between ice-sheets in a special immersion suit has set him apart from other explorers. 

"Thus he avoids taking long diversions around the water," explains his Web site, www.polartravel.co.uk. "But he becomes potential prey to any killer whales or polar bears that may be lurking in the deep black water below." 

Hadow, 41, saw no signs of life apart from one small bird and some polar bear footprints during his 64-day epic, which fellow explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes has described as "one of the last great endurance challenges on Earth". 

"Invincible is the word that has come to mind," Hadow's wife, Mary, said on the Web site. 

He received no back-up in the form of air-drops of food or fuel, but he was kept company by an unlikely team: a snow brush called "Mavis" and his 280-lb (127-kg) sled "Baskers". 

At one point Hadow discovered some mysterious human footprints, only to realise he had been walking in circles. 

He had earlier lost one of his skis when he fell through thin ice into the freezing waters beneath, but instead of retreating, he continued on foot. 

Asked if anyone had ever tried to reach the pole on foot instead of skiing, he replied: "I never thought anyone would be that daft." 
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Florence, Oregon (AP):

A man suspected of robbing a bank was arrested after he told the son of the bank manager he had to get out of town quickly and asked him for directions to the bus station, police said. 

Police arrested 48-year-old Sandine LaGrand Friday after the bank was held up earlier in the day. It was not immediately clear how much money was taken. 

The robber entered Klamath First bank in this coastal town and passed a teller a note demanding money. After the teller handed over the cash, the man left the bank and fled on foot. 

A short time later Jared Torgison whose mother is the manager at the bank was on the street across from the bank, when a man approached him and asked for directions to the bus station, explaining that he had to get out of town quickly, police said. 

Torgison, whose mother had told him about the robbery, thought LaGrande looked like the suspect: a white man with short blond hair, wearing a gray sweat shirt and blue jeans. 

Torgison called the bank on his cell phone and told employees to look outside and verify that the man was the one who robbed the bank, police said. 

They did. 

Officers arrested LaGrande a few blocks from the bank and charged him with second-degree robbery. 
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Monte Sacro, Italy (Ananova):

A wanted criminal who had been on the run for three years in Italy has been arrested after a noisy row with his wife.

Luigi Konalova, 30, was held after neighbours called police to report a domestic dispute coming from the flat where he was living.

When officers arrived at the scene in Monte Sacro, Rome, they discovered Konalova was wanted for robbery and receiving stolen goods.

Magistrates had issued a warrant for his arrest three years ago after he failed to turn up for his trial but police had been unable to track him down because he used more than a dozen aliases.

A police spokesman in Rome said: "When officers arrived at the scene they assumed it was just going to be a routine domestic dispute.

"But when they checked identity papers they realised that Konalova was in fact a wanted man and he was immediately arrested.

"If it hadn't been for the fact that he was having a furious row with his wife he would still probably be on the run. He was in effect the creator of his own misfortune but our good fortune."
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Chow
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