Rescues | featured news

Watch firefighters rescue a 6-year-old girl who accidentally jammed her head between two walls in China.

Two ice floes on the Latvian Coast have broken off into the Gulf of Riga, taking more than 220 people with them. Rescuers scooped up 181 victims by boat from the larger flow that broke off near Riga, while 42 others were rescued by helicopter from a smaller floe near Jurmala. The victims, who were fishing off the ice floes, were whisked away when warmer temperatures and high winds caused the ice to crack and float away from the mainland.

A hiker stranded by a broken leg in a remote part of California's Shasta-Trinity National Forest acted as a doctor first, and a patient second, when the paramedic who flew in to rescue him last week was struck in the head by a helicopter blade.

The FBI, working alongside state and local authorities across the US, rescued 79 minors being held as sex slaves, the agency announced Monday.

Actor Gerard Butler got into a sea of trouble Monday after he was pulled underwater and had to be rescued during production of a new movie about surfing in California. The San Jose Mercury News reported that the 42-year-old Scottish actor was paddling out with three professional surfers when waves taller than 15-feet broke in front of them, sending the “300″ actor and the surfboard he was tethered to under the water.

A 12-year-old boy who spent as long as 20 minutes immersed in the Pacific Ocean surf before he was rescued is amazing his family. "Maybe there is a miracle that's happening here," the boy's father, Chad Ostrander of Spanaway, Wash., told reporters Tuesday.

Mexican federal police rescued 51 migrant hostages who were being held in northeastern Mexico, the country's public security ministry said Tuesday.

Poisonous gases kept rescuers from entering a New Zealand coal mine where a powerful blast trapped 29 workers, as intermittent power outages Saturday frustrated efforts to pump in fresh air.

As the sun rose Wednesday morning, tugboats continued the slow process of pulling the powerless cruise ship Carnival Splendor into San Diego.

A 73-year-old Oregon man traveled three miles in his wheelchair before hunters found him and helped rescue his 61-year-sister after their car got stuck for two nights in the snow.