Jungle Trader

Egypt

2011-08-08T14:24:00.000-04:00

RIA Novosti: "An Egyptian woman has applied for divorce after her husband's cooking skills proved to be better than her own, the local Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper reported on Monday."

Mexico

2011-08-07T20:46:00.000-04:00

Ginger Thompson of the New York Times:

The United States is expanding its role in Mexico's bloody fight against drug-trafficking organizations, sending new C.I.A. operatives and retired military personnel to the country and considering plans to deploy private security contractors in hopes of turning around a multibillion-dollar effort that so far has shown few results.

Alaska

2011-08-07T15:20:00.005-04:00

"A massive patch of bright orange material washed up on the Alaskan coast, and has scientists baffled," says Michael Sheridan of the New York Daily News.

Middle East

2011-08-07T15:00:00.004-04:00

Tip from an Arab trader: "Never underestimate the propaganda skills of political and social activists in the Middle East. People from the region spread Islam and Christianity around the world."

Marriage

2011-08-06T19:52:00.002-04:00

Farangis Najibullah and Maliha Amirzada at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: "Far from the busy floors of the world's major commodity-trading centrers, rising gold prices are taking their toll on marital tradition in Pakistan."

Iowa

2011-08-06T18:49:00.002-04:00

Nina Mandell of the New York Daily News: An Iowa man admitted that he threw a cat down from a seventh-floor apartment — after he tried to have sex with the defenseless feline."

Bavaria

2011-08-06T18:44:00.000-04:00

Spiegel Online: "For weeks now, a runaway cow named Yvonne has been wandering the woods along a Bavarian highway, eluding capture and stalling traffic."

Hiatus

2011-08-06T18:39:00.000-04:00

I apologize for my recent absence from this blog for medical reasons.

Empire State

2011-07-05T18:18:00.001-04:00

CBS: "A monster plant with flowers the size of umbrellas and sap that causes blisters and blindness is spreading across New York."

France

2011-07-05T17:57:00.000-04:00

Time: "Hundreds of Web sites are claiming that after an apocalypse on December 21, 2012, only the small village of Bugarach, at the foot of this rocky citadel, will be left standing."

Germany

2011-07-05T13:29:00.002-04:00

An armored truck lost nearly 1 million euros on the Autobahn.

Italy

2011-07-05T12:39:00.002-04:00

Gaia Pianigiani, New York Times: "Italian cowboys have roamed the Tuscan marshes for centuries, and while their numbers are dwindling, they are defying extinction with the same resilience as the cattle they have tended."

Mongolia

2011-07-05T12:22:00.003-04:00

Mongolia's economy could become one of the world’s fastest-growing over the next decade.

Hard to Kill

2011-07-04T13:25:00.001-04:00

According to Cuba's Ministry of the Interior, there were 637 attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro between 1959 and 1999.

Source: Alex von Tunzelmann

Papa Hemingway

2011-07-04T13:21:00.004-04:00

"After 50 Years, Remembering Hemingway's Farewell"

Hangzhou

2011-07-03T14:20:00.000-04:00

Belfast Telegraph: "A two-year-old Chinese girl left unattended fell 10 floors from her family's apartment window and survived after being caught by a woman passing by, state media has reported."

Iraq

2011-07-03T14:12:00.000-04:00

Tom Arango of the New York Times: "Members of Iraq’s well-trained special operations force say that American troops must stay longer to continue training and advising."

Lebanon

2011-07-02T18:22:00.000-04:00

Voice of America:

Hezbollah's leader says Lebanese authorities will never be able to arrest the four members of his militant group who have been indicted by a U. N.-backed tribunal in the murder of a former Lebanese prime minister.

Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said Saturday in a televised address the suspects will not be turned in “even in 300 years.'' A high-ranking Hezbollah militant and three others were accused in the 2005 assassination of Rafik Hariri.

The bombing killed Hariri and 22 other people. A billionaire businessman, Hariri was Lebanon's most prominent politician after the 15-year civil war ended in 1990.

The Iran-backed militant group has denied any involvement in Mr. Hariri's killing and has threatened to “cut off the hand” of anyone who tries to arrest its members in the case.

Nasrallah's televised speech marked his first comments since the indictment was announced Thursday.

Hezbollah dominates the new Lebanese government formed earlier this month by Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

Central African Republic

2011-07-02T15:56:00.000-04:00

"Gold Fever Draws African Farmers From Fields"

Cars for Women, Camels for Men

2011-07-02T15:03:00.000-04:00

From RFE/RL: "Bare breasts, hijabs, and fried eggs are not common ingredients in social protest movements. But to Femen — a Ukrainian feminist movement — such tactics are par for the course."

Previous: Ukraine

Vatican

2011-07-02T14:49:00.001-04:00

VOA: "The Vatican says it was profitable in 2010, after three years of being financially in the red."

Kerala

2011-07-02T14:42:00.000-04:00

Ashraf Padanna of the BBC: "Treasure, thought to be worth billions of rupees, has been unearthed from secret underground chambers in a temple in the southern Indian state of Kerala."

Maritime Southeast Asia

2011-07-02T14:40:00.002-04:00

"Bajau Laut: Gypsies of the Sea"

Opinion

2011-07-02T13:46:00.036-04:00

I was a gung-ho American soldier during the Vietnam War. I no longer support American efforts to promote democracy around the world. I won't hesitate to squash a malicious enemy like a bug to defend the United States. But I don't favor an interventionist foreign policy.

In the Persian Gulf War of 1991, American military personnel fought to free Kuwait. During the conflict, many Kuwaiti men of military age partied in Cairo and other safe cities. The cowards from Kuwait reminded me of Vietnamese cowards in Saigon before April 30, 1975. People should fight their own battles.

Barack Obama's arrogant decision to attack Libya angered me. In my view the President needs an attitude adjustment. He thinks he's at the top of the pecking order. Actually, he's at the bottom as a servant of the people.

Somewhere along the line, I lost faith in the federal government of the United States. I avoid American embassies when I travel outside the country. I stay away for a reason. Almost every major problem in my life had its genesis in a U.S. government decision.

The speeches of America's provincial politicians often offend people in other lands. Chester Bowles (1901-1986) was a Democratic diplomat and politician in the United States. He wrote, "The problems of foreign affairs are complex, involving politics, economic and social questions that require both understanding of history and various world cultures." I agree with his observation. Without extensive knowledge about other societies, America's political leaders don't have the proper foundation to construct solutions to international problems.

An Egyptian Air Force general once described me as a Western man with Eastern thinking. I won't argue with his conclusion. I am full of contradictions. At a rifle range I sing peace songs when I shoot at targets.

This morning I remembered a recommendation from an American comedian, Brother Dave Gardner (1926-1983). He said, "Love your enemies and drive them nuts." That seems like pretty good advice.

Thuringia

2011-07-01T13:12:00.000-04:00

Matthias Schulz at Der Spiegel:

When archeologists recently excavated a 3,800-year-old palace near the eastern German city of Weimar, they discovered about 100 valuable weapons buried next to a massive structure. Now they are puzzling over how an ancient chieftain buried nearby became so rich.

Alaska Airlines

2011-06-30T18:25:00.000-04:00

"Scorpion Stings Man on Flight from Seattle to Anchorage"

United Kingdom

2011-06-30T17:56:00.001-04:00

Lukas I. Alpert, New York Daily News: "A breeder of deadly snakes in England was killed after being bitten by one of his king cobras."

Snake

2011-06-30T12:56:00.000-04:00

Spiegel Online has a report about a two-headed python.

Insect

2011-06-30T12:37:00.000-04:00

"Bug Makes Record Noise with Penis"

Jewels

2011-06-30T12:11:00.002-04:00

VOA News: "Authorities in Spain say they have recovered $9 million worth of stolen jewelry that allegedly belonged to the late former first lady of Argentina, Eva Perón."

India

2011-06-29T12:34:00.000-04:00

"The Indian Horses Bred to Fight Elephants"

New Zealand

2011-06-29T12:11:00.000-04:00

Voice of America:

New Zealand's specially constituted “penguin advisory group” has decided the fate of “Happy Feet,” an emperor penguin that turned up unexpectedly on a New Zealand beach last week.

The team of wildlife experts put together by the New Zealand Department of Conservation said Wednesday the preferred option is to release the lost bird in the open ocean at the northern edge of the species' normal range.

The experts said they advised against returning the penguin, dubbed Happy Feet by an adoring New Zealand public, to Antarctica because emperor penguins of its age normally live at sea or on pack ice. They also decided against keeping it in captivity because the country has no suitable facilities.

In any case, Happy Feet is not going anywhere right away. The penguin will remain in New Zealand for weeks or months while it recovers from three rounds of surgery to clear its stomach of sticks and sand it apparently ate in the mistaken belief it was snow.

Previous: Happy Feet

Uganda

2011-06-29T12:03:00.001-04:00

Voice of America:

Ugandan media reports say that lightning killed 18 children at a primary school in western Uganda on Tuesday, the latest in a series of deadly lightning strikes in the country.

State-owned newspaper The New Vision says the students died instantly as they were waiting for a thunderstorm to end at the Runyanya Primary School in the Kiryandongo district . The newspaper also said that 36 people were injured in the strike, which occurred at 4:30 p.m. local time.

The paper also reports that a separate lightning strike injured 37 children and two teachers at a primary school in the country's northern district of Zombo on Tuesday.

The report says that lightning strikes have killed more than 40 people in Uganda in recent weeks. Experts say a lack of lightning rods on many Ugandan buildings may be partly to blame for the high number of casualties in the country.

Pollock

2011-06-28T15:28:00.001-04:00

Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences:

At a glance, a painting by Jackson Pollock (1912–56) can look deceptively accidental: just a quick flick of color on a canvas.

A quantitative analysis of Pollock's streams, drips, and coils, by Harvard mathematician L. Mahadevan and collaborators at Boston College, reveals, however, that the artist had to be slow — he had to be deliberate — to exploit fluid dynamics in the way that he did.

Men in Drag

2011-06-28T13:58:00.003-04:00

VOA News: "More and more male militants are dressing as women to escape capture from security forces in Afghanistan."

Dog Meat

2011-06-28T13:47:00.000-04:00

ABC Online, Australia: "A South Korean dog-meat festival has been cancelled after outrage and protests from animal-rights activists."

Germany

2011-06-28T13:31:00.001-04:00

Michael Fröhlingsdorf at Der Spiegel:

Police in the German state of Lower Saxony had ambitious plans to search for corpses with vultures, a tactic that could have been revolutionary in locating missing persons. The idea sparked widespread interest among law enforcement officials. Unfortunately the raptors themselves have little interest in the job.

Previous: Vultures

Night Train

2011-06-27T19:14:00.000-04:00

Voice of America:

A Russian military court on Monday handed down a 25-year sentence to a former senior intelligence officer for exposing 10 agents who were spying on the United States.

Colonel Alexander Poteyev was found guilty in absentia of high treason and desertion for betraying the so-called “sleeper cell” network whose agents posed as American professionals in order to gain access to advanced technologies and sensitive information.

Poteyev is believed to be living in the United States after fleeing Moscow by night train on word that the agents were being rounded up in June of last year. He left his wife behind and in a mobile phone message read to the court he told her, “I am leaving not for some time, but forever.”

The spy ring included red-head Anna Chapman who on her arrest became something of a media sensation. She and the other agents were deported in exchange for four Westerners jailed in Russia on suspicion of spying. It was the biggest spy swap since the Cold War.

Security analysts say the detection of the cell delivered a major blow to Russia's foreign intelligence efforts by revealing weaknesses in its surveillance program that had been the pride of the Kremlin since Soviet times.

Vietnam

2011-06-27T14:20:00.000-04:00

Voice of America:

Vietnam will begin on Friday to carry out the death penalty by lethal injection instead of firing squad.

Legislators looking for a more humane method of carrying out the death penalty approved the change last year.

The government said lethal injection causes less pain for the condemned and reduces psychological pressure on the executioners.

The new law will also allow families to claim the bodies of the executed for burial.

Vietnamese authorities regard execution statistics to be a state secret, so no reliable numbers of those put to death are available.

Cambodia

2011-06-27T14:02:00.000-04:00

Voice of America:

The four most senior survivors from Cambodia's notorious Khmer Rouge regime have gone on trial for war crimes allegedly committed during the hardline communist movement's four-year reign of terror in the late 1970s.

The defendants, now elderly and frail, appeared in a Phnom Penh courtroom Monday, at the beginning of their long-awaited trial. All four deny the charges, which include genocide, religious persecution and torture linked to the deaths of as many as 2 million people between 1975 and 1979.

On trial are Khieu Samphan, 79, the nominal Khmer Rouge head of state; Nuon Chea, 84, described as the regime's chief ideologue; Ieng Sary, 85, the foreign minister; and his wife, Ieng Thirith, 79, who was minister of social affairs. Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998.

The trial, which analysts say could take years, is the showcase event for the United Nations-backed war crimes tribunal, which was created to demonstrate impartial justice and foster national healing.

About 500 people, many of them victims of the Khmer Rouge, filled the courtroom Monday. The four defendants sat together without handcuffs behind a curtain to hear the charges read against them. Three were later excused from the hearing on health grounds.

Proceedings Monday focused on moves by lawyers for Ieng Sary to have his case thrown out on grounds of double jeopardy. He was sentenced to death in absentia in 1979 in an unsanctioned trial conducted by Vietnamese invaders, and later pardoned by then-Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk. Defense lawyers argued Monday their client should not be tried twice for the same crimes.

Proceedings over the next four days are also expected to focus on procedural matters, with the presentation of evidence and testimony not expected to begin for several weeks. The trial is expected to involve hundreds of witnesses, raising concerns about whether all of the elderly defendants will live to see it end.

In its only previous case, the court last year convicted Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, who ran the main prison and torture house of the Khmer Rouge. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison, which was reduced to 19 years.

Cold War

2011-06-26T23:55:00.004-04:00

Robert F. Kennedy was one of America's most dangerous politicians. To get rid of Fidel Castro in the early 1960s, the younger brother of President John F. Kennedy was ready to deceive the American people.

"Repeatedly, Robert Kennedy himself suggested staging terrorist attacks on American military and diplomatic bases in Cuba and the Dominican Republic, and claiming that they were the work of Fidel Castro, to justify an all-out invasion of the sovereign state of Cuba," historian Alex von Tunzelmann notes in her book Red Heat.

Happy Feet

2011-06-25T13:11:00.000-04:00

Voice of America:

Veterinarians in New Zealand say a wayward emperor penguin, nicknamed Happy Feet, is in critical condition following two medical procedures performed at a zoo in Wellington.

On Friday veterinarians cleared the bird's throat. On Saturday they attempted to flush sand from its stomach. The bird had been eating sand and twigs since landed a few days earlier on Peka Peka beach, 4,000 kilometers from its Antarctic homeland.

Emperor penguins eat snow to cool themselves, and zoo officials believe Happy Feet was trying to do the same with sand. They say they will try again Monday to remove remaining sand from the animal's digestive system.

Before it was taken to the zoo hospital, the bird attracted news crews and crowds of New Zealanders who wanted to see the rare visitor.

The last recorded sighting of an emperor penguin in New Zealand was 44 years ago. Emperors are the largest of the penguin species. Adults grow to more than a meter tall and weigh up to 30 kilograms.

Fidel Castro

2011-06-25T12:55:00.005-04:00

In the book Red Heat, British historian Alex von Tunzelmann relates an interesting tidbit about former Cuban leader Fidel Castro:

Fidel's pitching for the University of Havana baseball team attracted attention from American scouts, including those of the Pittsburgh Pirates and the New York Giants. In 1949, the Giants offered Fidel Castro a contract, complete with a signing bonus of $5,000. History might have taken a different turn had he accepted, but he did not.

Russia

2011-06-24T11:52:00.000-04:00

Aliyah Shahid of the New York Daily News: "A Russian woman died from a heart attack brought on by the shock of waking up at her own funeral."

Tanzania

2011-06-24T09:00:00.000-04:00

Correspondent Richard Black of the BBC: "Controversial plans to build a tarmac road across the Serengeti National Park have been scrapped after warnings that it could devastate wildlife."

Dinosaurs

2011-06-24T08:45:00.006-04:00

Caltech: "Some dinosaurs were as warm as most modern mammals."

New Mexico

2011-06-23T19:00:00.000-04:00

Police arrested a former president of the University of New Mexico in connection with an investigation into a prostitution ring.

Smithsonian Magazine

2011-06-23T13:10:00.000-04:00

The August issue of Smithsonian magazine is up!

China

2011-06-23T13:05:00.002-04:00

Chinese cops recently apprehended a gang of 46 pregnant thieves.

North Carolina

2011-06-23T13:03:00.000-04:00

Michael Sheridan of the New York Daily News: "A teenager in North Carolina gave birth to a beautiful baby girl last Friday, then brutally stabbed her to death, authorities said."

Whitey

2011-06-23T12:44:00.001-04:00

Voice of America:

U.S. authorities have captured an alleged gangster linked to 19 murders after he had been on the run for more than 16 years.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said it arrested James (Whitey) Bulger, along with his longtime girlfriend, Catherine Greig, on Wednesday evening at a house in Santa Monica, California.

The 81-year-old Bulger was the leader of the violent Winter Hill Gang in Boston, Massachusetts. It was a largely Irish mob that ran several criminal ventures. He fled in 1995 after being tipped by a former FBI agent that he was about to be charged.

Bulger, nicknamed Whitey for this shock of bright platinum hair, was once an FBI informant. He provided the law enforcement agency with tips about his gang's main rival, the New England Mob.

His legend as a fugitive seemed to grow over the years, with numerous books written about him. He was an inspiration for a 2006 film, The Departed.

The arrest of Bulger and the 60-year-old Greig came less than two days after the FBI sparked new interest in the case through the use of a 30-second ad during daytime television shows aimed at women about Greig's age.

Piracy

2011-06-23T12:26:00.000-04:00

"A Voyage Through Pirate-Infested Waters"

Red Heat

2011-06-22T16:31:00.007-04:00

Alex von Tunzelmann's book Red Heat is about the Caribbean crises of the Cold War.

Crocodile

2011-06-22T16:25:00.002-04:00

In the Philippines a crocodile killed a man on Palawan Island.

Uganda

2011-06-22T16:16:00.002-04:00

Poachers speared a mountain gorilla in Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

California

2011-06-22T10:43:00.002-04:00

Aliyah Shahid, New York Daily News: "A California mom was arrested Tuesday on charges that she murdered her six-week-old daughter by microwaving her to death."

Nigeria

2011-06-22T10:30:00.000-04:00

Voice of America:

Nigerian police say they have arrested three people in connection with the alleged ritual killing of a one-year-old girl in Ondo State.

A police official says the suspects confessed to the murder of the toddler following their arrest in the Igbokoda area, where she lived.

Police spokesman Adeniran Aremu said Tuesday the suspects broke into the family's house at night and kidnapped the child while she slept with her mother.

Police later located the toddler's mutilated body in some nearby brush.

Brazil

2011-06-22T10:25:00.001-04:00

"Uncontacted Tribe Discovered in Brazilian Amazon"

Pakistan

2011-06-21T18:08:00.000-04:00

Pew Research Center:

Most Pakistanis see the U.S. as an enemy, consider it a potential military threat and oppose U.S.-led anti-terrorism efforts. A majority also describes bin Laden's death as a bad thing and many say it will have a negative impact on the already strained relations between the U.S. and their country.

Kazakhstan

2011-06-21T17:47:00.000-04:00

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: "Technically, polygamy is illegal in Kazakhstan. This has not kept it from making a big comeback since the fall of communism."

France

2011-06-20T16:01:00.000-04:00

Voice of America: "French police say a former member of President Nicolas Sarkozy's government has been arrested on rape charges that forced him to resign last month."

Iran

2011-06-20T16:00:00.000-04:00

"Iranian Company Charged With Tricking U.S. Banks"

Noriega

2011-06-20T15:59:00.000-04:00

Voice of America: "France says it will begin proceedings to extradite former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega to his home country."

Cyprus

2011-06-20T13:30:00.000-04:00

University of Cincinnati: "The University of Cincinnati’s most recent research in Cyprus reveals the remnants of a Late Bronze Age (1500-750 B.C.) fortress that may have functioned to protect an important urban economic center in the ancient world."

Philippines

2011-06-20T13:15:00.007-04:00

Voice of America: "Soldiers in the Philippines are using chain saws and machetes to clear thick mats of water lilies that are clogging the nation’s second longest river, causing floods that submerged more than 30 villages."

Afghanistan

2011-06-19T15:11:00.005-04:00

Jim Garamone, American Forces Press Service:

The Taliban must know they are beaten before they reconcile in any meaningful way, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said on CNN’s State of the Union program today.

Gates told Candy Crowley that U.S. and coalition diplomats have been carrying out preliminary negotiations with the Taliban for a couple of weeks.

“My own view is that real reconciliation talks are not likely to make any substantive headway until at least this winter,” Gates said. “I think the Taliban have to feel themselves under military pressure and begin to believe they can’t win, before they are willing to have a serious conversation.”

Robert Appleton Company published the Catholic Encyclopedia in the early 1900s. About Islam the old encyclopedia says:

In matters political, Islam is a system of despotism at home and aggression abroad. The Prophet commanded absolute submission to the imam. In no case was the sword to be raised against him. The rights of non-Moslem subjects are of the vaguest and most limited kind, and a religious war is a sacred duty whenever there is a chance of success against the "infidel."

Previous: Secret Talks

Diamonds

2011-06-18T16:11:00.005-04:00

"Laurence Graff, seller of seriously big and valuable diamonds, sees huge potential in Asia’s rising numbers of wealthy shoppers," reports Geraldine Fabrikant of the New York Times.

Dictionary

2011-06-18T13:07:00.001-04:00

RFE/RL: "In 1921, researchers of ancient Mesopotamia set out to create a dictionary of the long-extinct Akkadian language. Ninety years later, the project is finally complete."

Baby Elephant Walk

2011-06-18T12:55:00.000-04:00

A passenger train killed three baby elephants in Sri Lanka.

Asiana Airlines

2011-06-18T12:53:00.000-04:00

South Korean troops mistakenly fired at an Asiana Airlines jet.

Obama

2011-06-18T12:45:00.005-04:00

Charlie Savage of the New York Times:

President Obama rejected the views of top lawyers at the Pentagon and the Justice Department when he decided that he had the legal authority to continue American military participation in the air war in Libya without Congressional authorization, according to officials familiar with internal administration deliberations.

Related: Bob Gates

Bill Haast

2011-06-18T12:05:00.003-04:00

Venomous snakes bit the late Bill Haast at least 173 times during his 100 years on earth.

Putnam County, New York

2011-06-17T12:59:00.000-04:00

Bill Hutchinson of the New York Daily News: "A venomous African serpent kept illegally as a pet is suspected of killing a Putnam County woman who was living in a house that was a virtual snake pit."

Artillery

2011-06-17T12:30:00.001-04:00

Matthias Schulz at Der Spiegel: "Archeologists in northern Germany have discovered two projectiles from the 17th century that suggest exploding cannonballs have been around longer than thought."

Sea Rovers

2011-06-17T11:58:00.002-04:00

Voice of America: "Officials say Somali pirates have freed a German cargo ship after receiving a multimillion-dollar ransom."

Business Heritage

2011-06-17T11:42:00.001-04:00

In 1910 a series of explosions at the L.A. Times building catapulted men, mortar and machinery into the air.

Read Howard Blum's book American Lightning.

Great Britain

2011-06-16T14:11:00.001-04:00

"Britain Is More Germanic Than It Thinks"

Fire

2011-06-16T13:45:00.002-04:00

VOA: "Somali pirates say they have evacuated 19 crew members from a hijacked ship that caught fire Wednesday."

Related: Piracy

Dinosaur

2011-06-15T13:54:00.014-04:00

The University of Portsmouth has news about a dinosaur discovery.

Mongolia

2011-06-14T23:24:00.001-04:00

Emblem of Mongolia

Voice of America: "A Czech military jet headed to Mongolia Tuesday with four special passengers — rare wild horses."

Goodyear Blimp

2011-06-13T12:38:00.000-04:00

Spiegel Online: "The pilot of an airship died when the craft burst into flames as he was trying to land at an airfield in Germany on Sunday."

Executive Protection Dog

2011-06-12T14:24:00.000-04:00

John Tierney of the New York Times: "A growing number of wealthy people around the world are coveting the security — and status — provided by a dog with the right credentials."

New York

2011-06-12T14:18:00.000-04:00

"Hero Dad Drowns in Long Island Sound"

Rhinos

2011-06-12T09:54:00.000-04:00

Asia's growing appetite for traditional medicine continues to threaten Africa's rhinos.

Owls

2011-06-12T09:45:00.003-04:00

"Killing One Owl Species to Save Another"

Pirates

2011-06-12T09:29:00.000-04:00

Voice of America:

Somali pirates are reported to have released a Kuwaiti oil tanker held since late March.

A piracy watchdog group says the pirates were paid $12 million dollars to release the ship.

Raccoons

2011-06-11T13:35:00.000-04:00

Toronto is the raccoon capital of the world.

Books

2011-06-11T13:19:00.000-04:00

Voice of America:

South Korea welcomed the return Saturday of nearly 300 royal books looted in the 19th century by invading French soldiers.

South Koreans dressed in court costumes from the Joseon Dynasty paraded the 297 volumes to central Seoul's Gyeonbok Palace.

The richly illustrated books detail protocol for royal ceremonies during the Joseon Dynasty, which ruled the Korean peninsula from 1392 to 1910.

French troops raided a royal library on an island off Korea's west coast in 1866 and hauled away hundreds of manuscripts.

Pack of Trouble

2011-06-10T14:17:00.003-04:00

Larry McShane, New York Daily News: "A nocturnal pack of dogs killed dozens of animals in a stretch of northeast Washington state, raising fears that the bloodthirsty canines could target local kids next."

South China Sea

2011-06-10T13:31:00.001-04:00

Radio Free Asia: "Tensions went up a notch in a maritime border dispute between China and Vietnam in the South China Sea on Friday, with Hanoi announcing it would carry out live-fire naval drills near disputed island chains."

NATO

2011-06-10T13:19:00.000-04:00

Jim Garamone of the American Forces Press Service reports from Brussels:

NATO has turned into a two-tiered alliance of members who consume security and those who produce it, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said here today.

Gates spoke to NATO’s Security and Defense Agenda assembly the day after a meeting of the alliance’s defense ministers concluded.

“In the past, I’ve worried openly about NATO turning into a two-tiered alliance between members who specialize in ‘soft’ humanitarian, development, peacekeeping and talking tasks and those conducting the ‘hard’ combat missions — between those willing and able to pay the price and bear the burdens of alliance commitments, and those who enjoy the benefits of NATO membership, be they security guarantees or headquarters billets, but don’t want to share the risks and the costs,” the secretary said.

“This is no longer a hypothetical worry,” he added. “We are there today. And it is unacceptable.”

Business Heritage

2011-06-10T13:02:00.001-04:00

The Floor of Heaven by Howard Blum

Pigs Rock

2011-06-08T18:26:00.013-04:00

Eight pigs overturned a trailer on a bridge in the West Siberian city of Novokuznetsk.

Mysore

2011-06-08T12:02:00.000-04:00

Voice of America: "Two wild elephants went on a three-hour rampage in the Indian city of Mysore on Wednesday, trampling one man to death."

Canada

2011-06-08T11:51:00.000-04:00

CNN: "A bizarre auto accident involving two vehicles and a bear has left two people and the bear dead, Canadian authorities told news outlets."

Singapore

2011-06-07T13:34:00.000-04:00

Voice of America:

U.S. gaming experts say Singapore is set to overtake Las Vegas as the world's second largest gambling hub.

The head of the American Gaming Association, Frank Fahrenkopf, says the Asian city-state is on course to rake in $6.4 billion in gaming revenue, after opening its first two casinos last year.

Fahrenkopf spoke Tuesday at a gambling industry conference in the Chinese territory of Macau — the world's most lucrative gambling market with a $23.5 billion take last year. Las Vegas took in $5.8 billion in 2010, and some analysts estimate its net could rise to $6.2 billion this year.

The two Singapore casinos have been credited with boosting Singapore's tourism sector to a record 11.6 million visitors last year.

Jurassic Coast

2011-06-07T13:08:00.015-04:00

Guess what happened to Titanic II.

Pink Panthers

2011-06-06T17:21:00.000-04:00

Voice of America:

Montenegrin police have arrested an alleged member of the Pink Panthers gang of international jewel thieves.

Police identified the suspect Monday as Igor Jocic, a Serbian citizen.

They arrested him as he tried to cross the border into Montenegro.

The international police force, Interpol, says the Pink Panthers have robbed stores of more than $360 million in jewels since 2000. Police say the gang is largely made up of thieves from the Balkans.

Hear No Evil

2011-06-05T15:30:00.012-04:00

Accusing a monkey of witchcraft, South African villagers burned the primate to death.

"The monkey could talk," one villager explained after the incident.

Marriage

2011-06-05T14:54:00.003-04:00

Women started an "Obedient Wife Club" in Malaysia.