Yeti

Members of a TV production team may have found the footprints of a yeti in Nepal. During my travels I never saw an abominable snowman in Nepal. However, I once married an abominable woman in the U.S.

Veterinarians

Voice of America: "There is a shortage of large-animal veterinarians in the United States, and experts say the shortage is projected to grow even worse."

Combat

In southern India a bull elephant suffered fatal injuries during a fight with another tusker near a banana plantation.

Black Mamba

A black mamba bit a British soldier in Kenya.

Watson and the Shark

The National Gallery of Art has the story behind Ameican artist John Singleton Copley's famous painting Watson and the Shark.

Family Tree

"Research published in this week’s Science journal shows that some of our closest extinct relatives had more in common with gorillas than previously thought," says a press release from University College London.

Pink Shirts

The BBC reports: "Clothing stores in Thailand have seen a rush to buy pink shirts, thanks to a fashion craze sparked by the country's King Bhumibol Adulyadej."

Cattleya Orchid

Brazil, 1871
Artist: Martin Johnson Heade, American, 1819-1904

Grizzly Bear

A grizzly bear killed of a 51-year-old Canadian hunter.

The man apparently went down fighting. He fired his weapon before his death.

Gunfire

Rangers shot and killed two poachers during a gunfight at Ruwenzori Mountains National Park in Uganda.

Grave Robbers

Scott Carney: "Medical students across the world rely on anatomical models to become informed doctors. What many don't realize is that a large number of these models are stolen from graves in Calcutta, India."

Dr. Death

To Nazi hunters, Dr. Death is the No. 1 target in South America. The bounty for his capture is USD 448,000.

Previous: Last Hunt

Dead Primates

A British zoo executed two rare monkeys.

Navies

Navies from 20 countries are searching for the elusive mother ships of Somali pirates.

Shangri-La

Shangri-La is no longer a paradise.

Dark Frontier

Brazilian forest, 1864

Artist: Martin Johnson Heade, American, 1819-1904

Four Elephants

Four wild elephants ravaged three huts at a village in the Indian state of West Bengal. The animals also destroyed crops.

Baboons

From Russian news agency RIA Novosti:

Wild baboons have invaded a district in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, making the residents' life a misery, the Al-Watan newspaper said Wednesday.

The baboons took up residence in an abandoned building about a month ago and started raiding a local market in search for food. Locals also complain that they harass children and scatter litter from garbage cans. However, there have been no incidents of people being attacked by the monkeys so far.

"It is like living in a forest," the newspaper quotes a local resident as saying. "Monkeys walk the streets day and night."

Local authorities are currently drafting a set of measures to expel the intruders from the capital.

The monkeys, whose natural habitat lies in forest-covered mountains in the country's south, have never before appeared in Riyadh. Local scientists cite increasing garbage in the city as a possible reason for their migration.

The Topi

The BBC has a report about sex-crazed female topis.

A hostile topi charged at me near a lorry years ago. I threw open the driver's door, slamming the antelope in the head.

Godzilla Captured

On May 31 the one-meter crocodile Godzilla ran away from a traveling circus in Ukraine. This week a worker caught the reptile.

Update: The crocodile died.

Previous: Godzilla

Fight

Early Tuesday a leopard and wild boar drowned when they fell into an open well during a fight on a farm in the Indian state of Maharashtra.

Stolen Horn

Poachers gunned down a one-horned rhinoceros at Kaziranga National Park in the Indian state of Assam. The killers escaped with the prized horn.

Illegal hunters poached 20 one-horned rhinos inside the park this year.

Protector

Palace guard, 1893
Artist: Ludwig Deutsch, Austrian, 1855-1935

Tree Dwellers

If you are unhappy with your home on the ground, you can live in a tree like an Ewok.

I once came across a tree dweller in Jakarta. The man lived in a tree for 17 years.

Update: A Chinese woman also decided to live in a tree.

Black Rhinos in Zimbabwe

Two poachers killed and dehorned two black rhinos at a cattle ranch in Zimbabwe. Authorities launched a manhunt for the illegal hunters.

So far this month, poachers have killed at least seven black rhinos in the country.

Lashes

In Saudi Arabia the Court of Cassation upheld the sorcery convictions of two African expatriates.

One expatriate received a sentence of seven years in prison plus 900 whiplashes. The other expatriate received a sentence of 10 years in prison plus 400 whiplashes.

Chopper

Following up on an anonymous tip, Saudi police found a chopped up human body at an industrial area in Jeddah.

"Investigators discovered arms, legs, and other pieces of a man," a trader reported. "The head is missing."

Taipan

A six-foot taipan bit an Australian snake wrangler in Cape York. The victim is in stable condition at a hospital.

Nigerian Pirates

Fifteen miles off the coast of Nigeria, five pirates stole supplies from a tanker. At Lagos anchorage, four other pirates stole supplies from a containership.

Rudyard Kipling

Zubair Ahmed of the BBC: "Noted English poet and writer Rudyard Kipling's birthplace in the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay) is being converted into an art museum."

Harem Pool

Artist: Jean-Léon Gérôme, French, 1824-1904

Swimmer

Last week a 23-foot saltwater crocodile killed a male swimmer near Buka Island in Papua New Guinea. Police shot the reptile. The dead man's body washed ashore the next day.

Last Hunt

A final effort is under way to track down Nazi war criminals in South America.

Lost Ark

Christians in Ethiopia claim to have the Ark of the Covenant. Writer Paul Raffaele decided to investigate.

Hawksbill Turtles

At Voice of America, Nancy-Amelia Collins wrote an article about Indonesian conservationist Salim's efforts to save hawksbill turtles.

Electrocution

A female elephant died from electocution in India's state of Andhra Pradesh. According to local news media, the animal hit a low-hanging power line.

Stolen Horse

Thieves stole an 1,800-year-old stone horse from the Chinese city of Xianyang. The sculpture weighs five tons.

Monkey Meat

China Daily picked up the story about the legal battle over monkey meat in New York City.

Dress for Success

A lingerie company encouraged female employees to go to work in their undies.

Nigerian Witch

Saudi authorities arrested a suspected Nigerian witch near Mecca.

"Women hired her to cast spells on their husbands," a trader said.

The suspect had talismans in her possession at the time of her arrest.

On November 2 Saudi Arabia beheaded an Egyptian for practicing magic and sorcery.

Invisible Demons

Invisible demons reportedly splashed blood on uniforms at a private school for girls in the Indian city of Chennai. A religious leader said special prayers to drive away the evil spirits.

Raids

Earlier today wild elephants injured at least five people during raids on three villages in India's state of West Bengal.

Elephant Polo

Yesterday Chopard of Hong Kong won the 26th World Elephant Polo Championship in Nepal. The team defeated Chivas Regal of Scotland 7-4 in the final.

Preschooler

"About 10 years ago a snake catcher captured a deadly eastern brown snake at an Australian child-care center," a world traveler said in an email. "The man noticed unusual markings on the reptile. One of the preschoolers had colored the snake's back with a felt-tip pen."

Pilot

In Kenya a pilot had to eat leaves and drink urine to survive after the crash of his helicopter.

Two Villages

A herd of more than 30 elephants killed two people during attacks on two villages in Bangladesh. In addition, the pachyderms injured four other people and destroyed 50 houses.

Wildlife Conference

Nubian giraffe

Artist: Jacques-Laurent Agasse, Swiss, 1767-1849

Trader Horn

When I managed an African wildlife preserve in Southern California, I became involved in several motion picture projects. I supplied wild animals for one of the shots in the 1973 movie Trader Horn.

Rod Taylor starred in the movie. During a break in the filming, a young lion injured one of Taylor's arms.

I had visions of a huge lawsuit. Taylor shrugged off the incident. On that day he was every bit as tough in person as he was in the motion picture.

James A. Michener

In 1948 American author James A. Michener won a Pulitzer Prize for his book Tales of the South Pacific. In the early 1950s he wrote The Bridges at Toko-Ri, a tribute to the pilots and carriers of the U.S. Navy during the Korean War.

I never saw Michener late in his life. However, I had an opportunity to chat with him for an hour in 1968. He talked about the books he had written up to that point.

"Which is your favorite?" I asked.

"The Bridges at Toko-Ri," he responded. "That is, artistically, my favorite. In that book I did what I wanted to do."

Megaphones

From IRIN:

A simple early warning system that used local volunteers shouting through megaphones to warn people about the impending cyclone saved thousands of lives when Cyclone Sidr hit Bangladesh last week, and the system proved so effective that it might even become a model for other countries.

That seems like a good business opportunity for an entrepreneur.

Traditions

Nii Quarcoopome told Reuters:

The concept of museums as repositories for relics and historical artefacts is essentially foreign to most sub-Saharan African peoples.

Most communities in Africa are themselves living traditions. They live the traditions, and so to put an important historical artefact in a glass case with beautiful light on it in the same way that we see in many Western museums is something that they have yet to embrace fully.

He is chairman of the West African Museums Programme.

Dancers

Nautch girls, India, 19th century

Artist: Edwin Lord Weeks, American, 1849-1903

Gold

Villagers flocked to a Malaysian beach after they had heard rumors about gold in the sand.

Wing Problem

In Indonesia a jetliner lost part of its wing shortly after takeoff.

Strong Winds

A Philippine fishing vessel sank in the South China Sea. Fifty crew members are missing.

Comeback

Six months after the blaze, the Cutty Sark is rising from the ashes.

Museum

Indonesian police arrested a museum curator for allegedly stealing statues from his place of employment.

Tiger in the Snow

Siberian Tiger, 1919

Artist: Hugo Ungewitter, German, 1869-1944

Crocodile Kills Man

A crocodile killed a South African man in the Komati River.

"The crocodile attacked the man near a rock in the water," one of the eyewitnesses said.

Searchers continue to look for pieces of the victim's body.

Elephant Buzz

Four elephants died from electrocution when they came in contract with high-tension wires in the Indian state of Meghalaya.

Synagogue

Excavations in Israel unearthed the remains of a synagogue from the Roman-Byzantine era.

Jellyfish Attack

In Northern Ireland a jellyfish invasion killed more than 100,000 fish at a salmon farm.

Cheetah Escape

A one-year-old cheetah escaped from an exhibit at the St. Louis Zoo in Missouri.

On many occasions I stood in the middle of 26 free-roaming cheetahs at a wildlife park. A few of the cheetahs hissed at me. But they never attacked.

Gila Monsters

The Gila monster is one of only two known venomous lizards in the world. At ZooGoer magazine Alex Hawes writes: "Being bitten by a Gila monster is apparently quite an accomplishment, requiring either excessive alcohol, terrible luck, great stupidity, or all three."

Brief Warning

Who is your favorite literary character?" a business adversary asked me at a luncheon today.

"The Count of Monte Cristo," I told him.

Elephant Chase

Two villagers sustained injuries during an attempt to chase a herd of elephants away from paddies in the Indian state of West Bengal.

Bug Eaters

Pitcher plants have intrigued biologists since Charles Darwin's time.

Awaiting the Tiger

Artist: Rudolf Ernst, Austrian, 1854-1932

Bonobos

The Democratic Republic of the Congo created a preserve to protect bonobos.

Sea Scorpion

Scientists discovered the fossilized claw of a giant sea scorpion.

Liberia

The Israeli Diamond Institute signed an agreement with Liberia to help search for diamonds in the West African nation.

Hopefully they will find King Solomon's mines.

Romulus and Remus

"Italian archaeologists say they have found the long-lost underground grotto where ancient Romans believed a female wolf suckled the city's twin founders," the BBC reports.

More Rhino Deaths

Last weekend poachers killed a female black rhinoceros and her calf at Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park.

Buffalo Invasion

In Botswana a herd of African buffalo invaded a small village to find water. The animals seem to like the hamlet because they return to it frequently. Several villagers have injuries from encounters with the invaders.

"We have problems with elephants, too," a village leader said. "Those are destructive and irresponsible animals compared to buffaloes. At least buffaloes do not care about our crops."

India

Indian wildlife experts are using chili peppers to ward off marauding elephants. For years some African farmers have used chili peppers as an elephant repellent.

Commerce

Researchers studied jade earrings to learn more about trade in the ancient world.

Marriage

In the Indian state of West Bengal, a Muslim man married his 15-year-old daughter.

Homeland Security

Palace guard, circa 1900

Artist: Ludwig Deutsch, Austrian, 1855-1935

Hijacking

Two guards hijacked a plane in Papua New Guinea (updated).

Poacher

Lawmen captured a notorious poacher with his pants down at South Africa's Kruger National Park.

"The man was caught while urinating," a park spokesman said.

Herder

IOL: "Kenyan surgeons have amputated the arms and reconstructed the face of a herder who slew a lion, only to be mauled later by a pack of hyenas, an official said on Monday."

Update from the BBC: The herder died.

Striped Cannibals

Four starving tigers ate another tiger at a Chinese zoo.

Brazil

Indians from the Kayapó, Panará, Tapajuna, and Yudjá tribes told Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva: "We don’t want miners, prospectors, loggers, fishermen, or anyone else invading our territory."

Cyclone

"Residents of a village hit by last week's cyclone in Bangladesh say two Royal Bengal tigers sought shelter from the ferocious storm in their village," reports Alastair Lawson of BBC News.

Noah's Ark

CBC News: "The flood widely believed to be behind the Noah's Ark story is what kick-started European agriculture, according to British and Australian researchers."

Stolen Antiquities

Gunmen robbed an archaeological site in Iraq's Diyala province."An armed group stormed the archaeological site, handcuffed the guards, and stole its possessions,” the Iraqi government said in a statement.

Old Ladies

My Singaporean friend Francis told me a story about one of his great grandmothers.

"One day a cobra crawled into her house," he said. "She grabbed it under the bed and threw it out the door."

The story made me think about one of my great grandmothers in the United States. At the age of 84, she hunted rattlesnakes on her land. She killed them with her cane.

Crime

Three thieves chose the wrong bag at a Chinese restaurant.

Business Heritage

North African flower merchant

Rudolf Ernst, Austrian, 1854-1932

Sleeping Child

A leopard killed the 3-year-old son of a migrant worker in the Indian state of Gujarat.

"The leopard snatched the sleeping child from a tent in a sugarcane field," a trader said.

Searchers found part of the boy's body. Forest rangers captured the man-eater.

Grief

Elephants mourned the deaths of three black rhinos in Zimbabwe.

Lions and Tigers

The circus act of lion tamer Clyde Beatty (1903-1965) featured up to 40 Asian tigers and African lions. According to Beatty, the male lions usually came out on top in fights against tigers of both sexes.

Fortune-Teller

Villagers killed male fortune-teller in India's state of Andhra Pradesh. The attackers mistook the man for a thief.

"A good fortune-teller would have foreseen the trouble," my friend Sanjay noted.

Sapphires

Jonny Hogg visited the boomtown of Ilakaka in Madagascar:

From its dramatic conception, the town has become a showcase for entrepreneurial spirit and rampant capitalism.

Children, who I thought were innocently swimming, return from the river clutching handfuls of sapphires, which can be simply sifted from the mud on its bed.

Uttar Pradesh

This week alert villagers averted a tragedy when they found a broken railway track and flagged down a passenger train in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Prison Sentences

In India a Delhi court sentenced two Tibetan men and a Nepalese man to five years in prison for trying to smuggle 45 leopard and 15 otter skins into Nepal.

The convicted men had ties to a notious wildlife poacher in India and a notorious wildlife trader in Nepal.

Thieving Monkeys

Troops of monkeys have gone bananas in northeastern India, stealing cellphones and raiding refrigerators.

Jade

The Chinese discovered a large jade deposit.

Business Heritage

North African fruit vendor

Artist: Giuseppe Signorini, Italian, 1857-1932

Jungle Whale

An 18-foot minke whale traveled deep into the Amazon jungle.

Update: The whale died.

Whale Hunters

For the first time in decades, Japan's whaling fleet intends to hunt humpback whales.

Submarine

Colombia's military seized another cocaine-smuggling submarine.

Mesozoic Cow

Christopher Joyce at NPR:

The sands of the Sahara Desert have delivered a new and very strange dinosaur: an elephant-size beast whose skull and jaw are unlike anything scientists have ever seen. They are calling it the "Mesozoic Cow."

Fuel

In Zimbabwe top politicians paid a tribal healer to turn rocks into diesel fuel.

The Gambia

More than 25 villages in the Central River and Upper River regions of the Gambia suffered big crop losses from hippo and bushpig assaults.

Brave Women

Hundreds of women rushed to become soldiers in Senegal's army:

Sall says her grandfather fought as a soldier for France.

He warned her it can be very dangerous, but she says you have to die anyway, one way or another.

Cowardly Men

Wielding two knives, a mentally ill man slit the throat of a policemen during a confrontation with lawmen in Ghana. Three other cops ran away after the murder.

Artillery Shell

An old artillery shell killed seven people in Vietnam.

Business Heritage

Snake charmer, 1887

Artist: Paul Joanovitch, Austrian, 1859-1957

Female Warriors

In northwestern Cambodia a team of archaeologists discovered five female skeletons with swords and helmets, indicating the existence of female warriors in a pre-Angkorian civilization. The skeletons are 1,500 to 2,000 years old.

Ritual Killing

Police are investigating the gruesome ritual killing of a 12-year-old boy in Argentina.

Iowa

A lawman killed a pet tiger in Iowa.

"The animal escaped from cage and attacked a family dog at a rural home in Chickasaw County," a Des Moines businessman said.

Ghost

In Botswana a ghost saved the life of 24-year-old woman.

"The woman's boyfriend intended to murder her at a river," a traveler reported. "When the man saw a ghost on the riverbank, he ran away. The woman ran in a different direction."

Police arrested the boyfriend.

Iran

Could the Iranians drop an atomic bomb from a flying carpet?" my friend Herbert wondered after his fifth cocktail at a bar last night.

"I don't think so," I said.

"Sure they could," a whiskey-sodden stranger said, breaking into the conversation. "Haven't you heard of carpet bombing?"

Child Abuse

Accusations of witchcraft lead to child abuse in Africa. The New York Times has the details in an excellent article by Sharon LaFraniere.

Asiatic Black Bear

This afternoon an Asiatic black bear nearly killed a nomad on the outskirts of Srinagar in India's state of Jammu and Kashmir.

"The man received his injuries when he tried to help villagers trap the wild animal," a trader said in an email to me.

Shrunken Heads

How do you distinguish authentic shrunken heads from counterfeit shruken heads?

From William Jamieson:

Indications of counterfeit tsantsa are characterized by looking for nasal hairs which is a notable distinction between identifying authentic heads and nonhuman replicas. In addition to this, it is also quite difficult to duplicate a shrunken human ear.

More here.

Corentyne River

Armed pirates robbed 22 fishing vessels on the Corentyne River in South America. No one was hurt.

Fake Crocodile Meat

Hong Kong authorities arrested two men and a woman for selling fake crocodile meat.

The Hong Kong government said:

The Consumer Council recently tested 24 samples of crocodile meat sold at Chinese dried seafood shops and found 16 to be monitor lizard or snake meat. Only eight were genuine crocodile meat.

Proprietors selling fake crocodile meat are liable to five years' jail and a HKD 500,000 fine.

All species of crocodile, monitor lizard and many species are protected endangered species. People importing, exporting, re-exporting or possessing these species are liable to two years' jail and a HKD 5 million fine.

Face from the Past

Palace guard, 1892
Artist: Ludwig Deutsch, Austrian, 1855-1935

Goat Eater

A 12-foot python died after swallowing a goat near the southern tip of India.

"The snake was unable to digest the 33-pound goat," a businessman said. "Wildlife officials felt the legs and horns of the goat inside the dead snake's stomach."

Attacks

Leaping from the shadows, a wild leopard killed a 4-year-old girl at a village in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.

At another village in the same state, a bear mauled a male resident. The man is in critical condition at a hospital.

Tattoos

Scott Carney at NPR:

Can a tattoo stop a bullet? Some people think so.

For centuries, Thai soldiers have covered their bodies in protective tattoos called Sak Yant. Today, the ancient ritual is booming and thousands of people—in Thailand and beyond—are flocking to master artists to have the powerful designs inked on their bodies.

Insolence

A low-caste Indian villager's insolence cost him his life.

Milton Shapp

Milton Shapp was a wealthy businessman. He became Pennsylvania's governor in the 1970s.

"Why are you a Democrat?" I asked him before his election to the state's top job.

"I always made money under the Democrats," he answered.

I always made money under the Republicans. It took me several years to recover financially from Jimmy Carter's presidency.

Hubert H. Humphrey

I rode in a limo with former U.S. Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey during his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972. About the only other thing I remember from the trip was a comment Humphrey made to a campaign staffer: "Push, push, shove, shove—you guys drive me up a tree!" The current crop of American presidential candidates probably will feel the same way soon.

American Politics

One of my grandfathers was state treasurer and auditor general in Pennsylvania. He was a Democrat.

"The Chinese think about the next generation; American politicians think about the next election," he told me.

Marshall McLuhan

Years ago I had a conversation with media guru Marshall McLuhan. He said, "All jokes are grievances."

I seldom hear jokes at bars these days. Most of the drunks in the world must be happy.

Used Condoms

Used condoms were reprocessed into hair ties and rubber bands in China.

Beira

Pirates stole supplies from a containership at the Mozambican port of Beira.

Barking Wife

In India a 33-year-old man married a dog.

Box Jellyfish

A box jellyfish stung a 6-year-old boy in the sea off Australia's Tiwi Islands.

Running onto a beach, the child screamed: "I've been stung! I've been stung!" He collapsed and died on the sand.

Business Heritage

Sahleb vendor, Cairo, 1886

Artist: Ludwig Deutsch, Austrian, 1855-1935

Background: In praise of sahleb

Chocolate

Central American Indians enjoyed chocolate drinks more than 3,000 years ago.

Venomous Snake

Hiding under palm fronds on the ground, a death adder bit a 36-year-old gardener on Austalia's Magnetic Island.

"I couldn't believe how fast it came out," the victim said. "It came out of nowhere."

Quick medical attention saved the man's life.

Twins

Do twins share one soul?

Hungry Pandas

Giant pandas face food shortages in China.

Hotties

Thousands of years ago, young women wore miniskirts at a European settlement.

Makutu

A Maori woman drowned during an exorcism in New Zealand.

Bears

"Six out of the world’s eight species of bears are threatened with extinction," the World Conservation Union says.

Killers on the Loose

Hundreds of crocodiles reportedly escaped from a state-owned reptile farm during flooding in central Vietnam. Authorities urged locals to exercise caution near ponds and rivers.

Update: The BBC has more.

Vicious Monkey

During a three-hour rampage on Saturday, a wild monkey injured 25 people at East Delhi's Shastri Park in India.

"Angry citizens spent the night searching for the monkey," a trader said. "People wanted to kill the animal. But the monkey disappeared."

Most of the victims suffered injuries to their hands.

Temple

Archaeologists unearthed a 4,000-year-old temple in Peru.

Environmental Disaster

The BBC reports: "About 1,300 tons of fuel oil have leaked near the Black Sea after a Russian oil tanker split in half—in a storm that sank three other ships."

Business Heritage

A British merchantman comes to the aid of an American merchantman during a 19th-century storm.

Artist: Joseph Heard, British, 1799-1859

Beatty and the Beasts

In 1930 a tiger attacked the famed animal trainer Clyde Beatty. An African lion knocked the tiger across the cage, saving Beatty's life. Two years later, the lion almost killed Beatty.

Kikuo Morimoto

Former Kyoto kimono painter Kikuo Morimoto almost single-handedly saved Cambodia's silk-weaving industry.

Death Train

A train killed a fully grown male elephant in the Indian state of West Bengal. More than 100 animal-rights activists protested the tusker's death by squatting on the railroad tracks for several hours.

New Silk Road

China and seven Central Asian countries agreed to build a modern-day equivalent of the historic Silk Road.

Business Heritage

Iran, 19th century
Marketplace in Esfahan
Artist: Edwin Lord Weeks, American, 1849-1903

Great White Shark

A great white shark apparently attacked a 14-year-old surfer off the coast of South Africa.

Child of Krakatoa

China Daily has an update on Indonesia's Child of Krakatoa (Krakatau) volcano.

Trapped Hippo

At a South African game farm, a hippo got stuck in a drainage pipe.

"Rescuers used a tractor and a jackhammer to free the animal," a businessman reported.

Soldier of Fortune

Bashi-bazouk
Artist: Jean-Léon Gérôme, French, 1824-1904

A bashi-bazouk was an irregular soldier of the Ottoman Empire. He usually lived off loot.

Rhino Killers

Poachers gunned down three black rhinos at a wildlife reserve.

Hackers

Ugandan villagers hacked a suspected warlock into pieces near his farm. Cops found the body next to a road.

Man-Size Meal

Strolling home from a business center, a 42-year-old man became a lion's evening meal in Zimbabwe.

"The man's brother found some bones and a bloodstained shirt," a trader said.

Confusion

A Tanzanian hospital mixed up two patients.

Update here.

Noble House

In my opinion James Clavell's books Tai-Pan and Noble House are the best novels about business in Asia. The stories have some things in common with the history of the Jardine Matheson Group.

Threat Recedes

Authorities lowered the alert level on Indonesia's Mount Kelud (Kelut) volcano.

Business Heritage

India, 19th century

Silk merchants discuss fabrics and a craftsman sells a box.

Artist: Edwin Lord Weeks, American, 1849-1903

Bananas

Thousands of bananas washed up on two Dutch islands.

Murders in Orissa

Three suspected witches became murder victims in the Indian state of Orissa.

In one case, a 35-year-old man accused a 55-year-old woman and a 62-year-old woman of using witchcraft to kill his 7-year-old daughter. He burned the women to death in a field.

In the other case, two angry relatives accused a 26-year-old woman of practicing black magic. The relatives killed the woman.

Snake Dealer

Malaysian authorities seized 115 cobras from a wildlife trader.

Great Wall of China

Illegal mining destroyed a section of China's Great Wall.

Black Rhinos

WWF: "A group of black rhinos has been successfully released into a community-owned game reserve in northern KwaZulu-Natal, a move seen by environmentalists as a boost to conserving the endangered species."

Humpback Whales

The Voice of America has an article about the complex conversations of humpback whales.

Business Heritage

Clipper ship Flying Cloud, circa 1860

Artist: James E. Buttersworth, British/American, 1817-1894

Smugglers

Customs officers arrested a Chinese man and an Indonesian man on charges of smuggling tiger parts into China.

"The value of the confiscated items exceeds USD 134,000," a trader said in an email to me.

Crash Cow

A cow fell from a cliff and landed on a minivan in Washington state.

Pickpocket

Saudi Arabian authorities amputated the right hand of an Egyptian man for picking pockets inside the Kaaba.

Naughty Words

In Egypt a young bedouin's naughty remarks may cost him his tongue.

Mutiny

Mutineers seized control of a Tawainese fishing boat in the Indian Ocean.

Foraging Bears

Emma Griffiths reports: "There are so many brown bears in Romania that they are a common sight wandering through villages and farms, and in some big towns they have been seen foraging through the suburban bins."

Business Heritage

Slave market

Artist: Jean-Léon Gérôme, French, 1824-1904

North African Muslims reportedly enslaved a million or more European Christians between 1530 and 1780.

History: When Europeans Were Slaves (Ohio State University article, 2004)

Taiwanese Vessel

Somali pirates freed a Taiwanese vessel and its crew a day after the release of two South Korean fishing trawlers.

Rattlesnakes

A Texan shared a bathtub with 87 rattlesnakes. He said, "The key to not biting is for me to stay still."

Pig-Out

At Wansong College in China's city of Hangzhou, a wild boar raided a kitchen and ate the leftovers.

Masked Men

Masked pirates robbed five fishing vessels near the coast of Guyana. The thieves stole engines and other equipment.

Aliens

A UFO supposedly chased an Aboriginal woman in Australia's Northern Territory.

Giant Microbes

Giant Microbes turned images of microbes into cuddly toys. Products include syphilis, malaria, and gonorrhea.

No Hands

In Kenya a husband chopped off his wife's hands during a domestic quarrel.

Business Heritage

Cairene armorer, 19th century

Artist: Jean-Léon Gérôme, French, 1824-1904

Photogravure by Goupil & Cie

Volcano Watch

Indonesia's deadly Mount Kelud (Kelut) spewed fresh clouds of smoke.

Legs

A squid fishermen stopped to take a leak behind a tree in southern Thailand. Suddenly a pair of human legs plopped on the ground in front of him.

When the fishermen looked up at the branches of the tree, he saw the other half of a male suicide victim at the end of a rope. Maggots had chewed the body in half.

Business Heritage

Trade dispute, 19th century

Artist: Jean-Léon Gérôme, French, 1824-1904

Photogravure by Goupil & Cie

Trawlers Freed

Dispatch from the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet:

Tanzanian-flagged fishing trawlers Mavuno I and Mavuno II were released from pirate control off the east coast of Somalia Nov. 4, 2007. They were pirated in May.

The vessels will rendezvous with a U.S. Navy ship, which will provide escort and humanitarian assistance to the crews.

According to South Korean officials, the 24 crew members on board the two South Korean-owned trawlers are safe.

Full Circle

Andrew Scutro of the Navy Times writes about U.S. Navy antipiracy efforts:

The Navy is getting back to its roots. Reestablished specifically after the Revolutionary War to combat North African pirates who were plundering merchant ships, American sailors now find themselves toe-to-toe with seagoing thugs again, called on to rid the seas of violent hijackers.

Show Me the Mummy

Egypt put the face of King Tut on public display.

"Until now, only about 50 living people have seen the 3,000-year-old face," the BBC reported.

Business Heritage

Devil's Way, Algiers, 19th century

Etching: Stephen James Ferris, American, 1835-1915, after a design by Adolphe Mouilleron, French, 1820-1881

Waterboarding

Seventeenth-century Dutch traders perfected the most widely used waterboarding technique.

Monkeying with a Gun

Firing a shotgun, a 72-year-old man accidentally hit a neighbor with buckshot during an attempt to blast marauding monkeys out of a big bush at a Malaysian village. The neighbor suffered slight injuries.

Execution in Saudi Arabia

News from the official Saudi Press Agency:

Riyadh, November 02, SPA -- Mustafa Ibrahim, an Egyptian, was executed here today after being convicted of practicing magic and sorcery as well as adultery and desecration of the Holy Quran by putting it in a bathroom, said a statement released by the interior ministry.

Trial by Ordeal

In Washington Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bush on Monday.

Meanwhile, in Liberia many communities still rely on trial by ordeal to adjudicate alleged crimes.

Memorial Park

The Chinese came up with a new way to show their appreciation for the sacrifices of the Flying Tigers.

Village on Fire

From Survival International:

The village of the remote Enawene Nawe tribe in Brazil has burned to the ground in a fire, leaving them to rebuild their homes from scratch.

The fire spread by accident from a small cooking fire. It destroyed all the Enawene Nawe’s large communal houses, which are made from straw and wood, and all their possessions including their hammocks and metal cooking pots. Three people were taken to hospital with injuries, and are recovering.

Lost Limbs

Scientists reported a breakthrough in regenerative medicine.

Furry Kites

Helen Briggs of BBC News: "A gliding mammal that lives in the forests of Southeast Asia is our closest relative after apes, monkeys and lemurs, a DNA study shows."

Tiger Protection

India will set up a special force of retired soldiers to guard tigers.

Prisoner

Cops tossed an eight-foot crocodile in jail for trying to eat fishermen in Australia's Northern Territory. Authorities will move the reptile to a crocodile farm later today.

Wet Hen

Ducks and geese taught a chicken to swim.

Vandal

A possum trashed the contents of an Australian museum.

Hunting for a Killer

More than 200 rangers and policemen are hunting for a man-eating tiger in the Indian state of Maharashtra.

"The tiger killed seven people," a trader said. "Villagers became so angry they smashed a forest department vehicle."

King Cobra

Snake catchers captured a 10-foot king cobra at the entrance of a Buddhist monastery near Pattaya in Thailand. The captors released the reptile in the jungle.

Wacky Experiments

Sometimes scientists do strange things.

Washoe

Washoe the chimpanzee died after a short illness.

Goose

Falling from the sky, a goose injured a motorist in Beijing.