Malevolent Spirits

Among the top stories at INQUIRER.net is an article about evil spirits at a high school in the Philippines.

Horses in the Big Apple

Carolyn Salazar and Adam Nichols of the New York Post: "The battle lines were drawn yesterday in the escalating war over whether the city's 220 buggy-pulling horses should be set free, or remain beasts of burden."

Boxing

Ingemar Johansson died.

Crouching Tiger

A tiger attacked a fisherman. The Times of India has the details.

Night Invader

Late Thursday night a leopard dragged a 4-year-old boy from a house in India's state of Gujarat. Villagers found the child's half-eaten body in a nearby forest.

Doctor

Steve Marshall, ABC Online, Australia: "A quick-talking Papua New Guinea doctor has saved the life of one man but could not prevent an angry mob murdering and dismembering another man for practicing sorcery."

Ax Murderer

In India's state of Maharashtra, a 24-year-old woman used an ax to send a suspected witch to the spirit world. The victim was the killer's mother-in-law.

European History

Philip Bethge at Der Spiegel: "Were Europeans once cannibals?"

CIA Mole

According to a federal indictment, jailed spy Harold Nicholson sought more money from his Russian handlers, using his 24-year-old son as go-between.

Bird Discovery

VOA News: "An international conservation group says the discovery of a new bird species in southern China suggests the region could be home to many other unknown birds."

Virgin Mary

Prime Ndikumagenge of BBC News: "Worship has been banned on a small rural hill in Burundi, where a woman claims to see the Virgin Mary on the same day of every month."

People of the Wind

Christian Science Monitor:

Skippers hit speeds in excess of 30 m.p.h. as they brave near-hurricane winds, monstrous seas, and flying squid in one of the most harrowing sporting competitions in the world — the Vendée Globe.

Web site: Vendée Globe

Polish Probe

Dispatch from Adam Easton of BBC News: "Investigators in Poland say there is no evidence to back up theories that the country's wartime leader, General Wladyslaw Sikorski, was murdered."

Previous: Polish Leader

Fight for the Arctic

Matthias Schepp and Gerald Traufetter at Der Spiegel:

In a new national directive, Russia has asserted claims on large sections of the Arctic Ocean. The tone of the document is openly aggressive, prompting fears of increasing international tension over who has the right to exploit the mineral-rich territory.

I see no reason to worry. Alaska's Governor Sarah Palin has a rifle.

Previous: Cold War

Raiders

Pirates hijacked a German ship in the Gulf of Aden.

Our Man in Algiers

Mark Mazzetti and David Johnston of the New York Times:

The Central Intelligence Agency’s senior officer in Algeria was recalled to Washington late last year and is under investigation for allegations of drugging and sexually assaulting two women, American officials said Wednesday.

Nine Men

The French Navy arrested nine pirates.

Elephants

Wild elephants killed two women in Indonesia.

Japanese Ships

BBC News: "Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada has ordered the dispatch of ships to fight pirates off Somalia."

Milk and Money

Newcastle University: "A cow with a name produces more milk than one without, scientists at Newcastle University have found."

Swan

"These are anxious days in the German city of Münster, where Petra, the famous swan that fell in love with a swan-shaped pedal boat, has gone missing," Spiegel Online reports.

2012

A. Pawlowski at CNN:

Fueled by a crop of books, Web sites with countdown clocks, and claims about ancient timekeepers, interest is growing in what some see as the dawn of a new era, and others as an expiration date for Earth: December 21, 2012.

Southern California

The Los Angeles Times has a piece about a coyote trapper.

Mother-in-Law

In Zambia a woman used a stick to free her son-in-law from the jaws of a hippopotamus.

"The son-in-law had teeth marks on his buttocks," a traveler said.

Villagers shot the pachyderm.

Tuna

Alisha Ryu at Voice of America:

Following warnings from shipping companies on the impact of Somali piracy on the global shipping industry, tuna fishermen in the Indian Ocean say pirate activities are also affecting their multibillion-dollar industry. But pirates may also be inadvertently playing the role of marine conservationists by preventing commercial overfishing.

Marble Head

CNN: "Archaeologists in Israel have discovered what they believe is the bust of a Roman boxer from the second or third century."

Traditional Healers

Defying a government ban, traditional healers are working openly in Tanzania.

Previous: Albino Murders

Ambush at Dawn

Sumatran tiger

A tiger killed a farmer on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

(Photo credit: Jessie Cohen, NZP)

Business Is Theater

"My lifestyle was my only way of making important contacts," Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi said.

From Time magazine, January 19, 1987:

"Khashoggi's High-Flying Realm"

Young Matador

BBC News: "An 11-year-old Mexican boy has killed six young bulls in a single fight, apparently becoming the world's youngest matador to achieve the feat."

Albino Murders

Via ABC Online, Australia: "Tanzania has revoked the licenses of all its traditional healers in a drive to stop killings of albinos by people who reportedly use their body parts for witchcraft, local media said."

Voice of the Taliban

Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Pir Zubair Shah of the New York Times:

Every night around 8 o’clock, the terrified residents of Swat, a lush and picturesque valley a hundred miles from three of Pakistan’s most important cities, crowd around their radios. They know that failure to listen and learn might lead to a lashing — or a beheading.

Read more.

Wild Animals

A rhinoceros killed a 55-year-old woman, and four elephants killed a 55-year-old man. The attacks took place near Kaziranga National Park in northeastern India.

Flight 943

San Francisco Chronicle:

More than fifty years before Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger III landed the US Airways jetliner in the Hudson River, another Bay Area pilot was hailed as a hero by airline passengers who survived a harrowing Pacific ordeal.

Chronicle staff writer Matthew B. Stannard wrote the article.

The Stew Maker

Via ABC Online, Australia: "A Mexican drug detainee has confessed to dissolving the bodies of 300 rivals with corrosive chemicals near the U.S. border, in a shocking claim even by the standards of Mexico's brutal drug war."

Pirates

Somali pirates released a Liberian-flagged tanker.

Nevada

A python attacked a 3-year-old boy in Las Vegas.

Smithsonian Magazine

The February issue of Smithsonian magazine is up!

Elephant Poacher

Rangers killed an elephant poacher during a gun battle at Tsavo East National Park in Kenya.

Hungry Eyes

The Times of India has a news story about two leopard attacks.

Explosives

"Explosives left over from the Second World War lie under the tarmac at Tegel, Berlin's busiest air hub," Spiegel Online says.

Car Thief

BBC News: "Police in Nigeria are holding a goat handed to them by a vigilante group, which said it was a car thief who had used witchcraft to change shape."

Phone

Via IOL: "A Canadian marijuana grower was busted — after his 11-month-old son called the police."

Guantánamo

Robert F. Worth of the New York Times: "The emergence of a former Guantánamo Bay detainee as leader of Al Qaeda’s Yemeni branch illustrates the pitfalls of closing the detention center."

Albino Man

Via IOL: "Criminals with suspected links to witch doctors murdered an albino man in northern Tanzania and chopped off his right leg, an official said on Thursday."

Spitting Cobras

University of Chicago Press: "Spitting cobras have an exceptional ability to spray venom into eyes of potential attackers. A new study published in Physiological and Biochemical Zoology reveals how these snakes maximize their chances of hitting the target."

Pacific Ocean

Press release from the University of Auckland: "New research into language evolution suggests most Pacific populations originated in Taiwan around 5,200 years ago."

Camel Vet

Anna-Marie Lever, BBC News: "Dr Akbar's patient refuses to enter the surgery room. She kicks and growls. But Dr Akbar is used to dealing with stubborn customers as he treats Dubai's racing and breeding camels."

Saharan Spider

Caroline Winter at Spiegel Online: "Forget about crawling. A spider discovered in the Sahara Desert moves by doing a series of hand springs across the sand — and travels surprisingly fast."

Indonesian Fishermen

ABC Online, Australia: "An Australian livestock ship has rescued three Indonesian fishermen in waters off Java after finding them floating on wooden debris."

Saddam's Yacht

BBC News: "The Iraqi government's attempts to sell a luxury yacht that once belonged to Saddam Hussein have foundered."

Previous: Yacht

A Second Time

This evening Barack Obama retook the presidential oath of office.

Yesterday: Oath

Smithsonian's National Zoo

Photo credit: Ann Batdorf, NZP

NPR: "The National Zoo is asking Washington-area homeowners with bamboo to help feed its three giant pandas."

Bamboo

Bamboo facts from Smithsonian's National Zoo:

1. There are more than 1,000 species of this tree-like member of the grass family. Southeast Asia has nearly half the world’s species, with China having more than any other country.

2. Bamboo stalks can grow two feet in a single day. Temperate bamboo can grow to its full height of 60 feet in a couple of months. By contrast, it can take 60 years to replace a 60-foot tree.

3. Bamboo is composed of a stalk, also called a culm, and a network of underground stems and roots. The strong culm is stabilized by a series of reinforced notches, known as nodes.

4. Underground, the bamboo stems, or rhizomes, are so strong that people have taken refuge from earthquakes in old bamboo groves because they know the rhizomes will hold the earth together.

Moscow

RIA Novosti:

Riot police on Wednesday detained some 30 people dressed as mummies, who attempted to gather on Moscow's Red Square calling for the burial of Russian communist leader Vladimir Lenin, a police spokesman said.

On Wednesday Russia celebrates the 85th anniversary of Lenin's death. His embalmed body has been on public display in a glass case in a mausoleum in Red Square since his death following a series of strokes in 1924. His continuing presence in the heart of Moscow has been an ongoing source of controversy since the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Newspaper

Alan Cowell and Eric Pfanner of the New York Times:

Aleksandr Y. Lebedev, a Russian tycoon and former K.G.B. agent who was stationed in Britain during the Cold War, has agreed to buy a majority stake in the Evening Standard, an afternoon newspaper in London that has long been part of the fabric of the city.

Cooler Heads

Via ABC Online, Australia: "Three severed heads have been found stuffed inside a cooler outside the Guadalupe town hall, in Mexico's Chihuahua state, police said."

Help! I Need Somebody!

Photo credit: Jessie Cohen, NZP

The world's frenzy to go green continues to threaten orangutans.

Oath

Carolyn Lochhead, San Francisco Chronicle: "Several constitutional lawyers said President Barack Obama should, just to be safe, retake the oath of office that Chief Justice John Roberts flubbed."

Ferocious Beetle

James Morgan of BBC News:

It was rooted at the rear end of the food chain, but now the humble dung beetle is biting back.

A ferocious scarab species has been filmed in Peru attacking and eating millipedes 10 times its length.

Frog Legs

From ABC Online, Australia: "Researchers say the world's increasing appetite for frog legs is driving some species to extinction."

Ideas

Spiegel Online:

The city of Berlin has long been trying to decide what to do with the monumental Tempelhof airport, built in the heart of the city by the Nazis. Some of the most recent proposals include a 1,000-meter mountain and a gigantic red-light district.

How about a whorehouse on a hill?

More Fish

University of Rhode Island:

While many of the world’s fisheries are in serious decline, the coastal Mediterranean fishery off the Nile Delta has expanded dramatically since the 1980s.

The surprising cause of this expansion, which followed a collapse of the fishery after completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1965, is run-off of fertilizers and sewage discharges in the region, according to a researcher at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography.

Icebox

"Two Burmese fishermen have survived for almost a month in shark-infested waters by floating on a large icebox after their fishing boat sank," Nick Bryant of BBC News reports.

Farmer

A rhino killed a farmer in India's state of Assam.

Ancient Peru

University of Florida:

First came the earthquakes, then the torrential rains. But the relentless march of sand across once fertile fields and bays, a process set in motion by the quakes and flooding, is probably what did in America’s earliest civilization.

So concludes a group of anthropologists in a new assessment of the demise of the coastal Peruvian people who built the earliest, largest structures in North or South America before disappearing in the space of a few generations more than 3,600 years ago.

Background: "First City in the New World?" (Smithsonian magazine, August 2002)

Tiger Hunters

BBC News: "Wildlife wardens in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh are hunting three tigers that have killed eight people since November."

Jaguar

A jaguar mauled a zookeeper in Maryland.

Wild Geese and Other Birds

Spiegel Online:

Bird strikes of the type that forced US Airways Flight 1549 to land in the Hudson River in New York last Thursday are becoming increasingly common because of stricter wildlife conservation rules that are boosting bird populations.

Mysterious Blue Light

Did a flying saucer crash into the Baltic Sea?

Bathing Site

RIA Novosti:

A decapitated human head was discovered in the southern Russian city of Saratov as workers were preparing an ice hole for traditional Epiphany bathing, a source in the local rescue service said on Monday.

According to Russian Orthodox tradition, believers bathe in holes in the ice on January 19 to commemorate the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan.

"Around noon yesterday, rescuers and divers submerged to check the water ahead of Epiphany bathing, and discovered a bag containing a ball-like object," the source said. When they opened the bag, they found a severed head and a brick inside.

Elderly Woman

Villagers used sticks to beat a suspected witch in the Indian state of Bihar. The old woman suffered serious head injuries. Two members of the woman's family also suffered injuries when they tried to save her.

South Pole

Three men with links to Sir Ernest Shackleton reached the South Pole today.

The Big Chill

IOL has news from Thailand: "Thais are donning scarves, farmers are scrambling to save their rice crops and snakes are freezing to death."

Come Spy with Me

Sam Roberts of the New York Times:

Julius Rosenberg, who recruited his brother-in-law David Greenglass to steal atomic secrets, also enlisted a second spy to penetrate the Manhattan Project, the program that developed the atomic bomb during World War II, according to a new book by authorities on Soviet espionage.

Old Gold

In England a man with a metal detector discovered a hoard of ancient coins.

Big Herd

A herd of 150 elephants killed three people and destroyed four homes at a village in the Indian state of Assam.

Air Force One

Los Angeles Times: "The Pentagon is open to the idea of European firm Airbus building the next fleet of planes that carry the president."

Easy Come, Easy Go

Andrew Jacobs of the New York Times: "After a boom and a bust in the market for Pu’er tea, a region in China’s southwest has learned a lesson about gullibility, greed and speculation."

Previous: Tea

Louis L'Amour

Sioux warriors scalped one of Louis L'Amour's great-grandfathers.

From the New York Times, June 13, 1988:

Louis L'Amour (1908-1988)

Ambassador

New York Times scribe Ellen Barry in Moscow: "John Beyrle, the new American ambassador to Russia, grew up listening to war stories from his father, who fought with the Soviets during World War II."

Nutcrackers

"Researchers have found that bearded capuchin monkeys in the wild will select the most effective stone for use in cracking nuts," Henry Fountain of the New York Times says.

Ivory-Billed Woodpeckers

University of Georgia:

Until credible sightings popped up three years ago, the scientific world was in agreement that ivory-billed woodpeckers had gone the way of the dodo. A new study conducted by University of Georgia researchers reveals that the ivory-billed woodpecker could have persisted if as few as five mated pairs survived the extensive habitat loss during the early 1900s.

Shark Thief

New York Post: "In what may be the fishiest case of shoplifting ever, a Long Island man stole a shark from a pet store's tank by putting it under his coat and sneaking away, cops said yesterday."

Piracy

The commander of U.S. and coalition naval forces in the Middle East favors a more aggressive approach in the fight against piracy off the coast of Somalia.

Ransom Paid

Somali pirates released a Danish cargo ship.

Drunks at Work

Dan Collyns, BBC News: "Peru's highest court has ruled that employees cannot be fired for turning up to work drunk."

California Brown Pelicans

Jesse McKinley, New York Times: "A report says a brutal snowstorm is responsible for killing the hundreds of endangered California brown pelicans that have been found dead or dying since late December."

Russians

In the Gulf of Aden a Russian naval vessel foiled a pirate attack.

Actors

Patrick McGoohan died. Ricardo Montalbán passed away, too.

Chemical Warfare

England's University of Leicester: "A researcher from the University of Leicester has identified what looks to be the oldest archaeological evidence for chemical warfare — from Roman times."

Helicopter Crash

RIA Novosti: "The Russian officials killed and injured in a helicopter crash last week in Altai, south Siberia, were hunting endangered animals, a Russian business daily said on Wednesday."

Pre-Columbian Artifacts

FBI: "Today the FBI returned to the government of Panama more than 100 ancient artifacts uncovered during an investigation conducted by the FBI’s Portland Division."

Norwegian Vessel

Nigerian pirates attacked a Norwegian ship.

Somali Pirates

David McKenzie at CNN:

One of the pirates who held a Saudi oil supertanker off Somalia before releasing it for ransom has told CNN how five in his group drowned when the boat in which they left the ship capsized as they tried to evade rival pirates seeking a cut of the money.

Related: Somali pirates released two ships.

Virgin

"A 22-year-old woman's quest to auction off her virginity has snared hundreds of bidders, including one who says he'll pay $3.8 million to seal the deal — but only if he can tape the magic moment," reports Larry Sutton of the New York Post.

Nigeria's White Priestess

BBC News: "Suzanne Wenger, the Austrian artist who dedicated her life to saving traditional Nigerian spiritual beliefs, has died aged 94."

Previous: White Priestess

Born Traders

University of Cambridge:

Financial traders’ success may depend more on their biological traits than on their ability to make rational choices, researchers at the University of Cambridge have discovered.

The research, published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), found that individuals who were exposed to high levels of prenatal testosterone tended to be more profitable traders.

Testosterone, a steroid hormone, surges between the 9th and 18th week of gestation, exerting powerful organizing effects on the developing body and brain. According to both animal and human studies, these effects may include increased confidence, risk-preferences and search persistence, as well as heightened vigilance and quickened reaction times.

Gujarat

Last night a leopard injured eight villagers in India's state of Gujarat. Forest rangers set traps to catch the spotted prowler.

Tanzania

Murderers hacked a man and his wife to death at a home in western Tanzania. According to villagers, the victims were notorious witches.

Papua New Guinea

Steve Marshall at ABC Online, Australia:

A spike in sorcery-related murders in Papua New Guinea has prompted the country's government to draft new laws to curb the number of witchcraft killings.

In the past 12 months more than 50 people have been killed in sorcery-related murders in two Highlands provinces.

Trip to Tombouctou

Jude Sheerin of BBC News:

A voyage to fabled Timbuktu in a flying car may sound like a magical childhood fantasy.

But this week a British adventurer will set off from London on an incredible journey through Europe and Africa in a souped-up sand buggy, traveling by road — and air.

Taliban Territory

Paul Watson of the Los Angeles Times spent some time with Taliban fighters.

Fisherman Caught

A tiger killed a fisherman on a riverbank in the Indian state of West Bengal. The cat walked off with the body.

Mama Never Came Home

RIA Novosti:

Two sisters have been found dead in an apartment in the city of Dzerzhinsk, 400 kilometers east of Moscow, two months after their mother was killed in a car crash, according to Russian police reports.

The infant girls, born in 2007 and 2008, were found dead of malnutrition and dehydration in their apartment on January 3. Their mother, who was raising the children alone after her husband left the family in September, was killed in a car accident last November.

According to the local police report, neighbors heard the children crying for several days; but none of them notified police.

Serial Killers

RIA Novosti:

Serial killers have committed over 500 murders in Russia in the last three years, the head of Russia's top investigative body said on Sunday.

"Russia registered over 500 serial murders in the past three years. Investigators solved 132 murders in 11 serial killer cases in 2007-2008," Alexander Bastyrkin said in an interview published on the Prosecutor General's Investigation Committee Web site.

He said these crimes posed a particularly serious threat to society because of their deliberate and inhumane nature.

In the most notorious recent case, Alexander Pichushkin, 33, nicknamed the "chessboard killer" for his habit of marking off his victims on the squares of a chessboard, was convicted in 2007 of 48 murders.

Small Manufacturers

"Small manufacturers in New York City serving niche markets and wealthy customers are proving surprisingly resilient in the struggling economy," says Christine Haughney of the New York Times.

Novelist

Leon Uris (1924-2003) was a high school dropout.

New York Times obituary, June 25, 2003

Northern Ireland

The Belfast Telegraph has a report about a ghost in County Tyrone.

Bankers

Vikas Bajaj and John Eligon of the New York Times:

Iranian banks illegally shifted billions of dollars through American financial institutions in recent years, and authorities suspect some of the money may have been used to finance Iran’s nuclear and missile programs.

Crown Jewels

Bob Pool of the Los Angeles Times: "Socialite Patte Barham, scion of a pioneering L.A. family, is intent on uncovering the crown jewels of the czar of Russia. She says they're buried in the Gobi Desert."

Masked Man

In Ohio a masked man waited in line to rob a bank.

Jumbo Meals

Zimbabwean soldiers are eating elephants.

Mario Puzo

Author Mario Puzo hated violence.

From Mel Gussow, New York Times, July 3, 1999:

When Mr. Puzo wrote The Godfather in the late 1960s, he did it reluctantly. His first two novels had received favorable reviews but had earned him a total of $6,500. At 45 and in debt, he thought he was going downhill fast as a writer. But he had some favorite stories to tell about the Mafia, and for the money, he decided to write a book about Italian-Americans in organized crime.

Japanese Fisherman

A paraplegic Japanese fisherman without a life jacket treaded water for 15 hours after he had fallen into the sea.

Venomous Mammal

Rebecca Morelle of BBC News:

Rare footage of one of the world's most strange and elusive mammals has been captured by scientists.

Large, and with a long, thin snout, the Hispaniolan solenodon resembles an overgrown shrew; it can inject passing prey with a venom-loaded bite.

Supertanker

BBC News: "A Saudi supertanker that was captured by Somali pirates in November carrying two million barrels of oil has been released, reports quoting pirates say."

Task Force

Voice of America:

U.S. Navy officials have announced the formation of a new international force to fight piracy in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Somalia.

A statement Thursday issued by the Bahrain-based U.S. Fifth Fleet says the task force will include assets from 20 nations, and will be led by U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Terence McKnight. The statement did not name the specific nations participating in the force.

Warships from a number of nations including China, Malaysia and the European Union are already patrolling the region to secure the shipping lanes.

Also Thursday, a senior official in Taipei said Taiwan is considering sending warships to protect Taiwanese fishing vessels against Somali pirates.

Queen

Via ABC Online, Australia: "Egyptian archaeologists have uncovered what are thought to be the mummified remains of Queen Sesheshet, the mother of a pharaoh who ruled for 11 years around 2,300 BC."

World War II

Spiegel Online:

The Polish city of Malbork has found a mass grave with the remains of some 1,800 people, thought to be former German residents of the town. They apparently died as the Red Army marched through Poland — and some of them appear to have been executed.

MI5

John F. Burns of the New York Times:

One hundred years after Britain’s domestic intelligence agency was founded, its director general, Jonathan Evans, became the first head of the agency to grant an interview.

Web site: MI5

Bubbles

In California the Orange County Register has an article about Bubbles the hippo.

First Americans

Cell Press: "The first people to arrive in America traveled as at least two separate groups to arrive in their new home at about the same time, according to new genetic evidence published online on January 8th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication."

I Want to Be Alone

Photo credit: Ann Batdorf, NZP

Via IOL: "A panda with a record of aggressive behavior attacked a man who jumped into its enclosure at a Beijing zoo to pick up a toy, local media said on Thursday."

Neighbor

New York Daily News: "The long-missing body of John Gotti's Howard Beach neighbor was dissolved in a barrel of acid, an informant says."

Thrillers

Eric Ambler elevated the spy novel to the level of literature.

From the New York Times, October 24, 1998:

Eric Ambler (1909-1998)

Saltillo

The New York Times has a follow-up on the abduction of Felix Batista.

Previous: Kidnapped in Mexico

Lucrezia Borgia

USC historian Diane Yvonne Ghirardo dug up new information about Lucrezia Borgia.

Skier

BBC News: "A skier was left dangling from a chairlift at an American resort after he became stuck upside down with his ski trousers round his ankles."

Holdup in New York City

Murray Weiss, Austin Fenner & Jeremy Olshan of the New York Post:

In a heist straight out of Guy Ritchie's film Snatch, a pair of armed robbers disguised themselves as Hasidic Jews to steal $4 million worth of jewels from a Diamond District wholesaler in broad daylight, law-enforcement sources told the Post.

Ships of the Desert

India's camel trade faces new challenges. Voice of America has the story.

Malayan Box Turtle

TRAFFIC:

The Malayan box turtle is disappearing across Malaysia despite a ban on its export, finds a new report by TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network. The turtles are in high demand in East Asia for their meat and for use in traditional Chinese medicine.

Pirates

Pirate news from the BBC:

Somalia: "A Turkish ship and its crew held by Somali pirates since October have been released, the ship's owner says."

Nigeria: "Nine crew members of a French ship taken hostage at the weekend off the coast of Nigeria have been freed."

Burned at the Stake

Via ABC Online, Australia: "A young Papua New Guinea woman was lashed naked to a pole and burnt to death in what authorities fear may be another sorcery killing in the jungle interior of the country, local media reported."

Pink Iguana

Henry Fountain, New York Times: "Charles Darwin was about as keen an observer of nature as ever walked the earth, but even he missed the pink iguana of the Galápagos."

Historic Shipwreck

Australian National Maritime Museum:

Australian National Maritime Museum archaeologists have almost certainly found the site of an intriguing 1829 shipwreck on the Great Barrier Reef some 20 km off the coast of North Queensland.

Scanning Flora Reef, 13 km east of the Frankland Islands off Cairns, they have found an anchor and other metal fittings which probably mark the final resting place of HM Colonial Schooner Mermaid, a government vessel that ran aground and broke up on a voyage from Sydney to Port Raffles (in what is now the Northern Territory).

Farewell, Cruel World

"German billionaire industrialist Adolf Merckle committed suicide by lying down in front of a train near his home on Monday evening," Spiegel Online says.

Elvis of Fiction

Here is a 2006 article about Micket Spillane.

Young Gun

In Ohio an angry 4-year-old boy shot his babysitter.

Nigerian Coast

Voice of America: "A French company says pirates off the coast of Nigeria have seized one of its ships and nine crew members."

Trophy Heads

Press release from Chicago's Field Museum:

The mystery of why ancient South American peoples who created the mysterious Nazca Lines also collected human heads as trophies has long puzzled scholars who theorize the heads may have been used in fertility rites, taken from enemies in battle or associated with ancestor veneration.

A recent study using specimens from Chicago's Field Museum throws new light on the matter by establishing that trophy heads came from people who lived in the same place and were part of the same culture as those who collected them.

Background: Culture

Bull Riders

John Branch of the New York Times: "No sport packs as much into eight seconds as bull riding."

Balls of Fire

Via IOL: "An Australian woman who allegedly set fire to her husband's genitals because she believed he was having an affair appeared in court on a murder charge on Monday."

Piracy

The French Navy captured more pirates in the Gulf of Aden.

Damon Runyon

From Time magazine, December 23, 1946: "After the fourth grade in Pueblo, Colo., Damon Runyon's schooling ended, and his education began."

That's Show Business

Via IOL: "A gang of monkeys attacked their owner after growing tired of performing tricks for him."

Khat

Los Angeles Times: "Khat — is it more coffee or cocaine?"

Dungeness Crab

Richard Harris at NPR: "It's become an arms race to catch crab."

Previous: Maverick

Chinese Cargo Ship

People's Daily: "A Chinese cargo ship shook off two pirate boats that were pursuing it in the Gulf of Aden on Friday, said an official with the country's maritime search and rescue center."

Men on Horses

Dexter Filkins of the New York Times: "The object of buzkashi — a popular game in Afghanistan — is to grab the goat, gallop round the pole with the carcass in hand, race back toward the circle and drop the goat inside."

Winchell

New York gossip columnist Walter Winchell occasionally had a genuine hard-news scoop.

"In one instance he announced the slaying of gangster Vincent (Mad Dog) Coll six hours before it actually happened," Time magazine said in 1972.

Ding, Dong, the Cat Is Dead

A leopard injured six people at a village in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Local residents used sticks and stones to kill the cat.

Greek Tanker

RIA Novosti:

A naval mission of the European Union has thwarted the seizure of a Greek tanker by pirates off Somalia, the Greek merchant marine ministry said on Friday.

"Today at about 9:50 a.m. local time, an attempt was made by pirates to seize the Kriti Episkopi tanker, which was sailing under the Greek flag in the Gulf of Aden near the coast of Somalia. The crew, in particular, included six Greek sailors," the ministry said.

Initially, the ship's captain managed to escape a boat with armed pirates by maneuvering the ship and later the pirates were driven away by a Spanish warplane and a Dutch frigate, the ministry said.

French Warship

Via ABC Online, Australia: "A French warship thwarted an attack by Somali pirates on a cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden and arrested eight men, the French military said."

Donald E. Westlake

"Donald E. Westlake, a prolific, award-winning mystery novelist who pounded out more than 100 books and five screenplays on manual typewriters during his half-century career, died Wednesday night," reports Jennifer 8. Lee of the New York Times.

Khyber Patrols

Pakistani officials plan to reopen the Khyber Pass soon.

Previous: Khyber Pass

Uncut Jules

Jules Crittenden reveals biographical details about himself.

Torture Chambers

Nicholas D. Kristof of the New York Times: "As long as 14-year-old girls are being jolted with electric shocks to make them smile before sex tourists in Cambodia, the abolitionist cause for slavery has not been completed."

Public Library

One of my acquaintances worked as a librarian at the reference desk of a public library in Pennsylania. During her career she received some strange inquiries over the phone. The most bizarre question came fron a female caller: "Can I get pregnant from my dog?"

Egyptian Vessel

Via ABC Online, Australia: "Somali pirates have seized an Egyptian merchant ship off the Somali coast and are taking it to Somalia with the crew of 28 Egyptians as hostages, a foreign ministry official said."

Bad News and Good News

Tamara Keith: "Retailers suffered through an awful holiday season, and for many, the trouble is far from over. But for some companies, a dismal retail environment can actually be good for business."