1+ week, 1+ day ago (396+ words) Nov. 24 (UPI) -- The Chilean city of Valpara'so has the fastest fixed broadband Internet in the world, according to the Speedtest Global Index, which ranks average connection speeds based on user tests. The port city leads the latest ranking with an average download speed of 398.21 megabits per second, surpassing major cities such as Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, which placed second with 376 Mbps and Lyon, France, which ranked third. In the United States, Los Angeles is the first city to appear in the ranking, in 11th place, followed by New York in 12th. Valpara'so ranked ahead of Chile's capital, Santiago, because it sits in a strategic location for technology companies that use the city as a hub for developing fiber-optic infrastructure for Chile, South America and connections to Oceania. He added that residents of Valpara'so have faster and more stable Wi-Fi....

9+ hour, 45+ min ago (134+ words) Dec. 2 (UPI) -- A bear that was in danger of electrocution on a utility pole in Arizona was rescued by a lineman who poked the animal with a fiberglass stick. Werner J. Neubauer said he responded to the scene in Cochise County after receiving a call that a bear had climbed the utility pole and was in danger of electrocution. Neubauer shut off the power to the pole's equipment and went up in a bucket truck to encourage the bear to descend. A video recorded by his wife shows Neubauer prodding at the bear until it slides down the pole and heads back out into the wild. Neubauer said the incident wasn't his first bear rodeo -- he previously came to the rescue of a young bear spotted lying atop a utility pole in 2021....

1+ week, 5+ day ago (220+ words) Nov. 20 (UPI) -- A cashier at a Family Dollar store in Pennsylvania was in for a surprise when a panicked 11-year-old boy ran in through the front doors, pursued by a bear. Cole Frazee said he was outside the Family Dollar store in Markleysburg while waiting for his father to finish shopping when he spotted the bruin. "I was like, 'I'm probably going to get eaten by a bear,'" Frazee told KDKA-TV. "When it runs after me, I turn around, I run in the store, I'm screaming and stuff. The thing was like a foot and a half away from me. I took a left and the bear went straight." Frazee and the store's cashier jumped up onto a counter to keep watch on the bear's movements. "She grabbed her coat, the keys and the phone and we ran out of…...

3+ week, 5+ day ago (144+ words) Nov. 6 (UPI) -- An Australian snake wrangler responded to a home in Queensland to capture a laundry basket intruder that turned out to be one of the world's most venomous snakes. Summer Woolston, a snake catcher and social media manager for Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers 24/7, was called out to a Cashmere home where a snake wandered in through an open door. The social media post said the snake apparently "wanted to do some washing" and found its way into a laundry basket inside the home. "What are you doing in the laundry basket, sir?" Woolston asks the snake in a video of the encounter. Woolston used a hook and a protective glove to lift the snake out of the laundry and into a bag for safe transport. The snake was "relocated into a beautiful habitat for it to explore," the post…...

2+ week, 6+ day ago (526+ words) Nov. 12 (UPI) -- Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., will be sworn in at 4 p.m. EST on the floor of the House of Representatives on Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., announced. Grijalva won a special election Sept. 23 to fill the vacant 7th Congressional District seat in Arizona after Rep. Raul Grijalva, her father and fellow Democrat, died March 13. Johnson did not swear her in while the House was on an extended recess that started Sept. 19 and lasted until Wednesday amid the federal government shutdown. Grijalva on Tuesday told CNN that she intends to confront the House speaker regarding the delay. "I won't be able to, like, sort of move on if I don't address it personally, and we'll see what kind of reaction he has," she said. "I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to say." Grijalva called the delay in swearing her…...

3+ week, 3+ day ago (169+ words) Nov. 8 (UPI) -- An elderly man slipped and fell 130 feet to his death while visiting Grand Canyon National Park on Thursday afternoon. The slip-and-fall death occurred at about 2 p.m. MST, which caused the Hualapai Nation to request help from the Mohave County Sheriff's Office to recover the man's body from a location in Guano Point, NBC News reported. "A 65-year-old male had slipped and fell over the edge into the canyon and was deceased," the sheriff's office said in a statement. "Search and Rescue responded and located him about 130 feet down on a scree pile." A scree pile is made up of loose and broken fragments of rock that collect at the bottom of a cliff. The Hualapai Tribal Police Department, Hualapai Nation Fire Department and Grand Canyon West Security helped with the recovery of the unidentified man's body. Guano Point is…...