One day this past January, Mary Kim Titla’s parents left their home on the San Carlos Apache Reservation in southeastern Arizona and drove across the desert to Phoenix with a single purpose in mind _ getting an up-close glimpse of a long shot named Barack Obama.

A man who believed he bore the “mark of the beast” used a circular saw to cut off one hand, then he cooked it in the microwave and called 911, authorities said.

A 10-year-old Mexican boy dreaded returning to school after Christmas break so much that he glued his hand to his bed. Sandra Palacios spent nearly two hours Monday morning trying to free her son Diego’s hand with water, oil and nail polish remover before calling authorities, police chief Jorge Camacho told The Associated Press from outside the northern city of Monterrey.

Idaho State University has received an $842,000 grant from the Department of Defense to develop a prosthetic hand that, rather than simply being attached, will be implanted and provide a sense of touch and temperature sensation by converting impulses sent to and from the brain.