Chinatown

"In San Francisco’s Chinatown, the price of rice has skyrocketed amid fears that an international shortage will spill into the United States," reports Jesse McKinley of the New York Times.

Lion on the Lam

A young African lion is on the run in Quebec.

Baby Killer

Yesterday a wild elephant crushed a 10-month-old girl at a village in the Indian state of Kerala.

Treasure Ship

"A 500-year-old shipwreck laden with treasure has been discovered off the coast of Namibia," the BBC says.

Five Injured

In eastern India a bear mauled five people at a cashew plantation.

Trespasser

RIA Novosti:

A man in north India has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after allegedly throwing a six-year-old Indian girl on a fire in a possible caste-related attack, local media said on Wednesday.

The girl, considered a dalit or "untouchables," according to India's traditional caste system, was noticed by a 22-year-old man walking with her mother along a path in the town of Mathura reserved for upper-caste Indians.

The attacker, Madan Singh, ordered her to stay away from the area, but she ignored him. "When he tried to stop her, she got scared. He then set her on fire," throwing her into a pile of burning waste by the side of the road, the girl's father told the national NDTV TV channel.

Nutcracker Man

Nutcracker Man

National Science Foundation:

Researchers examined the teeth of Paranthropus boisei, also called the "Nutcracker Man," an ancient hominin that lived between 2.3 and 1.2 million years ago. The "Nutcracker Man" had the biggest, flattest cheek teeth and the thickest enamel of any known human ancestor and was thought to have a regular diet of nuts and seeds or roots and tubers. But analysis of scratches on the teeth and other tooth wear reveal the pattern of eating for the "Nutcracker Man" was more consistent with modern-day fruit-eating animals.

(Art credit: Nicolle Rager Fuller, National Science Foundation)

Lion in Brazil

RIA Novosti: "Brazilian environmental authorities said on Wednesday that they had found tracks belonging to an adult African lion in the rain forests of the southeast Brazilian state of Sao Paolo."

Surfer

A 24-year-old American surfer bled to death after he had sustained a leg injury during a shark attack off Mexico's Pacific coast.

Update: More here.

Domestic Cat

Falling from the roof of a house, a cat knocked out a woman in China.

Nazi Doctor

SS medical officer Aribert Heim tops the Simon Wiesenthal Center's new list of most wanted Nazis.

Previous: Dr. Death

Spiraling Downward

Zoological Society of London: "Asian vultures face extinction in the wild within a decade without urgent action to eliminate the livestock drug that has caused their catastrophic decline, scientists are warning. Their decline has been quicker than that of any other wild bird, including the dodo."

Discoveries

Researchers discovered a legless lizard, a tiny woodpecker, and 12 other suspected new species in Brazil.

Sweden

Via Spiegel Online: "A nine-year-old Swedish boy and his grandfather have found a hoard of 13th-century coins while treasure hunting on a battlefield. Just the silver in the coins alone is estimated to be worth a whopping $265,000."

Paris

BBC News: "There are four times as many rats as humans in Paris."

Thinkers of the Jungle

An orangutan attempts to spear a fish. The extraordinary photograph is part of a series taken for Thinkers of the Jungle, a new book by Gerd Schuster, Willie Smits, and Jay Ullal. Order your copy from your favorite bookseller today.

Big Cats

"A collapse in revenues from wildlife tourism threatens big cats in Kenya's Maasai Mara reserve," the BBC reports.

Update:

Alisha Ryu has related news: "Wildlife conservationists in Kenya say that a toxic agricultural pesticide, increasingly used by nomadic people to poison animals threatening their herds, is decimating the country's diverse wildlife population and possibly affecting human health."

The Voice of America has her article.

Cows

"Three days after a high-speed train accident caused by sheep on the line, a German regional train has hit a herd of cattle," Spiegel Online says. "No passengers are dead, but eight cows have lost their lives."

Stampede in England

BBC News: "A woman in her 40s walking her dog in a field has died after being trampled by a herd of stampeding cattle."

Cannery Row

I reread John Steinbeck's novel Cannery Row last weekend. In the prologue the author wrote:

Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream. Cannery Row is the gathered and scattered, tin and iron and rust and splintered wood, chipped pavement and weedy lots and junk heaps, sardine canneries of corrugated iron, honky-tonks, restaurants and whorehouses, and little crowded groceries, and laboratories and flophouses. Its inhabitants are, as the man once said, "whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches," by which he meant Everybody. Had the man looked through another peephole he might have said: "Saints and angels and martyrs and holy men," and he would have meant the same thing.

Those words describe more than a few places around the world.

Draft Resolution

BBC News:

France and the U.S. have introduced a draft resolution at the UN Security Council that would allow states to arrest pirates in Somalia's waters.

The document gives nations a six-month mandate to use "all necessary means" to fight piracy.

Discovery Cove

A dolphin died in a freak accident at SeaWorld's Discovery Cove in Florida.

Assam

Poachers killed a mother rhino and her calf at Kaziranga National Park in the Indian state of Assam.

Iranian Sex Scandal

From Spiegel Online: "A sex scandal is causing trouble for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government in Tehran, in spite of numerous attempts to hush it up. But is Reza Zarei, the police chief caught in a brothel with six prostitutes, still alive?"

Continue reading "Prostitute scandal rattles Tehran government."

Previous: Tehran

Jailed for Life

IOL: "A court in Somalia's northern breakaway state of Puntland on Monday sentenced 11 people to life imprisonment for piracy, a senior government official said."

Fatal Fire

Firefighters found a couple of hot chicks after a late-night blaze at a Japanese brothel.

Flags

A Chinese manufacturer accepted overseas orders for the flag of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

"Workers said they thought they were just making colorful flags and did not realize their meaning," the BBC reports.

Whale Sightings

Los Angeles Times: "Whales appear to be making a comeback in the waters off Chile, where they were once hunted to near extinction."

Uighurs

Staff writer Peter Ford of the Christian Science Monitor put together a report about China's Muslim Uighurs.

Sheep

In Germany a herd of sheep derailed a high-speed train, injuring at least 25 people.

Jewelry

Archaeologists unearthed more than 20 pieces of ancient jewelry in Iran's southern province of Fars.

Trapped in Cambodia

In an op-ed piece for the New York Times, Sichan Siv looks back at his life in Cambodia during the 1970s:

I had read gruesome descriptions of the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge against enemies of their revolution: babies thrown into the air and caught with a bayonet, children smashed into trees, villagers having their throats cut with the thorns of palm branches, merchants clubbed to death with the back of a hoe. I did not believe them.

Read the whole thing.

Japanese Swords

The Japan Times: "There's a gory history to every Japanese sword — even those being made today."

Parachute

News at Australian Broadcasting Corp.: "A 36-year-old Swiss amateur parachutist has made a successful 650-meter drop using a replica of a parachute designed more than 500 years ago by Leonardo da Vinci."

Hemingway

"Ernest Hemingway and Hollywood had a tempestuous relationship — but his utter hatred of the movies made from his famed novels is now just coming to light," reports the New York Post.

Red Number

IOL has news from Phnom Penh: "Cambodian officials have moved to quell growing hysteria sparked by a rumor that a ghostly red number was appearing on mobile phones and killing people, local media and police said Saturday."

Nine Hurt

Today a leopard injured four villagers in the Indian state of Assam. Yesterday a different leopard injured five villagers in the state.

Free

BBC News: "Pirates have released a Spanish fishing boat and its 26 crew members seized off the coast of Somalia last week."

Yesterday: Piracy Crisis

China

Business columnist Joe Nocera of the New York Times: "If Shanghai doesn’t make you a believer in the power of capitalism to improve lives, nothing will."

Beijing's Penis Restaurant

Stephan Orth in China:

Whole yak penis or sheep testicles on a bed of curry, anyone? A Beijing restaurant serves painstakingly decorated gourmet dishes for the fearless. They're supposed to increase male potency, but women should try a bite, too: Eating penis is good for the skin, apparently.

Read more at Spiegel Online.

Scientist

RIA Novosti: "The Moscow City Court upheld on Friday a 11.5-year prison sentence for a Russian scientist convicted of passing missile technology to China."

The news agency adds, "Analysts have said Russian technology might have formed the basis of China's manned space program."

Shots Fired

Dispatch from U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/5th Fleet:

While transiting north in international waters in the Central Arabian Gulf April 24 at approximately 8 a.m. local time, Motor Vessel Westward Venture was approached by two unidentified small boats.

Following proper procedure, Westward Venture issued standard queries to the small boats via bridge-to-bridge radio, but received no response. Westward Venture then activated a flare, which also did not receive a response.

The small boats continued toward Westward Venture and the ship's embarked security team fired warning shots. The small boats left the area. A short time later, Westward Venture received a query from a unit identifying itself as Iranian Coast Guard. It is not clear if this was one of the small boats or a separate boat. The query was routine and correct.

Westward Venture is a U.S. flagged and chartered roll-on/roll-off ship. It is a cargo ship approximately 1,000 feet long and owned by Totem Ocean Trailer Express Inc.

From the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) in Iran:

Iran on Friday denied any confrontation between Iranian boats and a U.S. vessel in the Persian Gulf, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Navy said on Friday.

Reuters news agency said on Friday that a cargo ship hired by the U.S. military opened fire at a boat that may be Iranian.

Iranian Navy official told IRNA that no such an incident took place in the Persian Gulf.

The CNN story is here.

Fatal Shark Attack

A shark killed a man off the coast of Solana Beach in California.

Israel

Staff writer Bill Hutchinson at the New York Daily News: "A nasty rivalry between two of Israel's most famous cantors has led to a sex-and-the-synagogue scandal."

Russia

In Russia a beaver smashed vodka bottles at a food store near the south Urals city of Chelyabinsk.

Pied Piper of Saipan

U.S. Marine PFC Guy Gabaldon single-handedly captured more than 1,000 Japanese soldiers during World War II. NPR tells the story.

Hawk

"A sharp-shinned hawk found dying on a California highway may have been killed by its partially digested prey trying to claw its way out of the hawk's chest," Xinhua News Agency says.

Piracy Crisis

IOL has news about the captured Spanish fishing vessel off the coast of Somalia. The pirates reportedly demanded a ransom of 1 million euros (approximately USD 1.56 million).

Update here.

Previous: Spain Waits

Antony and Cleopatra

Archaeologists hope to find the tomb of Cleopatra and Mark Antony in temple near the port city of Alexandria in Egypt.

"The temple is underwater," a trader said. "Scientists plan to drain the site before the end of the year."

Chairman Mao

Louisa Lim at NPR: "China's former leader Chairman Mao Zedong has had various incarnations: guerrilla fighter, political leader, mass murderer and pop-art icon. Now, 32 years after his death, in perhaps the most unexpected transformation, he is being reinvented as a business guru."

Unexpected tranformation? Over the years many traders — especially in Japan, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia — have used the tactics of Sun Tzu and Mao Zedong to succeed in business.

T. Rex

"In the first analysis of proteins extracted from dinosaur bones, scientists say they have established more firmly than ever that the closest living relatives of the mighty predator Tyrannosaurus rex are modern birds," reports John NobleWilford of the New York Times.

Nanjing Bridge

The Christian Science Monitor has an article about a self-appointed lifeguard on China's bridge of death.

Fare Dodger

More and more people want a free ride these days.

Spitzer

Murray Weiss of the New York Post: "A second call girl has provided federal investigators with details of Eliot Spitzer's fondness for high-priced hookers, law-enforcement sources told the Post."

Balloon Man

Xinhua News Agency: "The chances of finding a Brazilian priest who soared more than 20,000 feet into the air while suspended below party balloons are growing slimmer, rescue officials said Wednesday."

Surprisingly, no one asked Sister Bertrille to look for him.

Update: Brazil's air force halted its search.

Penis Thieves

"In an effort to avoid possible bloodshed, Congo police have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to shrink or steal men's penises," Xinhua News Agency reports.

Hot Rocks

RIA Novosti: "Mount Anak Krakatau, a volcanic island in the Sunda Strait, has started hurling flaming rocks from its southern crater, Indonesian Antara news agency said on Thursday."

Gabon

Some ambitious politicians drink human blood and eat human organs to gain and maintain power in Gabon.

At the Movies

A deadly snake crawled around loose in an Australian motion-picture theater for a week.

Monkeys on the Run

MSNBC:

Wildlife officials say 15 monkeys are on the loose after escaping a facility in Lakeland, Florida.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Gary Morse says the patas monkeys apparently escaped their island home by swimming across a pond — something they're not supposed to be able to do.

Nonsense. Patas monkeys can swim.

Related information:
Primate facts
Differences among prosimians, monkeys, and apes

(Hat tip: MonkeyWatch)

Spain Waits

IOL: "Pirates holding 26 crew members on a Spanish fishing trawler off the Somali coast have not yet made any formal demands for their release, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said on Wednesday."

Update: Spain's government called for the creation of a multinational force to tackle piracy at sea.

Previous: Spanish Navy

Dead Sea

Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti:

Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) discussed in Paris on Wednesday an ambitious project to build a canal linking the Red and Dead seas and designed to prevent the latter's evaporation, a Jordanian official said.

The lowest point on earth, the Dead Sea has lost one third of its surface area over the past 55 years, and is expected to completely dry up within 50 years.

Festival

RIA Novosti:

A male elephant suddenly became uncontrollable during a temple festival in India Wednesday crushing three people to death, including his handler, and injuring several others, the CNN-IBN news channel reported.

The tragedy occurred in Kerala in southern India, where the animals have been used for centuries in religious ceremonies, when the elephant, Unnikrishnan, suddenly ran amok and went on the rampage crushing everything in his path. The fit lasted about an hour and a half before the elephant became calm and could be tethered, the channel said.

New Jersey Cop

A New Jersey policeman allegedly engaged in sex acts with cows.

Redback Spiders

In Australia an invasion of redback spiders forced a small hospital to evacuate patients. The venomous redback spider is a close relative of the black widow spider.

Fact Sheet: Redback spider

Mother and Daughter

RIA Novosti:

A seven-year-old girl in southwest Siberia died after her mother threw her out of a fifth-floor window twice before jumping herself, police said on Wednesday.

After the first attempt to kill her daughter failed, the woman in Russia's Altai Republic "who went downstairs to the courtyard to discover the child was still alive, carried her back up to the apartment and threw her out of the window again, and then jumped out herself," a police spokesman said.

Visitor

Last night a 69-year-old Florida woman found an eight-foot alligator in her kitchen.

Heroic Dogs

Dogs saved the life of a buried baby girl near a village in the Indian state of Bihar.

Grizzly

In Southern Caifornia a grizzly bear killed a male trainer at a private facility for exotic animals.

Georgia on My Mind

A Republican lawmaker wants the U.S. Defense Department to treat America's fighting men like children. Army Times:

Concerned that the military is selling pornography in exchange stores in spite of a ban, one lawmaker has introduced a bill to clean up the matter.

“Our troops should not see their honor sullied so that the moguls behind magazines like Playboy and Penthouse can profit,” said Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga., unveiling his House bill April 16.

Unbelievable. The GOP congressman from the Peach State attacked free speech, insulted the military, and disparaged capitalism — all at the same time.

Bob Barr, Paul Broun, Max Cleland, Jimmy Carter, Cynthia McKinney — where does Georgia find these characters?

Secrets

"U.S. authorities have arrested a military engineer on suspicion of giving secrets involving nuclear weapons, fighter jets and missiles to Israel in the 1980s," BBC News reports.

Thirst

Botswana's government won't give several hundred Kalahari Bushmen access to a water well near their homes.

Pirates Attacked

Via IOL: "Security forces in northern Somalia stormed a hijacked ship on Tuesday, rescuing the hostages and arresting seven pirates — three of whom were wounded in the operation, officials said."

Fighting Navy

Two highly sophisticated U.S. Navy warships failed inspection.

"Most of the missiles couldn’t be fired, and neither could any of the big guns," says Christopher P. Cavas of the Navy Times.

Laos

Christian Science Monitor correspondent Oakley Brooks:

Heading for Laos from my temporary home in Indonesia, I want to pick up the trail of Lou Connick, my late globe-trotting great uncle who spent eight years working in the country in the 1960s and '70s. I'm hoping to visit his old haunts, meet relatives of his friends, and walk in his footsteps for a few days.

Continue reading "One reporter's odyssey tracking his uncle's legacy in Laos."

Ireland

Doctors removed the wrong kidney from a child at an Irish hospital.

Living on Mecca Time

The BBC: "Muslim scientists and clerics have called for the adoption of Mecca time to replace GMT, arguing that the Saudi city is the true center of the Earth."

The Big Squeeze

In Oregon a python attacked a pet-shop owner.

God and Guns

"A Moscow court has sentenced an American clergyman to more than three years in prison on charges of smuggling hunting ammunition into Russia," the Voice of America reports.

Spanish Navy

BBC News:

A Spanish naval frigate is heading for the area off Somalia where pirates seized a Spanish fishing boat with 26 crew on board, officials say.

The captain of the trawler — contacted by Spanish radio — said the crew were "all well." The Somali pirates have demanded a ransom.

Yesterday: Pirates

A Dangerous Woman

Via Australian Broadcasting Corp.: "A Pakistani woman chopped off her lover's penis after he wedded his cousin in a marriage arranged by his parents, police and hospital officials have said."

Egyptian Gold

RIA Novosti: "Egypt could become a leading gold producer within the next decade following the discovery of large reserves in the country's Eastern Desert, the Le Progres Egyptien newspaper said Monday."

Oil Tanker

"A Japanese oil tanker was damaged Monday when it was attacked by a small boat in Middle Eastern waters off the coast of Yemen," says Martin Fackler of the New York Times.

Tea

Thomas Fuller of the New York Times: "The rolling hills of China’s southern Yunnan Province are the birthplace of tea, anthropologists say, the first area where humans figured out that eating tea leaves or brewing a cup could be pleasant."

Christian Fistfight

"Israeli police had to break up a fistfight that erupted between Greek and Armenian Orthodox clergymen at one of Christianity's holiest sites," the BBC reports.

Previous: Rumble

Pirates

Sea raiders seized a Spanish fishing boat near Somalia.

Woodcutter

A crocodile killed an illegal logger in Myanmar (Burma).

Captive Tigers

Captive tigers could play a key role in the survival of wild populations.

Rolls-Royce's Flying Lady

A secret love affair inspired one of the motoring world's most famous symbols.

Puffer Fish

BBC News: "More than 140 mourners at a funeral in northern Thailand are reported to have been taken ill after eating a dish that appears to have contained puffer fish."

Ethiopian Rustlers

Police reportedly killed at least 15 Ethiopian cattle rustlers in Kenya. Two herdsmen also died in the fighting.

Live and Let Dry

James Bond's Aston Martin landed in a lake during a one-car accident in Italy. The stunt driver escaped with a few bruises.

Bolivia

"Lynch mob attacks appear to be on the rise throughout Bolivia," says Andres Schipani of BBC News.

News from Senegal

After a weird incident at a local school, rumors about evil spirits and supernatural retaliation spread throughout Dakar.

Bird Strike

A pelican and a fighter-bomber collided in midair over Australia.

Beaver

New York City cops snatched a beaver from the East River.

Death in Sri Lanka

A wild elephant killed a 34-year-old man in Sri Lanka. The attack took place in a forest.

Vladimir Putin

Mike Carney at USA Today: "Russian President Vladimir Putin is denying published reports that say he divorced his wife in order to marry a 24-year-old gymnast."

I know very little about the Russian leader's personal life. But I do know this: Successful men seldom marry their mistresses.

Update: The New York Times report about the denial is here.

Yesterday: Trophy Wife

Guard Duty

BBC News:

Like soldiers in combat zones, birds operate a sentry system to ensure their comrades are safe from attack.

By singing a "watchman's song," the pied babbler tells its group mates they are free to forage for food in Africa's Kalahari Desert.

Scrap Metal Thieves

Thieves stole more than 1,000 bronze plaques from a former Nazi concentration camp in the Czech Republic.

Oil Speculation

Spiegel Online:

The lobby of the Hotel Miramar in São Tomé would be the perfect set for a tropical spy thriller. It is the best hotel in town, which doesn't mean much, but its air-conditioned lobby, complete with colorful sofas and green potted plants, has become an important meeting place for everyone who has some sort of business on this curious island: profiteers and their assistants, representatives of foreign governments and international organizations and a host of shady characters.

Read the whole thing.

Indiana

A truckload of human feces spilled onto a state road in Indiana.

Crater of a Volcano

Last weekend a snowmobiler fell into the crater of Mount St. Helens. Miraculously he suffered no serious injuries.

Knife

BBC News: "A Russian man trying to sleep off a night of after-work drinking failed to notice a six-inch (15-cm) knife in his back — until his wife woke him up."

Downer

China Daily: "A man got so drunk last Thursday that he mistook a window on the fifth floor of his apartment building for a door — and stepped out into space."

Grave Situation

In India's state of Tamil Nadu, a leopard jumped on a grave digger in a hole. The cat failed to kill the 43-year-old man.

Trophy Wife

Russia’s outgoing President Vladimir Putin reportedly plans to marry a 24-year-old woman. Pravda.Ru has the story.

Update (11:00 p.m.): The New York Daily News picked up the story. One reader gave Putin a nickname: Vlad the Impaler.

Borneo Elephant

WWF:

The Borneo pygmy elephant may not be native to Borneo after all. Instead, the population could be the last survivors of the Javan elephant race — accidentally saved from extinction by the Sultan of Sulu centuries ago, a new publication suggests.

The origins of the pygmy elephants, found in a range extending from the northeast of the island into the Heart of Borneo, have long been shrouded in mystery. Their looks and behavior differ from other Asian elephants and scientists have questioned why they never dispersed to other parts of the island.

But a new paper published today supports a long-held local belief that the elephants were brought to Borneo centuries ago by the Sultan of Sulu, now in the Philippines, and later abandoned in the jungle. The Sulu elephants, in turn, are thought to have originated in Java.

Giant Turtle

Zoo press release: "Cleveland Metroparks Zoo today announced the discovery of a critically endangered turtle in northern Vietnam that previously was thought to be extinct in the wild."

Drum

Vietnamese construction workers unearthed an ancient bronze drum.

Competition

IRIN:

Ahmed Diriye had taken his goats to a stream in Mogogashe near the northern Kenyan town of Garissa and was waiting for them to drink when he was attacked by baboons.

"I killed a baboon after they tried to force me from the 'lagadera' [stream in Somali]," he said, holding out his bandaged arm. "They were thirsty and wanted water just like my goats. The well is the only one with water."

At another well, four girls abandoned their water containers after thirsty baboons attacked them. The next day, five goats were killed by the creatures while two herders sustained serious injuries following an attack by a lion.

A month after the rains were expected to start, northern Kenya is still gripped by drought conditions. Water pans, boreholes and wells have all dried up, creating problems for the pastoralist communities of the region.

"We are in the middle of a very serious crisis," said Hussein Ali from Sericho, a remote trading center along the Isiolo and Garissa district boarder. "We are faced with the problem of water, pasture and now wild animals have worsened our situation."

Like domestic livestock, the wild animals have also been affected by scarcity of water. Local residents of Isiolo and Garissa say the situation has forced the animals to struggle for the little available water with humans.

At least 20 people, they say, have sustained injuries in the past month from animal attacks, while one pastoralist and a number of livestock have been killed by lions at wells.

South Africa's Vultures

Via Independent Online: "The dwindling populations of vultures in South Africa are being threatened by power cables, agricultural chemicals and a superstition that the birds' body parts carry mystical powers."

Miljen the Bear

Siobhán Dowling at Spiegel Online:

Miljen the bear suffered near starvation after being kept in a cage in a gangster's private zoo in Bosnia for eight years. But on Wednesday a new chapter began as he arrived at his new home in France, with two female bears waiting to keep him company.

Noisy Cat

Via Independent Online:"A news agency says a man was rearing a lion in his back garden in Romania until neighbors decided they had heard enough roaring and called police."

A lion's roar can be heard up to five miles away.

Brave Men

Soldiers have to move 200 crocodiles in Australia.

Barbary Macaques

Gibraltar's government put out hit contracts on a number of unruly Barbary macaques.

Hungry Reptile

In Uganda a crocodile ate a 40-year-old fisherman. The victim's 9-year-old son witnessed the attack. Searchers found a leg and an arm from the man's body.

Xenophobic Rampage

A frenzied mob killed a child during a rampage against immigrants in South Africa. IOL has the news:

Barricaded inside her burning spaza shop, a mother listened helplessly to her nine-year-old daughter's screams of agony as she was burnt alive during a xenophobic attack in Mamelodi on Tuesday.

Definition: Spaza shop

Tigers and Tribals

At the New York Times, Somini Sengupta has a piece about efforts to make room for tigers in India.

Pirates in Paris

From BBC News: "Six Somalis accused of taking a luxury yacht's crew hostage have arrived in Paris on a military plane to face questioning, judicial sources said."

World's Largest Lizard

"A new international study has revealed how the Komodo dragon can be such an efficient killing machine despite having a wimpy bite and a featherweight skull," reports the University of New South Wales in Australia.

Pirate Attacks

On Sunday armed pirates robbed the crews of two ships in Indonesian waters.

Food Fight

IRIN reports from Zimbabwe:

Marauding elephants that escaped from the Hwange National Park, an animal sanctuary in rural southwestern Zimbabwe, are destroying any hopes among peasant farmers of a moderately successful harvest.

Arid climatic conditions are expected to blight agricultural production in the southwest this year, according to a recent forecast by the UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), while Zimbabwe's political and economic turmoil is also affecting both food production and food security.

Elephants from the 14,600 square kilometre nature reserve, which lies about 150km south of Victoria Falls on the main road to Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, are straying from the park in search of food, wreaking havoc on the meagre crops villagers were expecting to harvest after the summer rains ended prematurely.

Erica Hlongwane, 46, spends most of her time protecting the remnants of her wilting maize crop from further destruction by elephants, at the expense of her household chores.

"Life has become unbearable because of these elephants which destroy our crops," said Hlongwane, who lives with a teenage daughter and a younger son in the rural Tsholotsho district, about 100km northwest of Bulawayo, in Matabeleland North Province, while her husband works in neighboring South Africa.

"On one hand we worry about the prospect of hunger because of crop failure, while on the other we count the losses stray elephants are causing daily," she told IRIN, displaying a few maize cobs she had managed to salvage after a herd of elephants rampaged through her small field the previous night.

"We also fear the elephants might demolish our pole-and-mud huts," she said. Despite attempts by the villagers to scare away the elephants, using drums and hand-made cymbals, she said bull elephants would sometimes charge the villagers, who are no match for an elephant.

Luang Prabang

Seth Mydans of the New York Times: "The city of Luang Prabang in the mountains of central Laos is being transformed into a replica of itself: its dwellings into guest houses and its rituals into shows for tourists."

Volcano in Colombia

Colombia's Nevado del Huila volcano belched ash and smoke.

Update: There is no imminent risk of a major eruption.

Europe

Volker Mrasek at Spiegel Online in Germany: "Europe is heating up much faster than climate researchers expected, and now they think they know why: air made dramatically cleaner by anti-pollution programs."

After the Fall

Ten thousand monkeys live in and around India's capital. Today one of them fell on a transformer, knocking out power in Central Delhi for several hours.

Elephant Crime

Elephants recently crushed and mutilated two elephant handlers at a nature reserve in Botswana.

Storm Rider

Lightning killed a man and his horse in New Zealand.

Car 54, Where Are You?

From BBC News: "Police in the Australian city of Brisbane were left stranded and embarrassed after a handcuffed suspect drove off in their patrol car."

Newfoundland

A Canadian woman had a staring match with a polar bear.

Sounds of Cairo

The noise in Cairo seems to annoy Michael Slackman of the New York Times. I always have a good time in Cairo. I have many successful friends there. I never notice the cacophony of car horns when I ride in the backseat of a Mercedes-Benz in the city.

Voyage to the Bottom of the Ocean

Why did the Titanic sink? A story in the New York Times has the most likely answer.

Crouching Tigers

The New Yorker has an article about the Sundarbans.

Bronze Crocodile

RIA Novosti: "A statue of a crocodile which ran away from its tamer during a show on the Azov Sea beach and lived for several months on the loose has been erected at the Ukrainian seaport of Mariupol."

Education

A student asked, "Can you recommend a good business school?"

I replied, "Thunderbird."

Poison

Independent Online in South Africa: "Two 19th-century rhino horns stolen from a South African museum could be deadly if sold as a popular aphrodisiac because they are drenched in poison, a museum official said on Monday."

Fortune Hunters

Fortune hunters are scouring southern India's jungles for the hidden treasure of a notorious bandit.

Cacti

According to authorities, smuggling cactus plants is the third biggest racket in Mexico.

Young Wife

Via IOL: "An eight-year-old girl has sought the help of a court judge to seek a divorce after two months of forced marriage to a 30-year-old man in Yemen, press reports said on Sunday."

Update (15 Apr 08): A Yemeni court terminated the marriage.

Villagers Hurt

A leopard injured six villagers in India's state of Jammu and Kashmir. Local residents killed the cat.

"One man fought with his bare hands to save his mother from the leopard," a trader said in an email to me.

Treasure Hunt

Andrew Heavens searched for antiques in Sudan's huge and historic Omdurman Market.

Human Wrongs and Rights

Marie Woolf in the Sunday Times: "The Royal Navy, once the scourge of brigands on the high seas, has been told by the Foreign Office not to detain pirates because doing so may breach their human rights."

CWCID: TigerHawk

In the Navy

A woman led a double life as a call girl and a U.S. Navy officer.

Gray Wolves

Gray wolf

A fierce battle over gray wolves rages in the American West.

(Photo by Gary Kramer/USFWS)

Jin Jing

The courageous, successful efforts of disabled Jin Jing to protect the Olympic torch from Tibetan separatists on a street in Paris made her a heroine in China.

Reading about the woman's valor in a wheelchair, I remembered a paragraph in a political story by Der Spiegel senior correspondent Gabor Steingart: "The now-deceased journalist Johannes Gross once said that, in ordinary life, people are not divided between left and right, dull and clever, or poor and rich. Indeed, Gross said, the dividing line runs between the pleasant and the unpleasant."

Update: Bloggers raised questions about the attack.

Both sides in the Tibet debate have propagandists. The government of the PRC is Communist. The Dalai Lama is a Marxist. Meanwhile, I prefer to help capitalists.

Maritime Piracy

France called for the creation of a multinational force to protect ships against attacks by sea pirates.

Oldest Trees

Scientists may have found the world's oldest living trees.

Noël Coward Was a Spy

"Behind the dandyish image, Noël Coward was an antifascist who could be as tough for England as anyone," notes author Stephen Koch.

Isolated Tribes

Survival International:

Uncontacted tribes in Peru are fleeing across the border to Brazil because illegal mahogany loggers are invading their territory and killing them, according to an uncontacted tribes expert.

Illegal loggers are exploring the headwaters of the Yurua, Purus and Envira rivers in Peru, says a statement by José Carlos dos Reis Meirelles Júnior. This region is inhabited by "several uncontacted tribes who, in order to defend their territory, are attacking the invading loggers and being systematically killed by them."

Cop and Robber

In Pennsylvania a New York cop allegedly robbed a bank.

Update: The cop allegedly pulled off two earlier heists in Manhattan.

Farmer

A Bulgarian farmer traded his spouse for a goat.

Homeward Bound

Somali pirates released the crew of the hijacked French vessel.

Update: The French military captured six of the pirates. CNN's report is here.

Another update: The BBC's report is here.

Previous: Kidnapped

Tokyo

Jun Hongo of the Japan Times:

Prosecutors demanded a 20-year prison term for Kaori Mihashi on Thursday for murdering and dismembering her husband in December 2006 and disposing of the body parts around Tokyo.

The 33-year-old housewife stands accused of fatally striking her husband, Yusuke, with a wine bottle and cutting up his body using saws and kitchen knives.

Update (28 Apr 08): The court sentenced the woman to 15 years in prison.

Gourmet Coffee

"A gourmet coffee blended from animal droppings is being sold at a London department store for GBP 50 (roughly USD 99) per cup," the BBC reports.

Background: The Philippines' taste for civet coffee (BBC News, 11 Apr 2006)

Key

At a London auction a 12th-century key to the Kaaba in Mecca sold for GBP 9.2 million (about USD 18.1 million).

Altar

Archaeologists unearthed an ancient altar in Manchester, England.

Mindanao

Quarry diggers found ancient burial jars in a cave on the Philippine island of Mindanao.

Screams in the Night

Via IOL: "A housewife on Thursday cut off her husband's penis while he was sleeping in their house in the Philippine capital to ensure his fidelity, a police officer said."

The Woman Without a Face

In Europe a mystery woman has committed six murders and a string of thefts in a 15-year spree.

Fat Cat

Orazi the cat loves food.

Robbery in Malaysia

Armed robbers stole roughly USD 1.1 million in cash at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Web site: KLIA

Hunting for Sales in Hong Kong

Message for inexperienced American exporters:

A lioness is one of nature’s most effective huntresses. She studies her prey carefully before she makes a move. Once she launches an attack, she allows nothing to divert her attention from her target until she brings it down through her superior speed, cunning, and reaction time. Her tactics are useful to anyone on the prowl for sales in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is one of most price-sensitive markets in the world. The region’s companies operate in a fast-paced environment. One way for an American entrepreneur to enter the market is to sell to Hong Kong's government. Here are three helpful links:

• Government Procurement Overview
• Information on Government Tenders
• Electronic Tendering System

Siberia

Lucy Ash of the BBC: "The vast forests of Eastern Siberia, known as the Taiga, are a gold mine for Chinese wood traders, who send raw logs over the border to serve their home country's booming economy. But much of the wood trade is illegal."

Bad Influence

A foul-mouthed macaw taught other birds to swear.

Bloody Murder

Three young men chopped off the head of a suspected warlock in the Indian state of Orissa.

Dinosaur Footprints

RIA Novosti: "Geologists in eastern Turkmenistan have discovered more than one hundred fossilized dinosaur footprints, believed to be some 145 million years old, national media said on Wednesday."

Kidnapped

Henning Lohse at Spiegel Online:

On April 4, pirates raided and seized a 288-foot (88-meter), three-masted yacht off the coast of Somalia. As France waits for the pirates' demands and prepares to act militarily, if necessary, the families of the vessel's 30 crew members anxiously await a resolution.

Previous: France and the Pirates

An Emperor's Dagger

Personal dagger of Shah Jahan

From Bonhams:

The late Jacques Desenfans, driven by his passion for Islamic, Indian and South East Asian history and culture, spent over 50 years amassing a most important collection, which includes arms and armour, early pottery and works of art.

On April 10th Bonhams, the international fine art auction house, will sell this fascinating collection, its star lot being a dagger that once belonged to Shah Jahan, the Mughal Emperor (reigned 1627 –1657), who built the Taj Mahal, as a memorial to his beloved wife.

The elegant and understated personal dagger carried by Shah Jahan with its fine gold inscriptions and decoration, dated to 1629-30, is expected to attract bids of around £300,000 – 500,000.

The BBC story is here.

Update: The dagger sold for GBP 1.7 million (approximately USD 3.36 million).

Sambo

At the Christian Science Monitor, Suzy Khimm has a wonderful article about the only elephant in Phnom Penh.

Forced Laborers

Spiegel Online: "Germany's Catholic Church employed almost 6,000 forced laborers during World War II, according to new research commissioned by the church."

Meat and Vegetables

On a riverbank in Zimbabwe, a crocodile killed a 50-year-old man in a vegetable garden.

Camel Buyers

A prince paid USD 2.7 million for a camel.

Update: A sheikh from Abu Dhabi paid more than USD 7 million for two camels.

Previous: Abu Dhabi

Two Faces

USA Today has photos of an Indian girl with two faces.

Amazon Condoms

"The Brazilian government has begun producing condoms using rubber from trees in the Amazon," reports Gary Duffy of BBC News.

Thirty Years' War

Spiegel Online: "Although the war raged for three decades, up to now only one mass grave from the Thirty Years' War had been discovered in Germany. A new find in Bavaria could offer fresh insights into the bloody conflict and its terrible epoch."

NAMSA

Sales tip: The NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency (NAMSA) is the main logistics agency for NATO. Start here to become a supplier.

Web site: NAMSA

Deadly Jaws

A shark killed an Australian teenager (updated).

Golden Girls

Two sixty-something women discovered gold in Sweden. At least six mining companies lined up to make a deal.

Lungless Frog

CBC News: "Researchers working in Borneo have discovered the only known frog with no lungs, the team reported Monday."

Crime and Punishment

A mob beat four robbers to death in Bangladesh.

France and the Pirates

Voice of America: "France has mobilized members of an elite military police force in response to the hijacking of a French yacht last week by Somali pirates."

Yesterday: Contact

Merchants

In Kenya a mob of angry merchants killed five robbers.

"The mob tied, beat, and burned the men," a trader said.

Indian Land

Survival International: "A group of farmers who are illegally occupying indigenous territory in the Brazilian state of Roraima have resorted to guerrilla tactics to resist police attempts to remove them from the land."

Visitors from Africa

Six warriors from Tanzania have become addicted to tea in the UK.

Bad News Bear

A bear killed a man in Japan.

Old Tools

RIA Novosti: "Archaeologists in Australia have unearthed stone tools that are at least 35,000 years old, national media said on Monday."

Termites

"A trader in the Indian state of Bihar has lost his life savings after termites infesting his bank's safe deposit boxes ate them up," says Amarnath Tewary of the BBC.

Carp

Spiegel Online has more news about Knut the polar bear:

Berlin Zoo's Knut has made headlines by eating 10 carp which were placed in his moat to clean it of algae. Animal welfare campaigners are aghast at what one newspaper is calling a "carp scandal." But Knut has proven that even hand-reared polar bears are good predators.

Lynx

BBC News: "A lynx has appeared in the Italian Alps for the first time in 100 years."

Written Proposals

The old advertising slogan “I’d walk a mile for a Camel” conjures up one image in the United States and another in North Africa. To a smoker in America, the statement is about a cigarette. To a desert traveler in the Sahara, the comment is about a mammal. Because of the different meanings in different cultures, the remark is a good example of a poor marketing message in international business.

For exporters, the creation of effective written communications is an essential part of sales. However, many American entrepreneurs admit they need to improve the quality of their written presentations to overseas companies.

Here are 10 tips to help you produce more powerful international proposals:

1. Use a single sales message. The most successful marketers break through the clutter in the global marketplace by emphasizing one memorable sales point. Examples in a presentation are fine. But the examples should always reinforce one central message.

“If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever,” Winston Churchill once said. “Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time.”

While proposal writers need to focus on communicating one major point, they also need to conform to the etiquette of target cultures. Executives in other countries often consider American bluntness offensive.

How do suppliers find the right sales message? “Clear and open communications are the keys to understanding people,” says one highly successful marketer in Florida. His advice: “Listen and ask questions.”

2. Write simply. Creators of international proposals should adopt a clear, concise writing style. They should introduce only one new idea per sentence. This approach makes written presentations easier to understand in English and easier to translate into other languages. Graphs and charts are useful. But they frequently need accompanying explanations.

3. Avoid slang expressions. Most non-Americans with knowledge of textbook English have difficulty understanding almost any American slang expression unless they have heard it in their travels or on television. To these individuals, a piece of cake is simply a dessert.

4. Tell the full story. Buyers in other countries often have limited access to reference books. Consequently, proposal writers need to provide background information in their documents.

5. Don't use unnecessary adjectives. Overseas executives are highly suspicious of American hype. In most cases they prefer crisp, factual presentations with few adjectives and adverbs.

6. Keep criticism of competitors to a minimum. Nasty remarks about competitors are tacky in nearly every culture.

7. Push pencils on prices. The easiest way to build sales quickly is offer the lowest prices. Big profits can come after the decline and fall of your competition.

8. Say the same thing in different ways. Marketers should translate written proposals into the native tongues of destination countries. In the case of dual-language countries, marketers should translate their presentations into both languages.

9. Maintain a professional image. Proposals should look like corporate documents, not like a high school student’s homework.

10. Pay attention to colors. Many colors have different meanings in different cultures. For example, purple is a color for royalty in the United Kingdom and a color for barbarians in parts of China. Sellers often can obtain guidance about the best colors to use in a country by looking at advertisements in the nation's business publications.

Contact

BBC News: "France says it has made contact with Somali pirates who seized a luxury French yacht and its crew of about 30."

Yesterday: Pirates Bold

Hedgehog

A New Zealand man allegedly threw a hedgehog at a teenager.

Muslim Graves

The BBC:

Vandals have desecrated 148 Muslim graves in France's biggest WWI cemetery, officials have said.

A pig's head was hung from one headstone and slogans insulting Islam and France's Muslim justice minister were daubed on other graves.

United Nations

Sales tip: The United Nations Global Marketplace is the procurement portal of the UN System.

Saudi Aramco

Saudi Aramco World features cultural information about the Middle East and the wider Islamic world.

No Electricity

A fat rat caused a power outage in Stockholm's central train station.

Scotland

After the discovery of a woman's severed head and hands on a beach, police found body parts in a suitcase at the bottom of a harbor.

Violent Lawbreakers

Poachers killed a rhino and a soldier in western Nepal.

Haiti

Marc Lacey reports from Port-au-Prince: "Haiti’s supreme master of voodoo, Max Beauvoir, is a voodoo promoter extraordinaire, with his own Web site and a following among foreigners."

In Search of a Lost Africa

You Can't Go Home Again is the title of a novel by Thomas Wolfe.

Helene Cooper went home. The New York Times has an excerpt from her book, The House at Sugar Beach.

Pirates Bold

Via IOL: "Pirates who seized a French luxury cruise yacht and its 30-member crew in the Gulf of Aden were headed Saturday for their Indian Ocean lair off Puntland, northeast Somalia, local officials said."

Yesterday: Somewhere Near Somalia

Snake Thief

In Michigan a female thief stuffed a baby boa constrictor down her pants at a pet store.

Update: The thief returned the snake the next day. The store owner says he has no plans to press charges.

Costa Rica

A crocodile killed a woman in the northern Costa Rican province of Guanacaste.

Aztecs

Neil Bowdler at BBC News: "Researchers in Mexico and the U.S. claim to have cracked the meaning of mysterious ancient symbols on 16th-Century Aztec documents."

Death of a Baby

A 1-year-old girl drowned when she fell into a bucket of home brew at a village in Namibia.

Silver Coins

"Swedish archaeologists have discovered a rare hoard of Viking-age silver Arab coins near Stockholm's Arlanda airport," the BBC reports.

Somewhere Near Somalia

Pirates boarded a French vessel off the coast of Somalia (updated).

Ship Facts: Le Ponant

Zoo

A tiger ate a man at a Chinese zoo.

Baby Crocs

Thieves stole 18 baby crocodiles from a farm in northern Australia.

Man Against Cat

In India a man and a leopard fought each other for nearly 30 minutes at a tea plantation last week.

Insect Eaters

Bats reduce the need for insecticides in the tropics. Kenneth Chang of the New York Times has the story.

Early Americans

BBC News: "Fossilized feces found in a U.S. cave may help solve the riddle of when and how humans came to the Americas."

Ape Escape

The Blotter at the Austin American-Statesman has an item about the latest chimpanzee escape in Texas.

Minneapolis News

A woman bit a dog on the nose.

Wolverine

The wolverine in the Tahoe National Forest is a tourist.

Previous: Wolverine in California

Wild Boars in Berlin

Spiegel Online: "A chance encounter with a wild boar ended in a trip to the emergency room for one unlucky Berlin pensioner. The boar tore open the man's leg in a bid to protect her piglets from the man's dog."

Somewhere between 4,000 and 6,000 wild boars probably live in and around Berlin.

Dhaka

In Bangladesh Mark Dummett of BBC News reports from Dhaka:

Shakhari Bazaar has survived the Mughal empire, the British Raj, the partition of India and the Pakistani army, which killed many Hindu residents during Bangladesh's independence war in 1971.

But one by one its crumbling mansions are now being replaced by overcrowded tenements and the bazaar is becoming another of the city's slums.

Crackdown

The BBC: "Tanzania's president has ordered a crackdown on witch doctors who use body parts from albinos in magic potions to bring people good luck or fortune."

Previous: Magic Potion

Lagos

Each day truckloads of used electronic goods arrive at Nigeria's Alaba International Market in Lagos.

Chimps with Spears

"An unusual band of chimpanzees in Senegal favors the ground over trees," NPR says. "And they know how to get food: with spears."

Unusual Fish

University of Washington:

A fish that would rather crawl into crevices than swim, and that may be able to see in the same way that humans do, could represent an entirely unknown family of fishes, says a University of Washington fish expert.

The fish, sighted in Indonesian waters off Ambon Island, has tan- and peach-colored zebra-striping, and rippling folds of skin that obscure its fins, making it look like a glass sculpture that Dale Chihuly might have dreamed up. But far from being hard and brittle like glass, the bodies of these fist-sized fish are soft and pliable enough to slip and slide into narrow crevices of coral reefs. It's probably part of the reason that they've typically gone unnoticed — until now.

Bite of the Black Mamba

ABC News has an article about efforts to save the victims of black mambas and other venomous snakes in Africa.

My friend G.M., who made wildlife documentaries, wanted to film a black mamba attack. He put a cast on his wife's leg to get the shot.

Crocodile Rider

Jumping on the back of a crocodile, a man helped his wife break free from the jaws of the reptile in Australia.