Haaretz
PA lauds European draft for Mideast peace plan
By The Associated Press
Spain will sponsor a new Middle East peace initiative along with France and Italy, the Spanish prime minister said Thursday, stressing that the international community cannot remain idle as violence rages between Israel and the Palestinians.
Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Rudineh said Thursday that his government welcomed the initiative, particularly its emphasis on international intervention.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero announced the initiative at a summit with President Jacques Chirac of France. "Peace between Israel and the Palestinians means to a large extent peace on the international scene," Zapatero told a news conference.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/789009.html
Peretz vows to continue pressure on Gaza to wipe out Qassams
By Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondent
Defense Minister Amir Peretz on Wednesday vowed that Israel would continue its pressure on the Gaza Strip to alleviate Qassam fire, a day after one person was killed and two others seriously wounded in multiple strikes on Sderot.
Peretz asked the defense establishment to present him with a new operational plan for targeting rocket launchers.
He said that Israel would hit terror with "hard and painful" strength if moderate Palestinian elements did not exert more strength.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/788947.html
Hamas official: Abbas and Meshal to meet on unity government
By Reuters
Hamas leader Khaled Meshal and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas plan to meet this month to iron out problems preventing the formation of a Palestinian unity government, a senior Hamas official said on Thursday.
The Islamist group wants guarantees from Abbas, who heads the rival Fatah faction, that the West will recognize the next administration and sanctions will be lifted.
"Both sides have agreed to seek a meeting in an Arab country this month, probably under Arab League auspices and with European representation," Izzat a-Rishq told Reuters.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/789096.html
Auschwitz-Birkenau 'face-lift' plan raises survivors' ire
By Amiram Barkat
An initiative to refurbish the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp has sparked a storm among Holocaust survivors in Israel.
The initiative was announced last month by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum's new director, who claimed that the current exhibits were outdated and insufficiently attractive to visitors. A detailed refurbishing plan has yet to be drawn up, but participants at a recent meeting of Holocaust survivors' organizations warned against moves to "beautify" the site, as has been done with other Nazi concentration camps. "Dachau and Sachsenhausen have already become well-kept gardens; we won't allow the same to happen to Auschwitz," they said.
In September, historian Dr. Piotr Cywinski, 34, replaced Jerzy Wroblewski as director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. Shortly after taking up his new position, the energetic young director announced that it was time for the site to get a "face-lift."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/786901.html
Sderot residents board buses en route to rocket respite
By Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz Correspondent and AP
Residents of the southern town of Sderot elbowed and shoved their way on to a fleet of buses Thursday, taking advantage of a free weekend away from the shadow of Palestinian rockets, compliments of business tycoon Arkady Gaydamak.
About 800 people from the impoverished town, where a woman was killed and a youth gravely injured by rocket-fire the day before, flocked to the town hall and a local community center to sign up for the free ride and hotel accommodation in the Red Sea resort of Eilat.
Known for his generous donations -particularly after paying for temporary accommodation for northerners who fled their homes during the Lebanon War- the Russian-born billionaire announced earlier on Thursday he would charter some 17 buses and rent some 1,600 rooms in the southern resort city of Eilat for the benefit of Sderot residents.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/789038.html
Palestinian FM: Iran donated $120M to Hamas-led government
By News Agencies
Iran has donated $120 million to the Palestinian Hamas-led government and has said it is ready to give more, Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar said on Thursday.
Tehran said in April it would donate $50 million to help make up a shortfall left when the West cut off aid to the government led by the Palestinian Islamic group, which seeks to destroy Israel.
"Iran has so far given $120 million to the Palestinain government and they have told us that they will provide more financial help," Zahar told reporters in Tehran after
talks.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/789026.html
State to compensate families of those killed in October 2000 riots
By Jack Khoury and Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondents and Itim
The Nazareth District Court on Thursday approved a settlement reached between the State of Israel and the families of eleven Israeli Arabs killed by police during riots in northern Israel October 2000.
Under the terms of the out-of-court settlement, the state will pay an undisclosed sum of money agreed upon by the parties. The families of two others killed in the riots did not participate in the legal proceedings, and will therefore not be parties to the settlement.
In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs demanded a payout for each family of NIS 50,000 for burial expenses, and compensations of NIS 418,000 for loss of income. They asked the court to rule on the amount to be paid in compensation for their suffering and grief as a result of the loss of their loved ones.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/788977.html
Bush gives go-ahead for 'Bush Center' in Israel
WASHINGTON - U.S. President George Bush was informed on Tuesday of an initiative to establish a center under his name in Israel, as a sign of gratitude for his support for the country and its security. Outgoing Israeli Ambassador to the United States Daniel Ayalon asked Bush for the go-ahead to establish such a center during a farewell meeting with the president and his deputy, Dick Cheney.
Bush told Ayalon that "freedom" would be a worthy subject for the center to focus on.
Ayalon has yet to approach donors with a request to finance the establishment of the "Bush Center" in Israel, but does not expect to encounter difficulties when it comes to raising the funds. The outgoing ambassador will continue to work on the matter with White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/rosnerBlog.jhtml?itemNo=788626&contrassID=25&subContrassID=0&sbSubContrassID=1&listSrc=Y&art=1
Two miserable towns
By Haaretz Editorial
Residents of Beit Hanun are not born holding Qassam rockets in their hands. Until a few years ago, they used to work in Sapir College, near Sderot - the neighboring town at which they now launch Qassams every day. One of these rockets killed Faina (Fatima) Slutzker, 57, who moved to Israel with her husband and two children three years ago. At that time, residents of Beit Hanun were already completely cut off from their jobs in Israel, leaving them unemployed, as she was. Slutzker was killed on her way to one of the training centers set up under the Wisconsin Plan, whose goal is to encourage people to join the work force. Beit Hanun does not even have a recourse like that for the economic distress.
Sderot residents cannot tolerate daily Qassam fire on their city, even when no one is physically hurt. It is not possible to expect people to live under permanent threat, and the solution cannot be fortifying and refortifying rooms and roofs and emergency shelters.
People also want to be able to live their lives outside such protected spaces - in the street, in coffee shops, in their gardens, or going to and from their houses. Had Sderot been a city with wealthier residents, people who have the money to move elsewhere, it is doubtful that most Sderot residents would still live there.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/788606.html
Sarit Hadad - Tour for 2006 in USA
http://www.singwithsarit.com/
The Boston Globe
At least 6 dead as storms pound N.C.
RALEIGH, N.C. --A tornado struck a tiny riverside community early Thursday, killing at least five people as thunderstorms continued a path of destruction across the South. Another person died earlier in Louisiana, and a car crash death near Charlotte was also blamed on the storms.
Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail Breaking News Alerts Dozens of homes were destroyed in Riegelwood, on the Cape Fear River about 20 miles west of the coastal city of Wilmington, according to Gov. Mike Easley's office.
"You see one that's standing still. It's not touched," said Columbus County Commissioner Sammie Jacobs. "And you'll see four or five others that are demolished, and houses on top of cars and cars on top of houses."
"We've stepped across bodies to get (to) debris and search for other bodies here this morning," he said.
Jennifer Long, the county's tourism director who was helping emergency management officials Thursday, said Sheriff Chris Batten and County Commissioner Kip Godwin had confirmed five deaths. Jacobs said Batten told him there were at least six "and quite a few people with various injuries here and there who have been taken to various hospitals." Long said an earlier report the tornado killed nine people was wrong.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/11/16/storms_maybe_a_twister_hit_nc_3_dead/
Harvard biologist extends olive branch to evangelicals
By Jeff Barnard, Associated Press Writer November 16, 2006
Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson might normally arouse suspicion among evangelicals, given his faith in science over Scripture.
Alerts But in his latest book, "The Creation, An Appeal to Save Life on Earth," the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner extends an olive branch to Christian believers in hopes of saving the Earth from the biggest mass extinction since the dinosaurs.
Wilson's book is the latest attempt to bridge the gap between evolutionary science and a literal interpretation of the Bible, a rift dating back to Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection.
"Pastor, we need your help. The Creation -- living Nature -- is in deep trouble," Wilson writes in this letter to an imaginary Southern Baptist pastor. "You might well ask at this point, Why me? Because religion and science are the two most powerful forces in the world today."
R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, is a longtime reader of Wilson's work on sociobiology, and was initially impressed by Wilson's honesty in the book, but has since grown skeptical of Wilson's motives after not seeing any concrete contacts with evangelicals since the book came out in September -- contacts Wilson says are coming.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/11/16/harvard_biologist_extends_olive_branch_to_evangelicals/
Profiles of new Democratic leaders
By The Associated Press November 16, 2006
Profiles of House Democratic leaders elected Thursay for the next Congress:
Speaker of the House-nominee: Nancy Pelosi of California has led House Democrats since 2002 and will be the party's nominee for speaker when the new Congress convenes Jan. 4. She will be breaking one glass ceiling for women with only one or two more above it yet to be shatterd, U.S. president and vice president. A self-confident leader and power broker, Pelosi, 66, has demanded party loyalty on key Democratic issues such as health care and education. As speaker, the liberal Democrat from San Francisco has said she will work to curb the power of lobbyists and to roll back GOP tax cuts for higher-income Americans.
House majority whip: James Clyburn of South Carolina will be the highest ranking black member of the new Congress. He also is reaching the highest office in Congress ever held by a black. Former Oklahoma quarterback J.C. Watts Jr. previously held the title, serving as House Republicans' conference chairman from 1998 until to his retirement in 2002. Clyburn was elected in 1992 as the first black congressman from South Carolina since Reconstruction. In 1998 he served as the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. His leadership roles have made him a power broker for Democratic presidential candidates seeking black support in South Carolina's early primaries. Clyburn, 66, helped organize a nonprofit group to help those who fled from the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/11/16/profiles_of_new_democratic_leaders/
Storm knocks out power in Wash. state
November 16, 2006
SUMNER, Wash. --Tens of thousands of people remained without power Thursday morning after rainstorms again battered coastal Washington, just a week after warm-weather storms caused flooding that killed two people and damaged hundreds of homes.
The new storms hit Wednesday as state and federal emergency management officials began touring areas hit hard by last week's flooding.
This time, the storms packed less rain but stronger winds, blowing down trees, closing roads and bridges and leaving roughly 150,000 homes and businesses without electricity at one point.
With rainfall largely ending by daybreak Thursday, National Weather Service flood warnings remained in effect for mostly minor overflows of the Skagit River.
Puget Sound Energy, the state's largest utility, reported 30,000 customers still in the dark early Thursday, mostly in the northwest part of the state, and spokeswoman Dorothy Bracken said some might not get power again until Saturday.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/11/16/storm_knocks_out_power_in_wash_state/
Homeless exempt from part of registry
November 16, 2006
ANNAPOLIS, Md. --Homeless sex offenders are exempt from laws requiring them to register a change of address with state officials, Maryland's high court has ruled.
Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail Breaking News Alerts The Maryland Court of Appeals said Wednesday in a pair of unanimous rulings that it would be impossible for the homeless to comply with that provision of the state sex offender registry.
The rulings overturned the convictions of two sex offenders in Montgomery County for failing to update their addresses.
Attorneys for the government said they would seek a new state law to address the issue.
"Let's go back and have the General Assembly define what they mean by residence, or maybe ask for special requirements," said Montgomery County Assistant State's Attorney Laura L. Chase. She said lawmakers did not intend to exempt homeless sex offenders from registry requirements.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/11/16/homeless_exempt_from_part_of_registry/
Housing slide may deepenNew forecast sees bottom in 2008
By Robert Gavin, Globe Staff November 15, 2006
The housing downturn in Massachusetts will last longer, and prices will fall further than first projected, according to an economic forecast released yesterday.
A year ago the nonprofit research group forecast prices would decline less than 3 percent, bottom at the end of 2006, and regain their peaks in early 2008.
The new forecast is more pessimistic than others, which see the housing market near the bottom and turning soon. In a recent analysis, Moody's Economy.com, the West Chester, Pa., consulting firm, cited improving job growth in Massachusetts and recent declines in mortgage rates as evidence the worst is almost over for the local housing market. Lawrence Yun, senior economist at the National Association of Realtors, agreed, predicting prices here should begin "perking up" in the spring.
"It's very difficult for me to see prices continuing to fall in a job-creating environment," Yun said.
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2006/11/15/housing_slide_may_deepen/
Foreclosure filings surging in state1st nine months of 2006 top all of '05
By Kimberly Blanton, Globe Staff November 15, 2006
Foreclosure filings against Massachusetts homeowners surged to nearly 13,000 through September, already surpassing 2005's count, and were prevalent in rural towns in Central and Western Massachusetts and in working-class cities with large minority populations across the state.
Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail Breaking News Alerts Filings increased 54 percent in the first nine months of 2006, compared to the same period last year, according to a monthly report yesterday from ForeclosuresMass.com, which collects data in state Land Court.
"I don't think we have hit the peak yet," predicted Jeremy Shapiro, the president of ForeclosuresMass.com.
Foreclosure filings do not mean the imminent loss of property for a homeowner. Once they receive notice from a bank or mortgage company, homeowners may be able to work out a refinancing plan with their financial institution or sell the home and pay off the loan, averting foreclosure.
http://www.boston.com/realestate/news/articles/2006/11/15/foreclosure_filings_surging_in_state/
Europeans unveil Middle East peace plan
By Ciaran Giles, Associated Press Writer November 16, 2006
GERONA, Spain --Spain, France and Italy unveiled a five-point Middle East peace initiative Thursday, calling Israeli-Palestinian violence intolerable and saying that Europe must take a lead role in ending the conflict.
The plan has five components: an immediate cease-fire; formation of a national unity government by the Palestinians that can gain international recognition; a prisoner exchange -- including the Israeli soldiers whose kidnapping sparked the war in Lebanon and fighting in Gaza this summer; talks between Israel's prime minister; and the Palestinian president and an international mission in Gaza to monitor a cease-fire.
"We cannot remain impassive in the face of the horror that continues to unfold before our eyes," Zapatero told a news conference in this coastal city near the border with France. The initiative largely overlaps with a package the Palestinians have offered to Israel.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2006/11/16/europeans_unveil_middle_east_peace_plan/
Cancer struggle different for young people
By Hilary Waldman, The Hartford Courant November 16, 2006
TOLLAND, Conn. --Casey Decoteau didn't wear lipstick to her mastectomy -- she's more a gloss kind of girl.
Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail Breaking News Alerts But she certainly felt a kinship with Geralyn Lucas, the 27-year-old woman who put a face on the alarming reality of life as a young adult with breast cancer in her recent book, "Why I Wore Lipstick to my Mastectomy."
Decoteau, 25, lives with her mother in Tolland and works at a day-care center. She was a college student with a dream of teaching elementary school when she found a lump in her breast in July.
Last month, Decoteau had a mastectomy, and found that along with her breast she had lost her place in the nation's 20-something culture, in which show-every-curve camisoles define the female form and sex is peddled everywhere from TV sitcoms to MySpace.com.
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2006/11/16/cancer_struggle_different_for_young_people/
Black student faces hate crime charge
November 16, 2006
SEYMOUR, Conn. --A black student at Seymour High School is facing a hate crime charge for writing "whites only" on a wall near a water fountain.
Alerts Police said the 17-year-old senior was arrested Wednesday and charged with breach of peace for a separate incident at the high school.
Police said that while the student was in custody, he confessed to writing the message, which was found during the homecoming dance on Saturday.
Police will apply for an arrest warrant for a separate charge of breach of peace and possible other charges, including vandalism and bigotry, Capt. Paul Beres said.
Under Connecticut law, a person is guilty of third-degree bigotry when they, with the intent to intimidate or harass because of race, religion, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity, damage or deface property or threaten by word or act.
The student, whose name has not been released, has been disciplined at the school for the incident, according to Richard Kearns, Director of Security for Public Schools.
Report: Scarlet fever spreads in N.Korea
November 15, 2006
SEOUL, South Korea --Scarlet fever has been spreading in North Korea and threatens to become a full-blown epidemic despite efforts by authorities to contain the disease, a news report said Wednesday.
The disease, which broke out in the North's northern Ryanggang Province last month, is rapidly spreading to other parts of the communist state, including the capital, Pyongyang, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported, citing unnamed sources.
South Korea's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said they didn't have information to confirm the media report.
Lack of medicine coupled with poor sanitary conditions are to blame for the rapid spread of the fever in the impoverished communist country, leading to the deaths among the aged and infants, Yonhap said.
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/diseases/articles/2006/11/15/report_scarlet_fever_spreads_in_nkorea/
Correction: Pakistan-Kidney-Bazaar story
November 14, 2006
JANDALA, Pakistan --In a Nov. 12 story about kidney donations in Pakistan, The Associated Press erroneously reported that the Belgium-based International Society of Nephrology has suggested expanding the pool of kidney donors by legalizing payment of about $40,000 to donors.
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/other/articles/2006/11/14/correction_pakistan_kidney_bazaar_story/
Urban students do worse than nation in science
By Nancy Zuckerbrod
AP Education Writer
November 15, 2006
WASHINGTON --Children in major U.S. cities perform worse than other students around the country on science tests given in elementary and middle school, a snapshot released by the government Wednesday shows.
Ten urban school districts, including Boston, volunteered to take the tests and have their scores compared to public school students nationwide for the first time.
Fourth-graders in nine of the 10 city districts had lower average scores than public school students nationally. The only exception was Austin, Texas, where they performed at the national average.
In eighth grade, all 10 urban districts had average scores below the national average.
The science scores are from the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress, a test given nationwide periodically on a range of subjects. It is viewed as the best way to compare student achievement across state and district lines.
http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2006/11/15/urban_students_do_worse_than_nation_in_science/
N.J. launches campaign for better health A man drives his tiny motorcycle in this April 29, 2004 file photo. Rapidly increasing obesity rates in Greece are prompting officials to offer education programs in local schools and hold forums to mark events such as World Diabetes Day, on Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2006. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris, File)
By Angela Delli Santi, Associated Press Writer November 14, 2006
TRENTON, N.J. --A statewide campaign promoting healthier diets and exercise kicked off Tuesday, as educators and nutritionists attempt to counteract an obesity epidemic among New Jersey children and adults.
The new campaign, "Get Moving, Get Healthy New Jersey," is a multiyear effort intended to change the way New Jerseyans think about diet and exercise in much the same way public perceptions about cigarette smoking and using seat belts progressed over time, said Kathleen Morgan, who chairs a family and community health program at Rutgers University and is spearheading the project.
Though they are still figuring out how to deliver their message, the gist is clear: Motivate children and adults to eat better and exercise more.
Americans are growing heavier every year, and New Jerseyans are no exception, evidence shows. More than half of all New Jersey adults are overweight or obese, as defined by their amount of body fat, and the state has the highest incidence of obesity in low-income 2-to 5-year-olds in the country, according to statistics presented by Morgan.
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/diseases/articles/2006/11/14/nj_launches_campaign_for_better_health/
The war after the war
They were an Army of Three — fun-loving, young, courageous, afraid. And when the bomb went off outside Baghdad, killing New Hampshire's Jeremy Regnier, the survivors of the squad found their lives upended. What they suffer has a name — post-traumatic stress — but a label can't describe it. This is a story of a death and its descendants.By Thomas Farragher, Globe Staff October 29, 2006
First of Four Parts
It was circled on his calendar, a day he'd looked forward to for months. But as Andy Wilson stood on the wind-swept airfield and the chartered plane glided out of a leaden Texas sky, he was anything but upbeat.
An unsettling cocktail of emotions swirled inside. The balloons and marching bands, the confetti and welcome-home banners were not for him, though they could have been. Should have been.
As a noncommissioned officer, Wilson had sworn to stick by the men he led in combat, no matter what. And to bring them all home....
...In their headsets, Eminem was rapping profanely about death and dying.
Jolly steered the Bradley, making a right-hand turn into a housing project. Then he heard Regnier say, "Oh."
A split-second later, a deafening explosion rocked the war machine.
"What the [expletive] was that, Jolly?" Wilson asked.
"I don't know, sir!" Jolly yelled into his headset.
"Jeremy, what did you see?" Wilson shouted. "Are you all right up there?"
The Bradley began to fill with thick acrid smoke. Jolly's eyes were burning. Wilson began to scream.
He called again for Regnier. And then called again, reaching up to tug at his gunner's sleeve.
"I pull at him and he falls," Wilson remembers. "And I just [expletive] flipped. I tried my best to come across as calm. My voice was normally kind of deep. I sounded like a little girl."
Regnier, his body now slumped against Wilson, had taken a devastating hit from the jaw up. He was barely recognizable.
By now, Jolly had spun the 72,000-pound Bradley furiously around and over a median strip. Through his periscope, he spotted a man in a white shirt, walking through the adjacent housing project in violation of curfew.
"Right there the [expletive] is!' Jolly shouted, suspicious because the man looked away when their spotlights found him. "Let's get him!"
But their battle was done. Military radio traffic was already ablaze with calls for a swift medical response. There were orders to retrieve the Chaos 4 crew and get them back to the relative safety of "Camp Victory" at nearby Baghdad International Airport. And when officers and medical crews arrived on the scene, there was little to do but to place Regnier gently into a body bag.
He was gone.
Jolly, who drove the damaged Bradley back to base, did not want members from other platoons to see the grisly evidence of the attack. Working with two sergeants, he used newspapers to clean the gore from the turret.
Following standard procedure after the death of a soldier, military commanders cut off telephone service and Internet traffic back to the states.
Hours later -- and a half a world away -- a black sedan carrying a two-man military notification team crept slowly down a sloping driveway toward Kevin and Shawn Regnier's home on a small hillside in Littleton, N.H.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/10/29/the_war_after_the_war/
Romney hires ex-Bush ad manProducer noted for tough tactics
By Scott Helman
Globe Staff
November 16, 2006
Governor Mitt Romney, who continues to sign up big-name political consultants for a probable presidential run, has hired bare-knuckles GOP ad man Alex Castellanos, a veteran of presidential campaigns known for his tough ads against Democratic candidates.
Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail Breaking News Alerts Widely considered one of the country's more influential Republican image-makers, Castellanos has produced television spots for President Bush, presidential candidate Bob Dole, and former senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina. Romney's move to recruit him sends a strong signal that the governor plans to mount a serious national campaign for 2008, political observers say.
"Alex is one of two or three people in the country who you don't run a presidential campaign without," said Dan Schnur, who was communication director for Senator John McCain of Arizona during McCain's run for president in 2000. Schnur added, "You don't hire Alex Castellanos unless you're committed to this."
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/11/16/romney_hires_ex_bush_ad_man/
Wal-Mart expands $4 generic drugs to 11 more states
November 16, 2006
BENTONVILLE, Ark. --Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced Thursday a rollout of its $4 offer on some generic prescription drugs to 11 more states, including Rhode Island.
Wal-Mart added 502 stores to those offering the discounted medications, and added 17 prescriptions to the offering, bringing the total to 331 generic prescriptions available. The $4 price is for up to a 30-day supply of the drugs.
Other states added Thursday were Idaho, Kentucky, Maine, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Utah, Washington and West Virginia. In all, Wal-Mart is offering the program in 3,009 stores in 38 states.
The company began the program in September, offering the low-cost drugs in Florida and had plans to expand the offering in January. But the company said it moved up its timetable.
http://www.boston.com/help/email/breaking_news/
House Democrats name Hoyer to No. 2 post
Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., right, and Rep. John Larson, D-Conn. arrive at the Library of Congress in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2006 to attend the orientation meeting for new Democratic elected members of Congress. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
By Andrew Taylor, Associated Press Writer November 16, 2006
WASHINGTON --Democrats picked Rep. Steny Hoyer to be House majority leader on Thursday, spurning Rep. Nancy Pelosi's handpicked choice moments after unanimously backing her election as speaker when Congress convenes in January.
Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail Breaking News Alerts A Marylander and 25-year veteran of Congress, Hoyer defeated Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania in a vote of 149-86.
His election to the No. 2 job came just a short time after the Democratic caucus put Pelosi in line to become the first woman to be speaker, a position which is second in line of succession to the presidency. It marked a personal triumph for Hoyer.
Earlier, an ebullient Pelosi declared: "We made history and now we will make progress for the American people."
In remarks after being chosen for speaker, the Californian vowed that after 12 years in the minority, "we will not be dazzled by money and special interests." Pelosi also called for unity in the party, but within moments she put her prestige on the line by nominating Murtha.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/11/16/pelosi_faces_no_win_outcome_over_murtha/
Rogue sea lion bites at least 14 in S.F.
November 16, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO --A California sea lion has bitten at least 14 people and chased 10 others out of the water this week at a public park's lagoon, prompting the city to temporarily close the area to swimmers.
Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail Breaking News Alerts No serious injuries have been reported, but officials decided to ban swimming at the Aquatic Park Lagoon on Wednesday until the testy marine mammal has moved on.
Experts say the rogue sea lion could be protecting his harem of mates or might have brain damage from toxic algae.
Celeste McMullin, who was bitten Monday, said she saw the animal lurking nearby but didn't think much of it.
"I was swimming along, and I felt a brush under my feet. And I thought, 'These feel like whiskers.' So I stopped, and the animal popped up. He/she looked at me."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/11/16/rogue_sea_lion_bites_at_least_14_in_sf/?p1=MEWell_Pos2
U.S. avoids Hezbollah in aiding Lebanon
By Barry Schweid, AP Diplomatic Writer
November 16, 2006
WASHINGTON --More than a third of the financial aid that the United States promised to help Lebanon rebuild from last July's Israeli war against Hezbollah has been spent, and Washington is steering clear of Hezbollah as it helps, the director of U.S. foreign assistance said Thursday.
Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail Breaking News Alerts About $100 million of a $250-million U.S. aid commitment already has been "put to work" on projects from clearing bombs to helping dairy farmers, Randall L. Tobias told reporters.
Much of the reconstruction is centered on Beirut and in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah, designated a terrorist organization by the State Department, is virtually a state-within-a-state. Already popular and with two ministers in the central government, Hezbollah spurred postwar reconstruction by offering initial cash payments of up to $12,000 for Christian as well as Muslim families who lost their homes.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/11/16/us_avoids_hezbollah_in_aiding_lebanon/
The New Zealand Herald
US rejects Annan plea to cut greenhouse gases
10.00am Thursday November 16, 2006By Alister Doyle and Daniel Wallis
NAIROBI - Washington rejected pleas by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan today to cut emissions of greenhouse gases and dismissed his charge that there was a "frightening lack of leadership" in combating global warming.
"We think that the United States has been leading in terms of its ground-breaking initiatives," Paula Dobriansky, Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs, told a news conference during November 6-17 UN climate talks.
Annan had urged rich countries at the 189-nation talks in Nairobi to be more "courageous" in cutting greenhouse gases and urged Washington to reconsider opposition to the UN's Kyoto Protocol that binds 35 nations to cut emissions by 2012.
Dobriansky said the United States was sticking to policies focused on braking -- rather than cutting -- the rise of emissions while investing heavily in green technologies such as hydrogen or new technologies for cleaner burning of coal.
"We seek to slow, reverse and really curb emissions," she said. The United States is the world's number one source of heat-trapping emissions from burning fossil fuels in power plants, factories and cars ahead of China, Russia and India.
Annan said "while the Kyoto Protocol is a crucial step forward, that step is far too small. And as we consider how to go further still, there remains a frightening lack of leadership".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10411040
Large icebergs head north
Sunday November 5, 2006By Miles Erwin
The flotilla of 100 icebergs drifting towards New Zealand could come within a few kilometres of the coast - but they might be too small to be seen.
Dr Paul Augustinus, Auckland University glacial geomorphology lecturer, said that given the right conditions, the icebergs, currently 260km from the coast and up to 2km long, could land against the sea floor just a few kilometres from the coast.
"Judging by the size of them, there's a good chance [they could be seen], but it depends on the currents. I don't think they will hit land. But given their size, and if the currents are right, they could ground on the continental shelf."
That's because the major icebergs are more than one kilometre deep.
But Mike Williams, physical oceanographer at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, said the icebergs are melting rapidly and are likely to be too small to be seen when they get closer to New Zealand. He said there was about a 5 per cent chance of them making it. "Maybe something the size of a canoe would make it, but that's about it. I wouldn't bother staying up nights to see it."
He said they would most likely come within 50km of the coast.
The icebergs are believed to have broken off the Ross or Amery ice shelves in Antarctica. While they raise the spectre of global warming, Augustinus said, it's impossible to link the icebergs with climate change. "We've been monitoring these things for such a short time, it's impossible to see. To say this is unusual and related to global warming is just not possible. It's a fairly frequent occurrence; it's just unusual for such large bergs to get so far north."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0611160152nov16,1,7819443.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
100 icebergs only 260km off the South Island
Saturday November 4, 2006By Maggie McNaughton
A giant flotilla of 100 icebergs is passing just 260km off the coast of the South Island - the closest the glacial masses have been to this country for 70 years.
Dramatic pictures taken yesterday show the largest of the icebergs stretches 2km and towers 150 metres above the sea.
Mike Williams, physical oceanographer at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, said it was the closest recorded iceberg to New Zealand since 1931.
"It's very rare for them to be in a place where they might come close to the South Island," he said.
An Air Force crew on a routine fisheries patrol saw the icebergs, concentrated in two large groups, in the Southern Ocean.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=2&ObjectID=10409158
New evidence climate change melting Antarctic ice shelf, say scientists
1.00pm Tuesday October 17, 2006By Alister Doyle
OSLO - Scientists believe they have found the first direct evidence linking the collapse of an ice shelf in Antarctica to global warming widely blamed on human activities.
Shifts in winds whipping around the southern Ocean, tied to human emissions of greenhouse gases, had warmed the Antarctic peninsula jutting up toward South America and contributed to the break-up of the Larsen B ice shelf in 2002, they said.
"This is the first time that anyone has been able to demonstrate a physical process directly linking the break-up of the Larsen Ice Shelf to human activity," said Gareth Marshall, lead author of the study at the British Antarctic Survey.
The chunk that collapsed into the Weddell Sea in 2002 was 3250sqkm, bigger than Luxembourg. Stewart Island, by comparison, is 1746sqkm.
Most climate experts say greenhouse gases, mainly from fossil fuels burnt in power plants, factories and cars, are warming the globe and could bring more erosion, floods or rising seas.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=2&objectid=10406302
Arctic sea ice disappearing
Saturday September 16, 2006By Michael McCarthy and David Usborne
The melting of the sea ice in the Arctic, the clearest sign so far of global warming, has taken a sudden and enormous leap forward, in one of the most ominous developments yet in the onset of climate change.
Two separate studies by Nasa, using different satellite monitoring technologies, both show a great surge in the disappearance of Arctic ice cover in the last two years.
One, from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, shows that Arctic perennial sea ice, which normally survives the summer melt season and remains year-round, shrank by 14 per cent in just 12 months between 2004 and 2005.
The overall decrease in the ice cover was 720,000 sq km - an area almost the size of Turkey - gone in a single year.
The other study, from the Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland, shows that the perennial ice melting rate, which has averaged 0.15 per cent a year since satellite observations began in 1979, has suddenly accelerated hugely. In the past two winters the rate has increased to 6 per cent a year - that is, it has got more than 30 times faster.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=2&objectid=10401578
Alaskan storm cracks iceberg in Antarctica
Wednesday October 4, 2006
A bad storm in Alaska last October generated an ocean swell that broke apart a giant iceberg near Antarctica six days later, US researchers say.
The waves travelled 13,500km to destroy the iceberg, said Douglas MacAyeal of the University of Chicago and Emile Okal at Northwestern University.
Writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the researchers said their study showed how weather in one region could affect events far away.
"One of the things we're debating in the world right now is whether global warming might increase the storminess in the oceans," MacAyeal said.
"The question we then pose is: Could global storminess have an influence on the Antarctic ice sheet that had never been thought of?"
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=2&objectid=10404143
Climate change wreaking ecological havoc on globe
1.00pm Friday September 15, 2006By Daniel Howden, Andrew Buncombe and Justin Huggler
In Greenland, barley is growing for the first time since the Middle Ages.
In Britain, gardeners were warned this week that the English country garden will be a thing of the past within the next 20 years.
In Italy, skiers were told yesterday that melting glaciers will mean an end to their pastime unless they can get above 2,000 metres.
Even those enjoying the warmer temperatures in unpredictable bursts by venturing into the sea have been confronted by swarms of jellyfish, who have flourished in record numbers in Europe in the warmer waters.
Those same waters are rising in Venice, prompting arguments over costly plans to seal off the lagoon from the sea.
The prospect of flooded squares on the scale of Venice's Piazza San Marco is driving plans to expand and reinforce the Thames flood barrier.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=2&objectid=10401423
Antarctic holds clues to future
Monday October 9, 2006By Derek Cheng
How much and how quickly will the ice shelves in Antarctica melt as the global warming noose tightens, and with what consequences?
These are the core questions that a New Zealand-led group of 50 scientists leaving for the icy continent tomorrow hopes to answer.
The team, co-led by GNS scientist Tim Naish, will use a Wellington-developed drill rig to tap into Antarctica's 100m-thick Ross Ice Shelf, to retrieve a 1000m-long core of sediment and rock from beneath the seabed.
"The reason is to find out how the ice sheets behaved in the past, and particularly during times when global temperatures - and Antarctic temperatures - were a few degrees more than they are today, times similar to where we're heading with global warming," Dr Naish said.
The team - part of the Andrill (Antarctic geological drilling) programme - expects the results to show the history of the ice from 5 million to 10 million years ago, and more detailed results for the past million years.
"We know there are some super-warm periods of global warmth - warmer than present - about 125,000, 250,000 and 400,000 years ago. We will drill to these periods and see some direct evidence of the Ross Ice Shelf collapsing or significantly retreating, and maybe even the West Antarctic ice sheet collapsing," he said.
"The idea is to understand how fast [it happened], the nature of the collapse and under what temperature conditions it happened."
Dr Naish said there was plenty of information on how climate change could affect the polar north, but no research about the polar south, a void the team aimed to fill.
Scientists predict global temperatures to rise between 1C and 6C by the end of the century, with disastrous consequences for even a 2C to 3C rise.
But even in a worst-case scenario, Dr Naish said, the effects would only be felt at a snail's pace.
"We expect it to be in the order of hundreds of years to thousands of years. Though it is starting to accelerate now, we still don't expect sea level to rise by more than a metre in the next century," he said.
Drilling at the shelf, 15km west of Scott Base, will last until the end of December, with initial results expected next year. The drill will pass through 100m of floating ice in McMurdo Sound, then through 900m of water and into 1000m of sediment and rock.
Samples will go to the US-run McMurdo Station for analysis. A second drill site, 25km east of Scott Base, is planned for summer 2007-08.
The drill
* The Antarctic drilling project will have to bore through 100m of ice before it can begin drilling into the seabed 1km below the ice to recover a 1km core.
* The core will reveal climatic events stretching back 400,000 years.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=2&objectid=10404929
Ozone hole kills sea life, says scientist
Thursday July 20, 2006
The ozone hole over Antarctica is having a bigger impact on life than realised, scientists believe.
The layer, 24km above Earth, acts as a shield against ultraviolet (UV) radiation.
An annual thinning of the ozone over Antarctica allows significantly more UV light to reach the ocean and damage DNA.
New Scientist magazine reported yesterday that an analysis of east Antarctic waters had shown that high levels of UV light could significantly reduce phytoplankton blooms.
These microscopic plant cells at the bottom of the food chain provide food for zooplankton, tiny marine animals that are eaten by more than 50 species of seabirds and by fish and sea mammals ranging from sardines to whales.
"If you have a substantial reduction in the amount of plant material, that's going to have all sorts of knock-on effects for the rest of the food web," said Andrew Davidson, of the Australian Antarctic Division in Kingston, Tasmania.
His team studied the marginal ice zone around Antarctica, which produces between a quarter and two-thirds of the Southern Ocean's phytoplankton.
The team used satellite data to study levels of chlorophyll, an indicator of phytoplankton levels, and ozone concentration in five regions during November and December, from 1997 to 2000.
They considered only data for periods when there were at least six cloudless days out of 10.
Total chlorophyll increased, as expected, but when ozone levels thinned, chlorophyll accumulation fell.
Dr Davidson said it had been difficult to pinpoint the effect of UV, because the amount of plant material in Antarctic waters varied by up to 25 per cent from year to year.
The findings have been challenged by an American scientist, who said average chlorophyll concentrations in Antarctic waters under the ozone hole had not changed since the late 1970s.
Kevin Arrigo, associate professor of geophysics at Stanford University in California, said: "This suggests to me that the ozone hole is having very little impact on overall chlorophyll concentrations in the Antarctic."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=2&objectid=10392054
Crab invasion in Antarctica highlights biosecurity crisis
1.00pm Sunday June 25, 2006
Scientists are calling for action to prevent foreign species from taking hold in Antarctica and wrecking the continent's unique ecosystems.
"I think we can say with some confidence that the (Antarctic Treaty Consultative) meeting has recognised this as a really important issue, that there is a need for research," Neil Gilbert, environmental manager at Antarctica New Zealand, told BBC News.
A paper on the issue tabled at this week's Antarctic Treaty Consultative meeting in Edinburgh met with "good agreement".
"We don't know much about what species are in the marine environment around Antarctica. We've got to get a better handle on what is there, so that we know what is native and non-native.
"Secondly, we need to know what are the vectors by which all this material is being brought in."
Despite Antarctica's inhospitable environment, non-native species introduced by tourists, scientists and explorers were gaining a foothold, he said. Species could hitch a ride on ships and planes carrying visitors and supplies.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=2&objectid=10388248
NZ experts call for South Pole road study
Sunday June 4, 2006
New Zealand scientists will join a lobby to get an environmental impact study done regarding a 1600km road in the South Pole developed by the United States.
The track goes from McMurdo Base to the polar plateau and is commonly used by tractor and trailer combinations.
A global coalition of environmental groups will lobby the 28 consultative parties to the Antarctic Treaty in Scotland next week for the study, it was reported yesterday. A report from the coalition warns of pollution from the activities and a possible increase in demand for tourism as a result of increased access.
One of two New Zealanders involved, Barry Weeber, said there were concerns the road and scientific work at the South Pole was coming at too high a price.
Others have said the area is becoming less and less of a natural environment. Sir Edmund Hillary, who drove 2000 kilometres from Scott Base to the South Pole on a tractor in 1957, wouldn't comment this week, but on an Antarctic visit in 2004 said that the road was "terrible".
Peter West, spokesman for the US Antarctic Programme, would not comment on the treaty submission or the road.
- NZPA
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=2&objectid=10384923
Increase in 'glacial earthquakes' recorded
24.03.06 1.00pmBy Steve Connor
Dramatic new evidence has emerged of the speed of climate change in the polar regions which scientists fear is causing huge volumes of ice to melt far faster than predicted. Scientists have recorded a significant and unexpected increase in the number of "glacial earthquakes" caused by the sudden movement of Manhattan-sized blocks of ice in Greenland. A second study has found that higher temperatures caused by global warming could melt the Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets much sooner than previously thought with a corresponding rise in sea levels. Both studies - along with a series of findings from other scientists over the past year - point to a disturbing change in the polar climate which is causing the disappearance of glaciers, ice sheets and floating sea ice. The rise in the number of glacial earthquakes over the past four years lends further weight to the idea that Greenland's glaciers and its ice sheet are beginning to move and melt on a scale not seen for perhaps thousands of years.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=2&objectid=10374217
No progress on tighter Antarctic protection measures
12.45pm Saturday June 24, 2006By Ian MacKenzie
EDINBURGH - Antarctic Treaty countries have failed to agree on tighter environmental measures to protect the continent amid a boom in tourism.
The growing number of tourists landing in Antarctica, mainly from cruise ships, has raised fears over the impact it could have on the continent's fragile ecology.
Another major issue is the size and type of vessels operating in dangerous southern waters and the potential for an environmental and human disaster if a large ship should sink in Antarctic seas.
Some delegates said there had been a lively debate during the annual 10-day meeting of the treaty nations, which include New Zealand
The United States and some other nations had been unwilling to adopt new environmental measures without further study.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=2&objectid=10388184
Panicked whale vanishes as storms close in
Thursday July 6, 2006By Anne Beston
A humpback whale entangled in craypot lines thrashed around for four hours trying to free itself before slowly swimming on up the coast.
The Department of Conservation's ranger at Kaikoura, Mike Morrissey, said the animal would have panicked once entangled and done everything it could to get free.
"They're very sensitive to anything on their skin, if you even touch one it will react," he said.
The adult whale had now disappeared, as stormy weather closed in yesterday around the Kaikoura coast where it was last seen.
"Whether it's gone east or west we don't know. It could be unseen for weeks but then pop up."
A team based at Kaikoura spent four hours in inflatable boats trying to disentangle the whale on Sunday, without success.
A search for it the next day was also unsuccessful.
The Department of Conservation had received dozens of calls and offers of help.
"Boats, planes, you name it," Mr Morrissey said, "but there are huge seas and strong winds. You wouldn't see any whales out there."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=2&objectid=10389990
More rain and gales expected
9.00am Thursday November 16, 2006
Despite a "tempest" having passed, the country remains immersed in a soggy northwest flow which will bring more heavy rain and gales, the MetService has said.
Moderate snowfalls in the High Country later on Thursday would also affect farmers in the deep south, it said.
MetService has issued a severe weather warning for heavy rain in Fiordland, Westland and the headwaters of Otago and Canterbury rivers tomorrow, and for heavy rain over Mt Taranaki, the Tararua Ranges, Nelson and the Marlborough Sounds today and Friday.
Possible severe northwest gales would affect Marlborough Sounds, Wellington and Wairarapa today and Friday.
In Otago and Southland, moderate snowfalls were expected down to 1000m and possibly lower today.
A cooler change across the country is expected at the weekend.
- NZPA
Experienced American tramper fell to death
10.00am Thursday November 16, 2006
An American tramper who died after falling 200m down a bluff in the Southern Alps was experienced, confident and well-equipped, an inquest was told yesterday.
Westland coroner Tony Sullivan reserved his findings into the death of Christopher Brent Clarke, 34, of Ohio.
Mr Sullivan was told Mr Clarke set on out March 1 intending to complete the Three Passes route from Hokitika to arrive at Arthur's Pass Village on March 5.
On March 14, Mr Clarke's parents contacted the United States consulate when he failed to return home and the consulate called New Zealand police.
A search and rescue helicopter sent out the following day found Mr Clarke's body at the bottom of steep bluffs below Browning Pass -- the main divide of the Southern Alps, 9km north of Hokitika.
Tramper Gary Morrison, who overnighted with Mr Clarke at a hut, said he had an appropriate map for the area.
"He was confident and capable," he said in a statement read out at the inquest. "He had the right equipment and had researched the route well."
At the request of the coroner, MetService delivered a report of the weather conditions on the Browning Pass on the afternoon and evening of March 2, when Mr Clarke would have been crossing the pass solo.
Meteorologists said south-westerly winds of near gale force speeds of 60km/h were blowing and increased to storm force 90km/h speed around midnight.
Visibility would have been very poor in patches of mist or cloud below the level of the peaks but moderate to good in breaks in the cloud.
Browning Pass could well have been in cloud or mist by the time he arrived.
- NZPA
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10411030
Search resumes for missing glider
8.05am Thursday November 16, 2006
Rscue teams resumed their search this morning for a powered glider which went missing with two people on board during a competition in the lower South Island yesterday.
A spokesman for the Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ) said four planes and a helicopter took to the skies at first light to search for the glider which was last heard from at about 5.30pm yesterday four hours after taking off from Omarama.
The glider was reported overdue by race organisers at about 8.30pm.
The glider's flight path would have covered the Twizel, Lake Pukaki and Lindis Pass areas, the spokesman said.
RCCNZ launched a communications search yesterday, focusing on the area's numerous airstrips.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10411020
Clark discusses formal links with Europe
11.30am Thursday November 16, 2006By Andy Macdonald
LONDON - Prime Minister Helen Clark today said she has discussed formalising New Zealand's closeness with the European Union (EU) in talks with the leaders of France and Germany.
Overnight in Paris she met with France president Jacques Chirac and OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) secretary general Angel Gurria.
Building New Zealand's relationship with the EU had been touched on in those talks, Helen Clark told NZPA, adding the relationship required support from the big member countries like France and Germany.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10411025
Another Enron executive imprisoned
4.00pm Thursday November 16, 2006
HOUSTON, Texas - Former Enron chief accounting officer Richard Causey was today sentenced to five and a half years in prison for approving the bogus bookkeeping that led to the company's 2001 collapse.
Causey, 46, the last of the top-tier Enron executives to be sentenced, pleaded guilty to securities fraud in December 2005, weeks before he was scheduled to go on trial with former Enron chief executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, both of whom were found guilty in May. Lay died of a heart attack July 5.
"Improper things were done at Enron," Causey told US District Judge Sim Lake at his sentencing hearing. "Some things were done by me and for that I am profoundly sorry."
Causey, who faced more than 20 years in prison if convicted on three dozen original charges, agreed to a maximum sentence of seven years in jail and forfeit US$1.25 million ($1.92 million) under a plea deal.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=3&ObjectID=10411072
Iraq government at odds over missing hostages
10.00am Thursday November 16, 2006By Claudia Parsons and Alastair Macdonald
BAGHDAD - A day after a mass kidnap from a Baghdad ministry raised fears Iraq's sectarian militias are out of control, government leaders gave sharply differing accounts today of whether dozens of hostages were still missing.
The minister whose staff were targeted said up to 80 were still unaccounted for, possibly held by Shi'ite militia, and said he would boycott the government until they were released.
But the spokesman for the government, which appears keen to play down the incident, said only two to five were missing.
"I have suspended my participation as a minister with the government until those people who have been kidnapped are released," Higher Education Minister Abd Dhiab told Reuters.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10411037
'Hoodies' bad for your health - doctor
Thursday November 16, 2006By Simon Collins
"Hoodies" may be depriving Kiwi youngsters of the sunlight they need to build their bones and stay energised.
A doctor who works at Child, Youth and Family Services' youth justice centre at Wiri, Dr Glenn Twentyman, said yesterday that every young person he had tested at the centre had deficient vitamin D, which helps the body absorb vital minerals into the bones.
"It's the hoodies and the hats and the downward glance of the teenagers, shading your face all the time," he said.
"A lot of these kids stay away from sunshine. They don't hang out at the beach or in the bush. Some are into drugs and alcohol and a lot of it is indoor activity and night-time activity. They sleep during the day. They are wearing those hoods and literally they don't get out in the sun."
His comments add to mounting evidence of increasing vitamin D deficiency in Australasia, partly caused by "covering up" to avoid skin cancer. Ozone depletion has exposed the region to higher ultra-violet radiation, giving New Zealand the world's highest rate of skin cancer.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10411011
Make-up box sparks Auckland bomb scare
UPDATED 2.40pm Thursday November 16, 2006
An unattended box of make-up today brought the bomb squad out to downtown Auckland.
The large silver box, found unattended on a park bench in Shortland St, was blown up by the Defence Force Bomb Squad at 1.11pm, shortly after some people arrived saying it was their make-up box.
Later examinations showed the contents of the container were no risk.
Police cordoned off Shortland St, which connects to Queen St, after a passerby spotted the silver box at 11.28am.
Emergency services were on standby and occupants of a carpark building, NZ Post Shop and apartment building nearby were evacuated, and traffic in the busy area was held up.
Senior Sergeant Donovan Clark of Auckland Police said it was hard to imagine why anyone would leave a box unattended on a public bench seat for two hours.
"The owners' absentmindedness has caused a huge amount of disruption to motorists, pedestrians, staff in local businesses and residents of a nearby apartment block, not to mention the demands this placed on emergency services," Mr Clark said.
"People who leave their belongings lying around in public places or where they raise concerns about why something is where it is, need to have a good look at themselves in terms of their responsibilities to public safety."
Mr Clark said the people who brought the unattended container to the Police's attention did the right thing.
"In all such cases, we have to take matters seriously until we can determine the nature of the situation we're dealing with."
- NZPA
Army sells M113 fleet for scrap
8.00am Thursday November 16, 2006
The Army has sold its Vietnam-era fleet of 48 armoured personnel carriers and they will all be melted down for scrap before Christmas.
The M113 tracked carriers have been sold to a New Zealand company for $500,000, half the price the Army would have got in a deal last year with an Australian military collector.
That deal was stopped when the US State Department stepped in and vetoed the sale.
- NZPA / NZHERALD STAFF
Labour shortage threatening fruit and vegetables
2.00pm Thursday November 16, 2006
Vegetable growers are being forced to either pick their own crops or mulch crops back into the ground because of a lack of workers.
There are now fears the prices of some fresh produce could sky rocket.
One of those affected, Harjit Singh of Hamilton fruit and vegetable store Vege King, says something has to be done and soon.
He said he does not care where the labour comes from or who they are, as long as they are prepared to work hard.
Mr Singh said it was a real problem which was affecting growers' livelihoods. He said asparagus and strawberries are two crops which are at threat.
- NEWSTALK ZB
Tonga's CBD razed in wake of looting
UPDATED 11.20pm Thursday November 16, 2006
Nearly 80 per cent of the shops in Tonga's capital appear to been destroyed after fires set by youths targeting Chinese-owned shops spread to raze the city centre, correspondents report.
Groups of youths roamed the streets, overturning cars, smashing windows and setting fires while police stood by watching the violence, Mary Fonua of the Matangi Tonga news website told The Associated Press by telephone from the capital, Nuku'alofa.
And late tonight, Radio New Zealand International's correspondent, Mateni Tapueluelu, reported the fires spread quickly because the shops were built close together.
"Fires quickly spread to places not intended to be burned, including businesses owned by Western investors, and Tongan businesspeople," he said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10411108
Bush, Putin agree to sign Russia WTO deal
1.20pm Thursday November 16, 2006By Michael Stott
MOSCOW - US President George W. Bush and Russia's Vladimir Putin confirmed at an airport meeting today their plan to sign a bilateral deal next week for Russia's accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the presidents confirmed that they would sign a protocol paving the way for Russia to join the WTO on the sidelines of an Asian economic summit in Hanoi next week.
Bush and Putin also discussed Iran and its nuclear programme during an "extraordinarily positive and friendly" meeting, Peskov added without giving further details.
Putin greeted Bush warmly as the US leader stepped off Air Force One under chilly grey Moscow skies, and handed a bouquet of yellow and red flowers to US First Lady Laura Bush.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10411053
Child abuse is your fault, public told
Thursday November 16, 2006By Paula Oliver
The head of the country's social services has lashed out at adult New Zealanders, saying it is time they took responsibility for child abuse and stopped blaming Government departments for events like the death of the Kahui twins.
Peter Hughes, chief executive of the Ministry of Social Development, said no department could have prevented the deaths of 3-month-old South Auckland infants Chris and Cru Kahui.
Until adults accepted responsibility for situations like those Child, Youth and Family encountered, "we will not solve this problem", Mr Hughes said.
"Those children were killed by an adult New Zealander - they were not murdered by a Government department." The Kahui twins died in the Starship hospital on June 18 of serious head injuries.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10411015
Pakistan votes to roll back Islamic law on rape
UPDATED 10.30am Thursday November 16, 2006By Zeeshan Haider
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's lower house of parliament voted today to put the crime of rape under the civil penal code, curtailing the scope of Islamic laws that rights groups have long criticised as unfair to women.
The Women's Protection Bill was seen as a barometer of President Pervez Musharraf's commitment to his vision of "enlightened moderation" and a major battle in a struggle between progressive forces and religious conservatives over the Muslim nation's course.
Musharraf said in a television address to the nation the bill was part of a government campaign to empower women launched in 2000, soon after he seized power in a bloodless coup.
"We should be proud of it," Musharraf said. "The time has come for the moderate elements in Pakistan to come forward and show their real force to these extremists and tell the extremists they will have no more say in Pakistan," he said.
The Islamic laws, known as the Hudood Ordinances, were introduced by a military ruler, President Zia-ul-Haq, in 1979. They made a rape victim liable to prosecution for adultery if she could not produce four male witnesses to the assault.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10410978
Aid keeps flowing from South to North Korea
Thursday November 16, 2006
SEOUL - North Korea may be facing UN sanctions for the nuclear test it conducted last month, but goats and milk cows are still coming across the border.
Private aid from South Korean groups in the form of medicine, food and livestock has increased steadily in recent years. Donors see it as a way of giving direct help to the people of the impoverished Stalinist state.
"The contributions from South Korean civic and religious groups are not that big, but they are very practical," said Lee Keum-soon, a senior research fellow for South's Korea Institute for National Unification.
"Many South Koreans see it as their responsibility to keep North Koreans alive."
Civic and religious group leaders say many South Koreans are angry with the leaders of the communist North for the nuclear test and July's missile launches, but their sense of fraternity with its citizens is undiminished.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10410920
Renaissance masterpieces found behind bedroom door
3.20pm Wednesday November 15, 2006
LONDON - Two lost paintings by Italian Renaissance master Fra Angelico have turned up in a modest house in Oxford in a discovery hailed as one of the most exciting art finds for a generation.
The works -- two panels each painted with the standing figure of a Dominican saint in tempera on a gold background -- are expected to fetch more than 1 million pounds at auction.
They were discovered behind a bedroom door in a terraced house when art auctioneer Guy Schwinge was called in to carry out a valuation after the owner of the house. librarian Jean Preston, died in July.
They were commissioned by Florentine ruler Cosimo de' Medici and his brother Lorenzo, major Renaissance art patrons, in the late 1430s for the high altar at the Church and Convent of San Marco in Florence, where Fra Angelico, a Dominican monk, lived.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10410874
Kabila wins Congo poll, rival rejects result
12.20pm Thursday November 16, 2006By David Lewis
KINSHASA - Congo's President Joseph Kabila won a presidential election with 58.05 per cent of the votes, according to provisional results today, but the coalition of his rival Jean-Pierre Bemba rejected the result.
International peacekeepers stepped up patrols in the capital, and UN armoured vehicles and jeeps from a European Union force raced round the streets of Kinshasa where supporters of the candidates have fought twice in the past three months.
"Therefore, having garnered the absolute majority of votes in the second round, Mr Joseph Kabila Kabange is declared president of Democratic Republic of Congo," election commission chief Apollinaire Malu Malu said in a broadcast announcing the results of the October 29 run-off poll.
The result, giving Bemba 41.95 per cent, has to be confirmed by the Supreme Court.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10411054
Nepali King blamed for killings
5.40am Thursday November 16, 2006
KATHMANDU - A Nepali panel investigating the shooting and killing of pro-democracy protesters in April has held King Gyanendra responsible for the bloody crackdown.
At least 22 people were killed and more than 5000 wounded in the actions of security forces against anti-king demonstrators who forced the monarch to relinquish absolute power and restore democracy.
"Since he [the king] was the chairman of the council of ministers, we found him responsible for all the decisions taken by the Cabinet," the Himalayan Times quoted an unnamed source in the inquiry panel as saying.
The panel is headed by Krishna Jung Rayamajhi, a retired Supreme Court judge, and was appointed by the multi-party Government that took power in May.
Rayamajhi declined to comment on the newspaper article, saying the commission had not finalised its report.
- REUTERS
Frozen embryos have no right to life, Irish court rules
11.20am Thursday November 16, 2006By Paul Hoskins
DUBLIN - A woman lost her fight to have a child without the consent of her estranged husband today when an Irish judge ruled frozen embryos did not enjoy the same constitutional right to life as those carried in the womb.
Justice Brian McGovern said most agreed frozen embryos resulting from infertility treatment deserved special respect but ruled "the right to life of the unborn" in the Irish constitution did not extend to them.
"I have come to the conclusion that the three frozen embryos are not 'unborn'," the judge said in a landmark High Court ruling complicated by the fact that existing legislation does not define "unborn".
"There has been no evidence ... to establish that it was ever in the mind of the people voting on the Eight Amendment to the Constitution that 'unborn' meant anything other than a foetus or child within the womb," McGovern added.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10411044
Serb guilty of wartime rapes, torture
7.40am Thursday November 16, 2006
SARAJEVO - Bosnia's war crimes court yesterday sentenced a former Bosnian Serb soldier to 16 years in prison for the serial rape, enslavement and torture of civilians in the 1992-95 Bosnia war.
Radovan Stankovic was the first defendant from the United Nations war crimes court in The Hague to be tried in Bosnia. He was found guilty of running a brutal detention camp near the eastern town of Foca and of encouraging and assisting in the capture, torture, rape and killing of non-Serb civilians.
Stankovic was found to have repeatedly raped, tortured and beaten two girls, 12 at the time, for months, presiding judge Davorin Jukic said. He offered other girls to Bosnian Serb soldiers, who raped and humiliated them.
After Bosnian Serb forces took control of Foca, they detained thousands of Muslim and Croat civilians, locking up women and pre-teen girls. The Hague court has already convicted three former Bosnian Serb commanders for war crimes in Foca.
- REUTERS
Apec 'shelves plans' for free trade zone
Thursday November 16, 2006
HANOI - Cabinet ministers from the 21-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum decided on Wednesday to shelve plans for an ambitious Pacific rim free trade area for another year, officials said.
A US proposal for a vast free trade area sparked robust debate at Apec's opening session in Vietnam's capital, Japan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mitsuo Sakaba told reporters.
"After lengthy debate, the chair concluded that it should be studied as a long-term objective and report the result of that study to the next meeting in Australia," he said.
Business leaders had supported an Asia-Pacific Free Trade Agreement as a way of consolidating the dozens of bilateral and regional free trade agreements that have proliferated in recent years in the region.
An Apec vision of a vast free trade area along the Pacific rim, which accounts for nearly half of world trade and generates 70 per cent of economic growth, had lost considerable momentum to a plethora of mini-deals.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10410981
Tasmania has devil of a job to get rid of island's foxes
Thursday November 16, 2006By Nick Squires
Tasmania hopes to become the largest island in the world to eradicate foxes after biologists revealed that several hundred could be breeding on the island.
Rumours that the island had been invaded by the unwelcome predators have circulated for years but it was only confirmed earlier this year that they have established a breeding population.
There are fears they will devastate rare native mammals which have already been driven close to extinction on the Australian mainland, such as bandicoots, bettongs and quolls.
Frogs, blue-tongue lizards, pademelons (a type of small wallaby), and penguins are among the 80 other species which would also be at grave risk.
This week the Tasmanian Government launched a A$56 million ($64.8 million), 10-year campaign to eradicate foxes. It says a fox population could cost farmers and the eco-tourism industry A$20 million a year.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10410917
Launch of al Jazeera will bring new perspective to TV news
1.00pm Wednesday November 15, 2006By Guy Adams
Lights, cameras, salaam.
In the heart of old London, a stone's throw from Buckingham Palace, the inhabitants of a state-of-the-art TV studio are preparing to make broadcasting history.
Today, the Arabic television network al-Jazeera launches one of the most ambitious TV ventures of recent times: an English-language channel, to bring rolling news, from a Middle Eastern perspective, to a global audience of millions.
The new channel, al-Jazeera International, already boasts star quality.
A host of big names, from Sir David Frost to former BBC and ITV stalwarts Rageh Omaar and Darren Jordon have been poached from rival British broadcasters.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10410880/
Blair under new pressure to announce war inquiry
1.00pm Wednesday November 15, 2006By Colin Brown
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair will face fresh criticism today for refusing to give Parliament an independent inquiry on Iraq after giving evidence by video link to US President George Bush's Iraq Study Group.
The Prime Minister's official spokesman said Mr Blair had repeated the co-ordinated warning by himself and President Bush yesterday to Iran and Syria to become part of the solution to the Middle East, or face isolation.
Iran and Syria, which have offered dialogue to the US in the past, reacted swiftly to the proposal to engage constructively on Iraq and the broader Middle East.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10410881
Che at centre of display
4.40am Thursday November 16, 2006
SANTIAGO - New photographs of the corpse of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, taken shortly after the Latin American revolutionary was executed in Bolivia in 1967, have gone on public display for the first time.
The photographs were taken by Freddy Alborta, one of a handful of photographers allowed to see Che's corpse as it lay in a hospital in the Bolivian village of Vallegrande in October, 1967, following his capture by United States-backed Bolivian soldiers.
Alborta, a Bolivian, took dozens of photographs of Che's body but only ever published a few.
- REUTERS
Saudi women might vote but not drive
Thursday November 16, 2006
KUWAIT - A key Saudi royal put a damper on hopes that Saudi women might soon be allowed to drive in the Islamic state but said yesterday they could gain some voting rights.
The right of women to drive has been a key demand of reformers in United States-allied Saudi Arabia, which follows an austere form of Islam, and has been backed by some Government ministers.
But Interior Minister Prince Nayef's support would be key to any reform.
"It is regrettable that this has become an issue, since it doesn't deserve to be. I am surprised it has been brought up," Prince Nayef, a half-brother to King Abdullah, told Kuwait's al-Anbaa newspaper.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10410921
Death sentence from the toilet
Thursday November 16, 2006By Andrew Gumbel
The religious ascetics believed to have written the Dead Sea Scrolls were killed off by their own scrupulous toilet habits, research by an international team of biblical scholars suggest.
The Essenes, who established a community at Qumran on the north-western shores of the Dead Sea, rejected the common Bedouin practice of relieving themselves in the open.
Instead, they assigned a dumping ground about 800m from their community and buried their waste there, believing this to be more hygienic.
But the Essenes' efforts appear to have worked against them.
The parasites and harmful bacteria associated with human waste would have been quickly killed by the desert sun had they remained above ground.
Buried, they could survive and thrive, creating a toxic environment that infected members of the Essene sect as they walked to and from their toilet area.
The parasites almost certainly bred in a cistern used in religious cleansing ceremonies, giving a compelling reason for the early deaths of many Essenes.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10410970
continued ...
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Zoos
Grrreat!, says PB Zoo about expected tigers
Sunday, November 12, 2006
The Palm Beach Zoo at Dreher Park is receiving two rare Malayan tigers, a rare occurrence among zoos in the United States, the zoo has announced.
The new tigers (Panthera tigris malayensis) are named Mata and Rimba and are 16 months old. They will reach the zoo in mid-November.
Only 47 of these endangered tigers are in captivity in the United States and fewer than 800 are known to be alive in the wild.
The zoo was designated to receive the cats based on a recommendation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Tiger Species Survival Plan. The young tigers will be transferred from the San Diego Zoo where they were born in June 2005.
Logistics for receiving the tigers are complicated, said zoo president and chief executive officer Terry L. Maple.
During the first week of November, key members of the zoo's animal care team traveled to San Diego and supervised the shipping preparation. Special care is required for the shipping containers and environment for the big cats during their cross-country trip.
After their arrival in West Palm Beach, an observation and quarantine period will be observed before they can be seen by the public.
The zoo plans to hold a celebration for the tigers when they are introduced to patrons in late November or early December.
The new tigers will make their home next to the Townee the Tiger attraction.
"Townee is 19 years old, making him one of the oldest tigers in captivity," Maple said.
Ken Lovett, director of living collections, who supervised the transfer of the cats from San Diego to the Palm Beach Zoo, said the zoo "is ready to take an active role in the conservation of the Malayan tigers.
"The zoo will endeavor to educate guests on these magnificent animals and garner a greater appreciation of the need to protect this important species in the wild."
http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/content/news/BriefZooNow1112.html
Pig Nurses Tiger Cubs
Visitors at a zoo in Thailand witness the bizarre sights of tiger cubs suckling a sow and piglets playing with a fully grown tiger. Sriracha Zoo in Chonburi, is Thailand's most successful tiger-breeding zoo largely due to the discovery that tiger cubs nursed by pigs grew up calm, un-aggressive and more suited to life in captivity. Now all of the zoo's 300 bengali tigers are raised this way.
Thailand, Asia, Quirky, Odd, Zoos, breeding, mothers, Families, Animals, Cute, bizarre, tigers, pigs, babies, weird, acceptance, Love
http://www.websfunniestvideos.net/2006/11/13/pig-nurses-tiger-cubs/
Associated Content
Extinction of the Giant Panda
The Giant Panda has captured the hearts of people around the world and become an enduring symbol of conservation efforts to save endangered species. One of the favourite attractions at zoos, the panda is extremely rare.
It is difficult to calculate exactly how many pandas are left, but an estimated 800 live in the wild and roughly 100 live in captivity, mostly in zoos, breeding centres and special reserves in China. Yet despite all the attention to its plight and international efforts to save the panda, there is a real risk that it will become extinct.
Once the Giant Panda roamed mountain lowlands from Myanmar through northern Viet Nam and much of eastern and southern China; but farming, development and clear-cutting have destroyed the bamboo forests that make up their natural habitat.
More than 50 per cent of these forests have been lost in the past few decades alone - and they are not easily replaced. Bamboo flowers only every 80 to 100 years, and takes 20 years to grow enough to sustain a panda population.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/85320/extinction_of_the_giant_panda.html
House OKs bill aimed at animal activists
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Animal rights advocates who threaten scientists conducting animal research or companies funding or affiliated with it could be fined and imprisoned under a bill the House passed Monday and sent to President Bush.
Current federal law makes it illegal for activists to damage animal research organizations, farms, zoos, pet stores and other similar operations.
The legislation extends those prohibitions to interfering with third-party organizations such as insurance companies, law firms and investment houses that do business with so-called animal enterprises. Supporters said the bill is aimed at protecting people and companies from animal rights terrorists.
Violators could be sentenced up to a year in jail for economic damages of less than $10,000, and up to five years in prison if a threat produced a "reasonable fear" of bodily harm. Prison sentences of up to 10 years could result if someone is actually injured.
Although the bill specifically condones peaceful animal rights protests, critics said it comes close to infringing on advocates' constitutional rights.
"I am not for anyone abusing their ... rights by damaging another person's property or person," said Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio. "But I am for protecting the First Amendment and not creating a special class of violations for a specific type of protest."
The bill passed the House on a voice vote. The Senate passed it in September.
http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/politics/16004312.htm
Mother of all Mothers
Mother of the year
In a zoo in California, a mother tiger gave birth to a rare set of triplet tiger cubs. Unfortunately, due to complications in the pregnancy, the cubs were born prematurely and due to their tiny size, they died shortly after birth. The mother tiger, after recovering from the delivery, suddenly started to decline in health, although physically she was fine. The veterinarians felt that the loss of her litter had caused the tigress to fall into a depression. The doctors decided that if the tigress could surrogate another mother's cubs, perhaps she would improve. After checking with many other zoos across the country, the depressing news was that there were no tiger cubs of the right age to introduce to the mourning mother. The veterinarians decided to try something tha t had never been tried in a zoo environment. Sometimes a mother of one species will take on the care of a different species. The only orphans" that could be found quickly, were a litter of weaner pigs. The zoo keepers and vets wrapped the piglets in tiger skin and placed the babies around the mother tiger. Would they become cubs or pork chops?? Take a look........ you won't believe your eyes!!
http://joyouslybecoming.blogspot.com/2006/11/mother-of-all-mothers.html
City providing hay, grown in biosolids, to zoo
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.
Hay for the zoo is being grown at the Chattanooga wastewater treatment plant.
City solid waste resources director Jerry Stewart says the city is now using solids, left over after wastewater has been treated, as fertilizer. The plant has about 90-thousand tons of it a year.
It's applied to 15 acres of land near the plant in a demonstration project. The "biosolids" add nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium to the soil.
Stewart says the hay will be cut this weekend and baled next week.
It will be sent to the zoo to be used for animals such as camels.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?S=5662411
U.S. zoo tries to help wild deer with head stuck in plastic pumpkin
The Associated Press
Published: November 10, 2006
CASCADE TOWNSHIP, Michigan: A plastic jack-o'-lantern meant for collecting Halloween candy is threatening the life of a small deer that frequently visits a gated community.
The fake pumpkin has been stuck on the animal's snout for at least several days. It appears to be snagged on the young buck's ears or horn buds.
Ironically, the container that resembles a feed bag is instead keeping the animal from eating and possibly drinking.
Officials from a Grand Rapids zoo could not get close enough to the animal Friday to shoot it with a tranquilizer. They planned to try again Saturday.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/11/america/NA_GEN_US_Deer_Pumpkin_Head.php
I debated to include this video here, but, it teaches a very hard learned lesson. Zoo animals are real, have instincts and act on those instincts. This is a very difficult video to watch. The end does not show a man dead but one lying still. I just don't understand how this could have happened except to realize people take liberties on their own when they shouldn't.
http://www.wowozanga.com/2006/11/10/hungry-lions-kill-man-at-zoo.htm
Hungary Lion Kills Man at Zoo
This truly is a cautionary tale, a stern warning to you. A stupid father actually dies tragically here. This was taken in an animal safari… with clear sign posts everywhere saying, “Do not stop your vehicle. Do not open windows. Do not leave your vehicle… Maximum Penalty - A slow and painful death.” That’s why the audio was removed.
Thai zoo to teach panda to mate with "porn" videos
Sat Nov 11, 2006 3:01 AM GMT
BANGKOK (Reuters) - A Thai zoo, which has hosted a couple of pandas for four years, will play "porn" videos for the male next month to encourage them to breed in captivity, the project manager said on Saturday.
The pair -- living chastely together at the zoo in the northern city of Chiang Mai since arriving from China in 2003 -- would be separated in December, but stay close enough for occasional glimpses of each other, said panda project chief Prasertsak Buntrakoonpoontawee.
"They don't know how to mate so we need to show the male how, through videos," Prasertsak told Reuters.
He said Chuang Chuang, the six-year-old male, would be shown the videos on a large screen when he might be feeling amorous.
"We'll play the video at the most comfortable and intimate time for him, perhaps after dinner," Prasertsak said, hoping Chuang Chuang would then use the techniques on Lin Hui, a five-year-old female.
The zoo is hosting a four-day international panda conference that starts on Monday, drawing 200 wildlife and panda specialists from around the world.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2006-11-11T030117Z_01_BKK165281_RTRIDST_0_SCIENCE-LIFE-THAILAND-PANDA-DC.XML
Jane's New York: The Bronx Zoo
POSTED: 11:39 am EST November 10, 2006
UPDATED: 12:09 am EST November 11, 2006
NEW YORK -- Jane Hansen writes about an experience unlike any other.
The Bronx zoo is exhilarating and fascinating, with 5,000 animals living happily in the middle of the biggest city in the country.
It's not just any zoo, but a place renowned for putting animals in their natural habitats.
I even slept overnight there, after we finished shooting, in the gorilla house (separated by a wall of glass) and woke up in the morning to see the gorillas in action. There was even one gorilla who sat so completely like us all he needed was a remote control in his hand and I'd think he might be human.
Feeding the animals is a full time occupation. Think about all of those different diets, from the smallest of reptile to the very large mammals.
All have to be fed in way that does not compromise their natural needs, yet gives them all the nutrition they need to even prevent human diseases from affecting them.
I was in the bird kitchen, where mealworms and crickets and even mice are part of the menu.
Just think of how much food is consumed: truck-fulls arrive on a daily basis.
Because the zoo is run by the wildlife conservation society, a great focus is on teaching about the animals, and getting kids early on to learn about conservation.
Their hospital is renowned around the world. Animals are shipped in from all over the world when they need surgery or special care.
We watched as zookeepers brought in an alligator for its regular checkup. Think about every animal getting a physical every year: that's a lot!
It's a 24-hour, 365 day a year operation, and you won't believe what happens behind the scenes!
http://www.wnbc.com/janesny/10290579/detail.html
Zoo to adopt over-sized pooches
Updated: 2006-11-11 16:23
Hefei dog owners fretting over the future of larger hounds, which are to be banned by a new regulation, applauded news that the local zoo will adopt the dogs they will have to give up.
Zoo director Jiang said there is more than 60 square metres of land at the zoo available for the dogs. The zoo will provide staff to specifically look after the dogs, free of charge to their former owners.
The only thing the owners are required to do is visit their old best friend regularly, bringing dog food.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-11/11/content_730630.htm
Zoo director plans to use millage to cover basics
By Tom Lambert Lansing State Journal
Potter Park Zoo admission fees for Ingham County residents likely will decrease and exhibits will be spruced up at the Lansing zoo after a countywide millage passed overwhelmingly this week.
Within the next couple of months, county, city and zoo officials will form a new board that will map out the zoo's future. The county will take over the zoo and its 18-member staff on July 1.
The new tax, which would last for five years, might allow the zoo to improve its eagle exhibit and expand its rhinoceros yard, among other things, said Gerald Brady, the zoo's director.
http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061111/NEWS01/611110338/1001/news
Captive breeding of storks in zoo
M. Sai Gopal
Project to start in three months
WHAT NEXT! A stork captured in a contemplative mood
HYDERABAD : The Nehru Zoological Park here is all set to become a permanent centre for captive breeding of four varieties of storks, the numbers of which are going down drastically in the State.
Works related to the construction of special enclosures to house White, Long, Black and Open Billed varieties of storks at the zoo are already under progress. In another three months, officials are expecting stork breeding to take off. Zoo officials revealed that in addition to the storks project, the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) also agreed to release Rs. 83 lakhs for captive breeding of white-backed and long-billed vultures in the Hyderabad zoo.
http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/11/stories/2006111118440200.htm
Zoo to Provide Life Jackets to Boat Riders
Patna : November 12, 2006
Visitors at Patna's Sanjay Gandhi Botanical and Zoological Garden from now on will be able to take joy boat rides without any fear of drowning in the lake as the zoo administration will start providing life jackets to the fun-seekers, zoo director Rakesh Kumar said on Saturday. The zoo has purchased 28 life jackets from a firm in Kolkata and though the plan was to be implemented from last month, defects in some of the life jackets delayed the implementation by a few weeks, Kumar said.The director also said that due to the large popularity of boat ride at the zoo lake, five new boats were being purchased to accommodate the visitors.Currently the zoo owns eight boats but four of them are about to be retired due to their old age and concern about riders' safety, Kumar said.
http://www.patnadaily.com/news2006/nov/111206/zoo_to_provide_life_jackets.html
Chattanooga Zoo Reopens
The Chattanooga Zoo reopened today after 13 animals died in this week's fire.
Workers took time to collect drive through donations, asking for supplies and cash to help the Zoo get back to full speed.
"We just encourage folks to come on out, drop off a few items," said Robin Derryberry. Blankets especially are extremely important right now. We have temporary trailers set up to house these animals that are now homeless."
The Zoo is also in need of cedar bedding, reptile sand, and reptile bark. You can drop off the donations during regular zoo hours.
The blaze ran through the Education building; workers were able to save most of the animals. Some are in Knoxville getting specialized treatment, some are in Chattanooga animal hospitals and some are back at home in the zoo.
http://www.wrcbtv.com/news/index.cfm?sid=4512
Animal acts: Too shy to make the first move
PANDAS are notorious for their reluctance to breed, and the zoos of the world are notorious for trying desperate measures. Chiang Mai zoo in Thailand has arrived at the last resort. Next month it will show what we can only describe as porn videos on a big screen to its six year old male Panda, Chuang Chuang, to give him an inkling of what to do. He has been reluctant to form a relationship with Chaing Mai's five year old female, Lin Hui, since they arrived from China in 2003. The two live sexless lives, platonically munching their bamboo shoots side by side.
"They don't know how to mate so we need to show the male how, through videos,'' said the zoo's panda project chief Prasertsak Buntrakoonpoontawee. "We'll play the video at the most comfortable and intimate time for him, perhaps after dinner.''
(In the US, at the National Zoo in Washington , the giant pandas Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, have had better luck. They are the focus of a research and breeding program - and last year their first cub, Tai Shan, was born. Perhaps they will feature in the videos to be shown to Chuang Chuang)
http://blogs.smh.com.au/sit/archives/2006/11/animal_acts.html
Zoo welcomes elephantine arrival
Zookeepers are celebrating the birth of their latest addition - after waiting 23 months for its arrival.
A baby male elephant was born at Chester Zoo on Sunday morning weighing just under 100kg (15st 10lbs).
The Asian calf is about a metre tall and brings the total number of elephants at the zoo to ten.
His arrival means the zoo now boasts three generations of elephant but despite the long pregnancy, the youngster has yet to be given a name.
Mick Jones, Chester Zoo's Elephant team leader, said: "It's a long wait so we are very excited to finally meet our new addition.
"He is settling in well and the females of the herd are taking great care of him."
Medical experts from the Countess of Chester Hospital were able to predict the baby elephant's birth by monitoring his mother's hormone levels.
He is the third elephant calf to be born at the zoo in two years.
The elephant is on view inside the newly-built enclosure - which was opened in July - but is not yet allowed outside.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/merseyside/6141522.stm
Darwin at the Zoo
Did humans invent right and wrong, or are these feelings part of the inheritance from our primate ancestors?
By Jonathan Weiner
Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved by Frans de Waal. Edited by Stephen Macedo and Josiah OberPrinceton University Press, 2006
It was not until a year and a half after his voyage on board the Beagle that Charles Darwin first came face to face with an ape. He was standing by the giraffe house at the London Zoo on a warm day in late March of 1838. The zoo had just acquired an orangutan named Jenny. One of the keepers was teasing her--showing her an apple, refusing to hand it over. Poor Jenny "threw herself on her back, kicked & cried, precisely like a naughty child," Darwin wrote in a letter to his sister.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=D25A15F4-E7F2-99DF-3238208B0D11D7AB&colID=12
The Kansas City Zoo
Contest goes round
Guess how much the hippo — or the chimp or the rhino — weighs and win a prize.
That's the game the Kansas City Zoo is playing with the first three hand-carved animals that have arrived for a carousel that is to debut next year. Eventually, there will be 36 endangered animals to ride on the old-fashioned merry-go-round.
Visitors can see the three animals in the zoo's main gift shop and submit a weight guess for each one until Dec. 31. Winners will each receive a free 2007 carousel pass.
Matt Campbell, mcampbell@kcstar.com
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/15998373.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
TV PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT
LOCATION: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2006/s1787593.htm
Broadcast: 13/11/2006
Zoos under fire for elephant breeding plans
Reporter: Mark Bannerman
KERRY O'BRIEN: Asian elephants are big, they're smart and they're endangered. For Taronga and Melbourne zoos, the answer to their threatened survival is simple, import eight of them from Thailand and breed them. But animal activists say elephants have no place in a zoo. They claim the best decision Taronga ever made was to send its ageing elephants to a bush zoo and carry on without the loveable giants. Until now, zoo insiders have stayed out of the debate but one former Taronga Zoo employee has decided to speak out about the decision to display and breed elephants, pointing out the zoo doesn't have a great track record when it comes to breeding endangered species. Mark Bannerman reports. MARK BANNERMAN: It was the moment zoo officials had waited so long to see elephants returning to Taronga Zoo.GUY COOPER: Well, I'm truly delighted the way they have already settled into the exhibit. They felt so comfortable that they immediately climbed into the water body there. So that was really great.
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2006/s1787593.htm
Baby anteater at Dallas Zoo has Mom's eyes, Dad's nose
08:00 AM CST on Monday, November 13, 2006
By KATIE MENZER / The Dallas Morning News
Alert the relatives! There's a new anteater in town.
A baby giant anteater was born to ant-eating parents Punkin and Hoover at the Dallas Zoo about a month ago, and it's the first the zoo's had. The baby was an unexpected surprise for zookeepers, who didn't even know their anteaters were expecting.
"Punkin was getting a little round, but she's young and we thought she was still filling out," said zookeeper Jennifer Stefaniak. "She's always been a good eater."
The surprises haven't stopped there.
http://www.khou.com/news/state/stories/khou061113_jj_babyanteater.322fc8c6.html
Sacramento Zoo's New Veterinary Hospital Opens (video)
(CBS13) SACRAMENTO After almost 5-years in the making, the Sacramento Zoo is opening a new veterinary hospital this morning.The complex includes a surgery center, MRI equipment and recovery rooms for up to 40 animals. Half of the money for the two million dollar facility came from private donations. The other half from a city bond measure. It will be able to handle all of the zoo's animals except for the giraffes.But, a new facility is being built for the giraffes and will include a medical stall.
http://cbs13.com/local/local_story_317101504.html
Trumpet the news: Elephants are staying at the zoo
By MARK DAVIS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 11/13/06
Victoria, Zambezi and Starlet, don't pack those trunks just yet. You're not leaving as originally planned to mate up with some handsome bull.
Instead, you'll be treated Tuesday to a pachyderm pile of produce to celebrate two decades' worth of heavyweight entertainment at Zoo Atlanta.
That's right, 20 years. Tuesday marks the 20-year anniversary of the day the three African elephants came together at the zoo. With luck, they'll stay here years longer, said Susan Elliott, the zoo's spokeswoman.
"We're real happy we'll be able to keep them," she said. "This is good news for us."
Not as good news, perhaps, for the elephants, each about 24 years old. They were bound early next year for the North Carolina Zoo for a date with C'sar, the zoo's big bull. Or, if that didn't work, they might have been artificially inseminated to help create a larger herd of Loxodonta africana born in this country.
Those plans changed a few weeks ago when officials at the Asheboro, N.C., facility decided to go after some younger females.
After studying the three Zoo Atlanta elephants, specialists decided not all of them were good candidates for breeding, said Rod Hackney, a spokesman for the N.C. Zoo. Studies indicate that captive female elephants at that age do not breed as easily as younger cows. Elephants can live to 60 or longer.
Rather than break apart the group, they decided to leave the Atlanta trio intact and keep looking for Ms. Right(s). They notified Zoo Atlanta officials that the date was off.
That was fine with Adam Stone, assistant curator of large mammals at the Atlanta zoo. The zoo would have accepted two other elephants from Florida, but Stone likes the girls he's got here.
"They've closely bonded," he said, "They've been together 20 years."
They were born in the wild — Starlet in South Africa, Zambezi and Victoria at a national park in Central Africa. Starlet came to Atlanta in March 1986, a squeaker who had yet to grow into her ears. On Nov. 14, 1986, youngsters Zambezi and Victoria — purchased, in part, by the donations of school children — joined Starlet.
Tuesday afternoon, the zoo plans a celebration of elephantine proportions for the three — with some condolences tossed in, perhaps.
C'sar, according to all reports, is one fine-looking fellow.
http://www.ajc.com/living/content/living/stories/2006/11/13/1114lvelephants.html
Kolkata kids visit zoo on Children's Day
Tuesday, November 14, 2006 (Kolkata):
A popular belief that children only see animals in the zoo and don't observe their surroundings is proven wrong by NDTV's child reporter.Meher Roy, NDTV's child reporter, an animal lover, was at the New Alipur Zoo in Kolkata. Meher was quite saddened and distressed when she saw that some of the animals did not even have clean water to drink.The family in the New Alipur Zoo is getting bigger. In the last two years, the zoo has recorded the birth of three baby Giraffes and the first baby Hippopotamus. The baby hippo was born on September 1, the first since the zoo was started in 1875. "There are 380 mammals 1350 kinds of birds and 80 reptiles," said B Chaudhuri, Director, Alipur Zoo.But the baby Hippo's waterbed did not look very clean. Hippos like flowing water but the baby was enclosed in a pond. Not just the Hippo, but other animals and birds in the zoo need clean water. It's just as well that Chimpanzees are not fond of swimming. Other visitors to the zoo also felt sorry for the ape."I definitely think that water here should be more clean," said a visitor. While the zoo is still a great place for families to spend time we still need to learn to keep our surroundings clean.
http://www.ndtv.com/template/template.asp?category=National&template=Childrensday%20&slug=Kolkata+kids+visit+zoo+on+Children's+Day&id=96328&callid=1
Memorial to 175yo tortoise unveiled
A MEMORIAL to one of the oldest animals ever to have lived will be unveiled tomorrow at Australia Zoo on what would have been Harriet the Tortoise's 176th birthday.
The Giant Galapagos Land Tortoise died of a suspected heart attack on June 23 this year at age 175 and holds the Guinness Book of Records title as the oldest living animal in captivity.
Plans for a permanent memorial at her last home will be revealed tomorrow in celebration of Harriet's amazing life which will include a giant tortoise-shaped cake decorated with Harriet's favourite treat of Hibiscus flowers – a Harriet birthday tradition.
Australia Zoo director Wes Mannion today said Harriet had been a significant part of the Australia Zoo family.
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,20756706-29277,00.html
Thai zoo finds gold in giant pandas' dung
Tue Nov 14, 2006 8:12 AM GMT
BANGKOK (Reuters) - A Thai zoo has discovered a way to utilise unwanted dung from a couple of pandas by using it to make paper for souvenirs, the country's panda project manager said on Tuesday.
The zoo had improvised a traditional way of making paper from mulberry trees in the northern city of Chiang Mai by using bamboo pulp that the pair of pandas could not digest, Prasertsak Buntrakoonpoontawee said.
The pandas, who are fed chopped bamboo, excrete about 23 kg (50 lb) of the pulp a day, he said.
"We know that any kind of pulp can be used to make paper, so we have applied the 2,000-year techniques of making paper from mulberry tree in this rural neighborhood to bamboo pulp from panda dung," Prasertsak said. The zoo had earned 300,000 baht (4,309 pounds) a year from selling fans, greeting cards, key chains, book marks -- all with panda faces and made from panda excrement paper -- and dried panda dung, enough to fund the project, he said.
The project would be presented at a four-day international panda conference in Chiang Mai that started on Monday, drawing 200 wildlife and panda specialists from around the world.
The zoo would also start to separate the pair -- six-year-old male Chuang Chuang and five-year-old female Lin Hui -- in December in a bid to breed them in captivity as Chaung Chaung would be shown frank videos of how to mate, Prasertsak said.
($1=36.50 baht)
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2006-11-14T081205Z_01_BKK124735_RTRIDST_0_OUKOE-UK-LIFE-THAILAND-PANDAS.XML&WTmodLoc=HP-C13-Oddly-3
China says record number of giant pandas born in captivity this year
BEIJING : A record 28 pandas have survived so far this year after being born using artificial insemination techniques, state media reported Tuesday.
A total of 31 panda cubs were born, including 11 pairs of twins and one born to Lun Lun at the Atlanta Zoo of the United States, Zhang Zhihe, director of the China Giant Panda Breeding Technical Committee, was quoted as saying by Xinhua News Agency.
Despite the three deaths, it is the biggest baby boom for the endangered species since China's first began artificially breeding giant pandas in the 1960s, Zhang said.
"We expected to get 10 cubs this year, but, as you can see, we were too conservative," he said.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/14/asia/AS_GEN_China_Panda_Births.php
Little Rock Zoo To Make Big Announcement
Today's THV and Arkansas Business both report that the zoo is about to receive a lot of money, but who's donating those funds and what they'll finance remains a mystery. Tuesday morning, Susan Altrui from the Little Rock Zoo talked with Tom Brannon about the gift. She says, yes, it does concern a donation but the details surrounding that gift will remain a secret until 11 a.m.Susan brought along Kristen Silvers from the Ft. Worth Zoo and Jackie the African Penguin for the interview. Watch it by clicking the THVideo icon.
http://www.todaysthv.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=36952
Two de Seroux horses found with steroids in system
By: JEFF NAHILL - Staff Writer
DEL MAR ---- Trainer Laura de Seroux, one of the most outspoken critics of drug use in the sport of thoroughbred racing, was fined $500 by Del Mar stewards Sunday for having two horses test positive for the steroid Trenbolone. The drug positives for Royal Copenhagen and Johnny Red Kerr occurred last month at Hollywood Park and are a Class VI violation, the second-lowest violation in the state. Trenbolone is a therapeutic steroid that can be used on horses, but the horses must be clear by the time a post-race urine sample is taken.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/08/08/sports/delmar/8705194725.txt
Board: close zoo by '07
By VANESSA McCRAYRecord-Eagle staff writer
TRAVERSE CITY - The city should close the bayfront Clinch Park Zoo by no later than July 1, 2007, but seek out a private group to construct a new zoo on another site.
So says a draft recommendation to the city commission from a 15-member zoo board. The city commission charged the group to give direction regarding the zoo's future.
The zoo board Thursday was largely supportive of a draft recommendation prepared by chairman Ralph Cerny that asks the city to "announce its intent to close the Clinch Park Zoo no later than July 1, 2007."
It also states the city should "solicit proposals" from private groups to pay for a new zoo or wildlife center in another location. The city also should provide a "nominal transitional subsidy" for the new facility's operations "to end no later than three years after its opening."
"I think it's pretty much right on target," said zoo board member Ross Biederman.
Cerny said the board could finalize the recommendation at its next meeting in October, months before the January deadline given by the city commission.
The draft, greeted with support by most of the board, was opposed by two members, both of whom belong to the Grand Traverse Zoological Society. The society staunchly supports the zoo's downtown location.
"I would have to concede that it represents a consensus, but speaking personally, not a unanimous decision," said society president Richard Miller.
Miller brought to the board the society's own recommendation: To submit a millage proposal to city residents to fund zoo operations at the current location. Residents would fund the zoo at its present spot if given the choice, Miller said.
But that proposal gained little traction with other zoo board members.
"This is, in my view, a way of stalling and delaying the inevitable," Biederman said.
http://www.record-eagle.com/2005/sep/30zoo.htm
Przewalski's horse back from the brink
Holly Kirkwood
27 December, 2005
A working group from London Zoo has recommended that the Mongolian Przewalski's horse should be reclassified from "extinct" to "endangered"
The Przewalski's horse has made an incredible recovery in the wild, according to scientists from London Zoo, and should be taken off the "extinct" list, and reclassified as "endangered."
In 1945 the horse was all but extinct — they numbered 45 — but following a sustained programme to breed them in captivity there were more than 1500 Przewalski's horses by the early 1990s. Work then began to slowly reintroduce them to their native Mongolian habitat.
The programme has now been heralded as a fantastic success. The scientists responsible have applied to have their project results officially noted by The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), by the reclassification. .
"This finding is significant as it shows reintroductions can work," said Sarah King, the project manager in Mongolia. "The status change is exiting because it illustrates that the horses haven't been weakened by captivity, which was an initial worry."
"There were some concerns," agreed Nick Lindsay of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). "However, there are now 248 free-ranging Przewalski's horses in the wild, which is an incredible achievement."
"If the application is accepted by the IUCN, this reclassification is set to be a milestone for large mammal conservation," he added.
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/397/72569.html
Killer dragon the superstar of Shedd show (It's a guy thing.)
By William MullenTribune
staff reporter
March 30, 2006
Even with his bad table manners, smelly breath and lethal bite, Faust, the first Komodo dragon ever to take up residence in Chicago, has become the darling of his keepers at the Shedd Aquarium.
At 7 feet 10 inches long, 129 pounds and growing, Faust is a member of the monitor lizard species Varanus komodoensis, which happen to be the biggest lizards in the world, up to more than 10 feet long and weighing more than 300 pounds after a good meal.
As a representative of the Komodos, which have been known to eat the occasional human, Faust is the star of a temporary lizard exhibit that will open April 8 at the Shedd. It features more than 25 species of lizards from around the world, ranging in bulk from the sleek, muscular, lime-green beauty of Faust down to tiny geckos the size of a pinky finger.
In between lies an impressive array of green tree monitors, caiman lizards, Gila monsters and the world's longest lizard, the crocodile monitor, which can be as long as 15 feet.
Crocodile monitors may grow longer than Komodos, but they are no match for them in bulk or strength. A full-grown Komodo lizard, with its rancid, razor-sharp teeth, can pull down a 1,000-pound water buffalo and kill it.
The Komodo is also one of nature's great gluttons, able to eat up to 80 percent of its body weight in a single sitting, so that a mature, 200-pound male might balloon out to 360 pounds in a matter of hours.
"Isn't he a beauty?" marveled Ray Owczarzak, a senior keeper at the Shedd who hours earlier had given Faust his first Chicago meal: six large, dead white rats--fur, tails and all."
He wolfed each one down in a gulp," Owczarzak said. "I figured it would take half an hour or so, but he was done in 7 minutes."
Owczarzak flew to Chicago with Faust a week ago from the Ft. Worth Zoo, which lent the big lizard to the Shedd for the duration of the exhibit. His impressively appointed, 1,000-square-foot habitat, separated from the public by a panoramic, half-inch-thick window of laminated glass, takes up a third of the lizard exhibit.
Faust is 13 years old, having hatched in captivity at the San Diego Zoo in 1993, and has resided in Texas since 1994. As he pulls his bulk from one heated lounging rock to another, his huge tail leaves furrows in the habitat's 20-inch-deep floor of sand.
His benign, placid appearance doesn't conjure up much sense of fear, but Komodos can be extremely dangerous, Owczarzak said."
When we go in with him to clean out his area in the morning, we always have to keep in mind his potential speed and temperament. We try to go in fairly early, when he is still slow and waking up," Owczarzak said. "
The Ft. Worth Zoo worked with him for a long time so that he would be friendly and connected to people. When I was in with him this morning, he followed me all around, checking out what I was doing and licking my ankles. It tickles."
Endangered in the wild, Komodos live on only a few small, hot volcanic islands in Indonesia, including Komodo Island, from which the giant lizard gets its name.
The area is so remote that the lizard first was described to science fewer than 100 years ago, in 1912. In the U.S. it first became known popularly through a 1927 National Geographic article that marveled at its size, strength and foot-long, flickering, flame-yellow tongue. The magazine called it a "dragon," a name that stuck.
In the wild, it is a fierce killer, patiently hiding along forest trails for passing prey, especially deer. It waits until the animal passes, then rushes out in a 12 m.p.h. burst, its powerful jaws snapping at the prey's rear legs.
It then will go for the stomach, using its teeth to open the animal up and let it bleed to death. If the animal's skin was broken by the Komodo's bite, it usually dies even if it manages to escape."
There is always a lot of lot of rotting flesh stuck in their teeth from their last meal, so their bite is full of deadly bacteria," said Owczarzak, "and anything it bites usually dies from infection."
The Komodo eats every part of its prey--hooves, fur, teeth, everything except for the contents of the prey's stomach and intestines. But it vigorously shakes those organs until they are emptied so that it can eat the organ tissue.
It takes a week or more for a Komodo to digest its enormous meal, aided by colonies of bacteria in its guts. The well-fed Komodo seeks out hot, flat rocks to lie upon, and the warmth encourages the heat-loving bacteria inside to go to work.
Shedd officials said they mounted the $750,000 temporary lizard show after they saw how fascinated visitors have been by their permanent lizard exhibits elsewhere in the building. Faust is undoubtedly the focal point of the show. "
He is a very impressive, charismatic animal," Owczarzak said. Only 78 Komodo dragons are in captivity in North America, he added. "There is nothing in the works to bring Komodos here permanently, so come see him while you can."
Enter the Komodo
The Komodo dragon is the world's largest lizard. It can grow to more than 10 feet long and weigh more than 300 pounds.
Lives in tropical savanna forests on volcanic islands in Indonesia.
Can detect prey from as far away as 2 miles with its yellow forked tongue.
Can devour any kind of meat as well as bones, hooves and hide--even a 1,000-pound buffalo.
Can eat up to 80 percent of its body weight in a single sitting. Has serrated teeth containing deadly bacteria that can kill a victim within a week.
If you go
WHAT: "Lizards and the Komodo King," featuring 25 species of lizards, including basilisks, caimans and chameleons.
WHERE: Shedd Aquarium.
WHEN April 8 to Feb. 28, 2007
HOW: "All Access" tickets cost $23 for adults, $16 for seniors and kids ages 3-11. Discounts available to Chicago residents.Source: Smithsonian National Zoo and Shedd Aquarium
http://www.sheddaquarium.org/
continued …
Grrreat!, says PB Zoo about expected tigers
Sunday, November 12, 2006
The Palm Beach Zoo at Dreher Park is receiving two rare Malayan tigers, a rare occurrence among zoos in the United States, the zoo has announced.
The new tigers (Panthera tigris malayensis) are named Mata and Rimba and are 16 months old. They will reach the zoo in mid-November.
Only 47 of these endangered tigers are in captivity in the United States and fewer than 800 are known to be alive in the wild.
The zoo was designated to receive the cats based on a recommendation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Tiger Species Survival Plan. The young tigers will be transferred from the San Diego Zoo where they were born in June 2005.
Logistics for receiving the tigers are complicated, said zoo president and chief executive officer Terry L. Maple.
During the first week of November, key members of the zoo's animal care team traveled to San Diego and supervised the shipping preparation. Special care is required for the shipping containers and environment for the big cats during their cross-country trip.
After their arrival in West Palm Beach, an observation and quarantine period will be observed before they can be seen by the public.
The zoo plans to hold a celebration for the tigers when they are introduced to patrons in late November or early December.
The new tigers will make their home next to the Townee the Tiger attraction.
"Townee is 19 years old, making him one of the oldest tigers in captivity," Maple said.
Ken Lovett, director of living collections, who supervised the transfer of the cats from San Diego to the Palm Beach Zoo, said the zoo "is ready to take an active role in the conservation of the Malayan tigers.
"The zoo will endeavor to educate guests on these magnificent animals and garner a greater appreciation of the need to protect this important species in the wild."
http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/content/news/BriefZooNow1112.html
Pig Nurses Tiger Cubs
Visitors at a zoo in Thailand witness the bizarre sights of tiger cubs suckling a sow and piglets playing with a fully grown tiger. Sriracha Zoo in Chonburi, is Thailand's most successful tiger-breeding zoo largely due to the discovery that tiger cubs nursed by pigs grew up calm, un-aggressive and more suited to life in captivity. Now all of the zoo's 300 bengali tigers are raised this way.
Thailand, Asia, Quirky, Odd, Zoos, breeding, mothers, Families, Animals, Cute, bizarre, tigers, pigs, babies, weird, acceptance, Love
http://www.websfunniestvideos.net/2006/11/13/pig-nurses-tiger-cubs/
Associated Content
Extinction of the Giant Panda
The Giant Panda has captured the hearts of people around the world and become an enduring symbol of conservation efforts to save endangered species. One of the favourite attractions at zoos, the panda is extremely rare.
It is difficult to calculate exactly how many pandas are left, but an estimated 800 live in the wild and roughly 100 live in captivity, mostly in zoos, breeding centres and special reserves in China. Yet despite all the attention to its plight and international efforts to save the panda, there is a real risk that it will become extinct.
Once the Giant Panda roamed mountain lowlands from Myanmar through northern Viet Nam and much of eastern and southern China; but farming, development and clear-cutting have destroyed the bamboo forests that make up their natural habitat.
More than 50 per cent of these forests have been lost in the past few decades alone - and they are not easily replaced. Bamboo flowers only every 80 to 100 years, and takes 20 years to grow enough to sustain a panda population.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/85320/extinction_of_the_giant_panda.html
House OKs bill aimed at animal activists
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Animal rights advocates who threaten scientists conducting animal research or companies funding or affiliated with it could be fined and imprisoned under a bill the House passed Monday and sent to President Bush.
Current federal law makes it illegal for activists to damage animal research organizations, farms, zoos, pet stores and other similar operations.
The legislation extends those prohibitions to interfering with third-party organizations such as insurance companies, law firms and investment houses that do business with so-called animal enterprises. Supporters said the bill is aimed at protecting people and companies from animal rights terrorists.
Violators could be sentenced up to a year in jail for economic damages of less than $10,000, and up to five years in prison if a threat produced a "reasonable fear" of bodily harm. Prison sentences of up to 10 years could result if someone is actually injured.
Although the bill specifically condones peaceful animal rights protests, critics said it comes close to infringing on advocates' constitutional rights.
"I am not for anyone abusing their ... rights by damaging another person's property or person," said Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio. "But I am for protecting the First Amendment and not creating a special class of violations for a specific type of protest."
The bill passed the House on a voice vote. The Senate passed it in September.
http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/politics/16004312.htm
Mother of all Mothers
Mother of the year
In a zoo in California, a mother tiger gave birth to a rare set of triplet tiger cubs. Unfortunately, due to complications in the pregnancy, the cubs were born prematurely and due to their tiny size, they died shortly after birth. The mother tiger, after recovering from the delivery, suddenly started to decline in health, although physically she was fine. The veterinarians felt that the loss of her litter had caused the tigress to fall into a depression. The doctors decided that if the tigress could surrogate another mother's cubs, perhaps she would improve. After checking with many other zoos across the country, the depressing news was that there were no tiger cubs of the right age to introduce to the mourning mother. The veterinarians decided to try something tha t had never been tried in a zoo environment. Sometimes a mother of one species will take on the care of a different species. The only orphans" that could be found quickly, were a litter of weaner pigs. The zoo keepers and vets wrapped the piglets in tiger skin and placed the babies around the mother tiger. Would they become cubs or pork chops?? Take a look........ you won't believe your eyes!!
http://joyouslybecoming.blogspot.com/2006/11/mother-of-all-mothers.html
City providing hay, grown in biosolids, to zoo
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.
Hay for the zoo is being grown at the Chattanooga wastewater treatment plant.
City solid waste resources director Jerry Stewart says the city is now using solids, left over after wastewater has been treated, as fertilizer. The plant has about 90-thousand tons of it a year.
It's applied to 15 acres of land near the plant in a demonstration project. The "biosolids" add nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium to the soil.
Stewart says the hay will be cut this weekend and baled next week.
It will be sent to the zoo to be used for animals such as camels.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?S=5662411
U.S. zoo tries to help wild deer with head stuck in plastic pumpkin
The Associated Press
Published: November 10, 2006
CASCADE TOWNSHIP, Michigan: A plastic jack-o'-lantern meant for collecting Halloween candy is threatening the life of a small deer that frequently visits a gated community.
The fake pumpkin has been stuck on the animal's snout for at least several days. It appears to be snagged on the young buck's ears or horn buds.
Ironically, the container that resembles a feed bag is instead keeping the animal from eating and possibly drinking.
Officials from a Grand Rapids zoo could not get close enough to the animal Friday to shoot it with a tranquilizer. They planned to try again Saturday.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/11/america/NA_GEN_US_Deer_Pumpkin_Head.php
I debated to include this video here, but, it teaches a very hard learned lesson. Zoo animals are real, have instincts and act on those instincts. This is a very difficult video to watch. The end does not show a man dead but one lying still. I just don't understand how this could have happened except to realize people take liberties on their own when they shouldn't.
http://www.wowozanga.com/2006/11/10/hungry-lions-kill-man-at-zoo.htm
Hungary Lion Kills Man at Zoo
This truly is a cautionary tale, a stern warning to you. A stupid father actually dies tragically here. This was taken in an animal safari… with clear sign posts everywhere saying, “Do not stop your vehicle. Do not open windows. Do not leave your vehicle… Maximum Penalty - A slow and painful death.” That’s why the audio was removed.
Thai zoo to teach panda to mate with "porn" videos
Sat Nov 11, 2006 3:01 AM GMT
BANGKOK (Reuters) - A Thai zoo, which has hosted a couple of pandas for four years, will play "porn" videos for the male next month to encourage them to breed in captivity, the project manager said on Saturday.
The pair -- living chastely together at the zoo in the northern city of Chiang Mai since arriving from China in 2003 -- would be separated in December, but stay close enough for occasional glimpses of each other, said panda project chief Prasertsak Buntrakoonpoontawee.
"They don't know how to mate so we need to show the male how, through videos," Prasertsak told Reuters.
He said Chuang Chuang, the six-year-old male, would be shown the videos on a large screen when he might be feeling amorous.
"We'll play the video at the most comfortable and intimate time for him, perhaps after dinner," Prasertsak said, hoping Chuang Chuang would then use the techniques on Lin Hui, a five-year-old female.
The zoo is hosting a four-day international panda conference that starts on Monday, drawing 200 wildlife and panda specialists from around the world.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2006-11-11T030117Z_01_BKK165281_RTRIDST_0_SCIENCE-LIFE-THAILAND-PANDA-DC.XML
Jane's New York: The Bronx Zoo
POSTED: 11:39 am EST November 10, 2006
UPDATED: 12:09 am EST November 11, 2006
NEW YORK -- Jane Hansen writes about an experience unlike any other.
The Bronx zoo is exhilarating and fascinating, with 5,000 animals living happily in the middle of the biggest city in the country.
It's not just any zoo, but a place renowned for putting animals in their natural habitats.
I even slept overnight there, after we finished shooting, in the gorilla house (separated by a wall of glass) and woke up in the morning to see the gorillas in action. There was even one gorilla who sat so completely like us all he needed was a remote control in his hand and I'd think he might be human.
Feeding the animals is a full time occupation. Think about all of those different diets, from the smallest of reptile to the very large mammals.
All have to be fed in way that does not compromise their natural needs, yet gives them all the nutrition they need to even prevent human diseases from affecting them.
I was in the bird kitchen, where mealworms and crickets and even mice are part of the menu.
Just think of how much food is consumed: truck-fulls arrive on a daily basis.
Because the zoo is run by the wildlife conservation society, a great focus is on teaching about the animals, and getting kids early on to learn about conservation.
Their hospital is renowned around the world. Animals are shipped in from all over the world when they need surgery or special care.
We watched as zookeepers brought in an alligator for its regular checkup. Think about every animal getting a physical every year: that's a lot!
It's a 24-hour, 365 day a year operation, and you won't believe what happens behind the scenes!
http://www.wnbc.com/janesny/10290579/detail.html
Zoo to adopt over-sized pooches
Updated: 2006-11-11 16:23
Hefei dog owners fretting over the future of larger hounds, which are to be banned by a new regulation, applauded news that the local zoo will adopt the dogs they will have to give up.
Zoo director Jiang said there is more than 60 square metres of land at the zoo available for the dogs. The zoo will provide staff to specifically look after the dogs, free of charge to their former owners.
The only thing the owners are required to do is visit their old best friend regularly, bringing dog food.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-11/11/content_730630.htm
Zoo director plans to use millage to cover basics
By Tom Lambert Lansing State Journal
Potter Park Zoo admission fees for Ingham County residents likely will decrease and exhibits will be spruced up at the Lansing zoo after a countywide millage passed overwhelmingly this week.
Within the next couple of months, county, city and zoo officials will form a new board that will map out the zoo's future. The county will take over the zoo and its 18-member staff on July 1.
The new tax, which would last for five years, might allow the zoo to improve its eagle exhibit and expand its rhinoceros yard, among other things, said Gerald Brady, the zoo's director.
http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061111/NEWS01/611110338/1001/news
Captive breeding of storks in zoo
M. Sai Gopal
Project to start in three months
WHAT NEXT! A stork captured in a contemplative mood
HYDERABAD : The Nehru Zoological Park here is all set to become a permanent centre for captive breeding of four varieties of storks, the numbers of which are going down drastically in the State.
Works related to the construction of special enclosures to house White, Long, Black and Open Billed varieties of storks at the zoo are already under progress. In another three months, officials are expecting stork breeding to take off. Zoo officials revealed that in addition to the storks project, the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) also agreed to release Rs. 83 lakhs for captive breeding of white-backed and long-billed vultures in the Hyderabad zoo.
http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/11/stories/2006111118440200.htm
Zoo to Provide Life Jackets to Boat Riders
Patna : November 12, 2006
Visitors at Patna's Sanjay Gandhi Botanical and Zoological Garden from now on will be able to take joy boat rides without any fear of drowning in the lake as the zoo administration will start providing life jackets to the fun-seekers, zoo director Rakesh Kumar said on Saturday. The zoo has purchased 28 life jackets from a firm in Kolkata and though the plan was to be implemented from last month, defects in some of the life jackets delayed the implementation by a few weeks, Kumar said.The director also said that due to the large popularity of boat ride at the zoo lake, five new boats were being purchased to accommodate the visitors.Currently the zoo owns eight boats but four of them are about to be retired due to their old age and concern about riders' safety, Kumar said.
http://www.patnadaily.com/news2006/nov/111206/zoo_to_provide_life_jackets.html
Chattanooga Zoo Reopens
The Chattanooga Zoo reopened today after 13 animals died in this week's fire.
Workers took time to collect drive through donations, asking for supplies and cash to help the Zoo get back to full speed.
"We just encourage folks to come on out, drop off a few items," said Robin Derryberry. Blankets especially are extremely important right now. We have temporary trailers set up to house these animals that are now homeless."
The Zoo is also in need of cedar bedding, reptile sand, and reptile bark. You can drop off the donations during regular zoo hours.
The blaze ran through the Education building; workers were able to save most of the animals. Some are in Knoxville getting specialized treatment, some are in Chattanooga animal hospitals and some are back at home in the zoo.
http://www.wrcbtv.com/news/index.cfm?sid=4512
Animal acts: Too shy to make the first move
PANDAS are notorious for their reluctance to breed, and the zoos of the world are notorious for trying desperate measures. Chiang Mai zoo in Thailand has arrived at the last resort. Next month it will show what we can only describe as porn videos on a big screen to its six year old male Panda, Chuang Chuang, to give him an inkling of what to do. He has been reluctant to form a relationship with Chaing Mai's five year old female, Lin Hui, since they arrived from China in 2003. The two live sexless lives, platonically munching their bamboo shoots side by side.
"They don't know how to mate so we need to show the male how, through videos,'' said the zoo's panda project chief Prasertsak Buntrakoonpoontawee. "We'll play the video at the most comfortable and intimate time for him, perhaps after dinner.''
(In the US, at the National Zoo in Washington , the giant pandas Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, have had better luck. They are the focus of a research and breeding program - and last year their first cub, Tai Shan, was born. Perhaps they will feature in the videos to be shown to Chuang Chuang)
http://blogs.smh.com.au/sit/archives/2006/11/animal_acts.html
Zoo welcomes elephantine arrival
Zookeepers are celebrating the birth of their latest addition - after waiting 23 months for its arrival.
A baby male elephant was born at Chester Zoo on Sunday morning weighing just under 100kg (15st 10lbs).
The Asian calf is about a metre tall and brings the total number of elephants at the zoo to ten.
His arrival means the zoo now boasts three generations of elephant but despite the long pregnancy, the youngster has yet to be given a name.
Mick Jones, Chester Zoo's Elephant team leader, said: "It's a long wait so we are very excited to finally meet our new addition.
"He is settling in well and the females of the herd are taking great care of him."
Medical experts from the Countess of Chester Hospital were able to predict the baby elephant's birth by monitoring his mother's hormone levels.
He is the third elephant calf to be born at the zoo in two years.
The elephant is on view inside the newly-built enclosure - which was opened in July - but is not yet allowed outside.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/merseyside/6141522.stm
Darwin at the Zoo
Did humans invent right and wrong, or are these feelings part of the inheritance from our primate ancestors?
By Jonathan Weiner
Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved by Frans de Waal. Edited by Stephen Macedo and Josiah OberPrinceton University Press, 2006
It was not until a year and a half after his voyage on board the Beagle that Charles Darwin first came face to face with an ape. He was standing by the giraffe house at the London Zoo on a warm day in late March of 1838. The zoo had just acquired an orangutan named Jenny. One of the keepers was teasing her--showing her an apple, refusing to hand it over. Poor Jenny "threw herself on her back, kicked & cried, precisely like a naughty child," Darwin wrote in a letter to his sister.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=D25A15F4-E7F2-99DF-3238208B0D11D7AB&colID=12
The Kansas City Zoo
Contest goes round
Guess how much the hippo — or the chimp or the rhino — weighs and win a prize.
That's the game the Kansas City Zoo is playing with the first three hand-carved animals that have arrived for a carousel that is to debut next year. Eventually, there will be 36 endangered animals to ride on the old-fashioned merry-go-round.
Visitors can see the three animals in the zoo's main gift shop and submit a weight guess for each one until Dec. 31. Winners will each receive a free 2007 carousel pass.
Matt Campbell, mcampbell@kcstar.com
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/15998373.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
TV PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT
LOCATION: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2006/s1787593.htm
Broadcast: 13/11/2006
Zoos under fire for elephant breeding plans
Reporter: Mark Bannerman
KERRY O'BRIEN: Asian elephants are big, they're smart and they're endangered. For Taronga and Melbourne zoos, the answer to their threatened survival is simple, import eight of them from Thailand and breed them. But animal activists say elephants have no place in a zoo. They claim the best decision Taronga ever made was to send its ageing elephants to a bush zoo and carry on without the loveable giants. Until now, zoo insiders have stayed out of the debate but one former Taronga Zoo employee has decided to speak out about the decision to display and breed elephants, pointing out the zoo doesn't have a great track record when it comes to breeding endangered species. Mark Bannerman reports. MARK BANNERMAN: It was the moment zoo officials had waited so long to see elephants returning to Taronga Zoo.GUY COOPER: Well, I'm truly delighted the way they have already settled into the exhibit. They felt so comfortable that they immediately climbed into the water body there. So that was really great.
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2006/s1787593.htm
Baby anteater at Dallas Zoo has Mom's eyes, Dad's nose
08:00 AM CST on Monday, November 13, 2006
By KATIE MENZER / The Dallas Morning News
Alert the relatives! There's a new anteater in town.
A baby giant anteater was born to ant-eating parents Punkin and Hoover at the Dallas Zoo about a month ago, and it's the first the zoo's had. The baby was an unexpected surprise for zookeepers, who didn't even know their anteaters were expecting.
"Punkin was getting a little round, but she's young and we thought she was still filling out," said zookeeper Jennifer Stefaniak. "She's always been a good eater."
The surprises haven't stopped there.
http://www.khou.com/news/state/stories/khou061113_jj_babyanteater.322fc8c6.html
Sacramento Zoo's New Veterinary Hospital Opens (video)
(CBS13) SACRAMENTO After almost 5-years in the making, the Sacramento Zoo is opening a new veterinary hospital this morning.The complex includes a surgery center, MRI equipment and recovery rooms for up to 40 animals. Half of the money for the two million dollar facility came from private donations. The other half from a city bond measure. It will be able to handle all of the zoo's animals except for the giraffes.But, a new facility is being built for the giraffes and will include a medical stall.
http://cbs13.com/local/local_story_317101504.html
Trumpet the news: Elephants are staying at the zoo
By MARK DAVIS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 11/13/06
Victoria, Zambezi and Starlet, don't pack those trunks just yet. You're not leaving as originally planned to mate up with some handsome bull.
Instead, you'll be treated Tuesday to a pachyderm pile of produce to celebrate two decades' worth of heavyweight entertainment at Zoo Atlanta.
That's right, 20 years. Tuesday marks the 20-year anniversary of the day the three African elephants came together at the zoo. With luck, they'll stay here years longer, said Susan Elliott, the zoo's spokeswoman.
"We're real happy we'll be able to keep them," she said. "This is good news for us."
Not as good news, perhaps, for the elephants, each about 24 years old. They were bound early next year for the North Carolina Zoo for a date with C'sar, the zoo's big bull. Or, if that didn't work, they might have been artificially inseminated to help create a larger herd of Loxodonta africana born in this country.
Those plans changed a few weeks ago when officials at the Asheboro, N.C., facility decided to go after some younger females.
After studying the three Zoo Atlanta elephants, specialists decided not all of them were good candidates for breeding, said Rod Hackney, a spokesman for the N.C. Zoo. Studies indicate that captive female elephants at that age do not breed as easily as younger cows. Elephants can live to 60 or longer.
Rather than break apart the group, they decided to leave the Atlanta trio intact and keep looking for Ms. Right(s). They notified Zoo Atlanta officials that the date was off.
That was fine with Adam Stone, assistant curator of large mammals at the Atlanta zoo. The zoo would have accepted two other elephants from Florida, but Stone likes the girls he's got here.
"They've closely bonded," he said, "They've been together 20 years."
They were born in the wild — Starlet in South Africa, Zambezi and Victoria at a national park in Central Africa. Starlet came to Atlanta in March 1986, a squeaker who had yet to grow into her ears. On Nov. 14, 1986, youngsters Zambezi and Victoria — purchased, in part, by the donations of school children — joined Starlet.
Tuesday afternoon, the zoo plans a celebration of elephantine proportions for the three — with some condolences tossed in, perhaps.
C'sar, according to all reports, is one fine-looking fellow.
http://www.ajc.com/living/content/living/stories/2006/11/13/1114lvelephants.html
Kolkata kids visit zoo on Children's Day
Tuesday, November 14, 2006 (Kolkata):
A popular belief that children only see animals in the zoo and don't observe their surroundings is proven wrong by NDTV's child reporter.Meher Roy, NDTV's child reporter, an animal lover, was at the New Alipur Zoo in Kolkata. Meher was quite saddened and distressed when she saw that some of the animals did not even have clean water to drink.The family in the New Alipur Zoo is getting bigger. In the last two years, the zoo has recorded the birth of three baby Giraffes and the first baby Hippopotamus. The baby hippo was born on September 1, the first since the zoo was started in 1875. "There are 380 mammals 1350 kinds of birds and 80 reptiles," said B Chaudhuri, Director, Alipur Zoo.But the baby Hippo's waterbed did not look very clean. Hippos like flowing water but the baby was enclosed in a pond. Not just the Hippo, but other animals and birds in the zoo need clean water. It's just as well that Chimpanzees are not fond of swimming. Other visitors to the zoo also felt sorry for the ape."I definitely think that water here should be more clean," said a visitor. While the zoo is still a great place for families to spend time we still need to learn to keep our surroundings clean.
http://www.ndtv.com/template/template.asp?category=National&template=Childrensday%20&slug=Kolkata+kids+visit+zoo+on+Children's+Day&id=96328&callid=1
Memorial to 175yo tortoise unveiled
A MEMORIAL to one of the oldest animals ever to have lived will be unveiled tomorrow at Australia Zoo on what would have been Harriet the Tortoise's 176th birthday.
The Giant Galapagos Land Tortoise died of a suspected heart attack on June 23 this year at age 175 and holds the Guinness Book of Records title as the oldest living animal in captivity.
Plans for a permanent memorial at her last home will be revealed tomorrow in celebration of Harriet's amazing life which will include a giant tortoise-shaped cake decorated with Harriet's favourite treat of Hibiscus flowers – a Harriet birthday tradition.
Australia Zoo director Wes Mannion today said Harriet had been a significant part of the Australia Zoo family.
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,20756706-29277,00.html
Thai zoo finds gold in giant pandas' dung
Tue Nov 14, 2006 8:12 AM GMT
BANGKOK (Reuters) - A Thai zoo has discovered a way to utilise unwanted dung from a couple of pandas by using it to make paper for souvenirs, the country's panda project manager said on Tuesday.
The zoo had improvised a traditional way of making paper from mulberry trees in the northern city of Chiang Mai by using bamboo pulp that the pair of pandas could not digest, Prasertsak Buntrakoonpoontawee said.
The pandas, who are fed chopped bamboo, excrete about 23 kg (50 lb) of the pulp a day, he said.
"We know that any kind of pulp can be used to make paper, so we have applied the 2,000-year techniques of making paper from mulberry tree in this rural neighborhood to bamboo pulp from panda dung," Prasertsak said. The zoo had earned 300,000 baht (4,309 pounds) a year from selling fans, greeting cards, key chains, book marks -- all with panda faces and made from panda excrement paper -- and dried panda dung, enough to fund the project, he said.
The project would be presented at a four-day international panda conference in Chiang Mai that started on Monday, drawing 200 wildlife and panda specialists from around the world.
The zoo would also start to separate the pair -- six-year-old male Chuang Chuang and five-year-old female Lin Hui -- in December in a bid to breed them in captivity as Chaung Chaung would be shown frank videos of how to mate, Prasertsak said.
($1=36.50 baht)
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2006-11-14T081205Z_01_BKK124735_RTRIDST_0_OUKOE-UK-LIFE-THAILAND-PANDAS.XML&WTmodLoc=HP-C13-Oddly-3
China says record number of giant pandas born in captivity this year
BEIJING : A record 28 pandas have survived so far this year after being born using artificial insemination techniques, state media reported Tuesday.
A total of 31 panda cubs were born, including 11 pairs of twins and one born to Lun Lun at the Atlanta Zoo of the United States, Zhang Zhihe, director of the China Giant Panda Breeding Technical Committee, was quoted as saying by Xinhua News Agency.
Despite the three deaths, it is the biggest baby boom for the endangered species since China's first began artificially breeding giant pandas in the 1960s, Zhang said.
"We expected to get 10 cubs this year, but, as you can see, we were too conservative," he said.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/14/asia/AS_GEN_China_Panda_Births.php
Little Rock Zoo To Make Big Announcement
Today's THV and Arkansas Business both report that the zoo is about to receive a lot of money, but who's donating those funds and what they'll finance remains a mystery. Tuesday morning, Susan Altrui from the Little Rock Zoo talked with Tom Brannon about the gift. She says, yes, it does concern a donation but the details surrounding that gift will remain a secret until 11 a.m.Susan brought along Kristen Silvers from the Ft. Worth Zoo and Jackie the African Penguin for the interview. Watch it by clicking the THVideo icon.
http://www.todaysthv.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=36952
Two de Seroux horses found with steroids in system
By: JEFF NAHILL - Staff Writer
DEL MAR ---- Trainer Laura de Seroux, one of the most outspoken critics of drug use in the sport of thoroughbred racing, was fined $500 by Del Mar stewards Sunday for having two horses test positive for the steroid Trenbolone. The drug positives for Royal Copenhagen and Johnny Red Kerr occurred last month at Hollywood Park and are a Class VI violation, the second-lowest violation in the state. Trenbolone is a therapeutic steroid that can be used on horses, but the horses must be clear by the time a post-race urine sample is taken.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/08/08/sports/delmar/8705194725.txt
Board: close zoo by '07
By VANESSA McCRAYRecord-Eagle staff writer
TRAVERSE CITY - The city should close the bayfront Clinch Park Zoo by no later than July 1, 2007, but seek out a private group to construct a new zoo on another site.
So says a draft recommendation to the city commission from a 15-member zoo board. The city commission charged the group to give direction regarding the zoo's future.
The zoo board Thursday was largely supportive of a draft recommendation prepared by chairman Ralph Cerny that asks the city to "announce its intent to close the Clinch Park Zoo no later than July 1, 2007."
It also states the city should "solicit proposals" from private groups to pay for a new zoo or wildlife center in another location. The city also should provide a "nominal transitional subsidy" for the new facility's operations "to end no later than three years after its opening."
"I think it's pretty much right on target," said zoo board member Ross Biederman.
Cerny said the board could finalize the recommendation at its next meeting in October, months before the January deadline given by the city commission.
The draft, greeted with support by most of the board, was opposed by two members, both of whom belong to the Grand Traverse Zoological Society. The society staunchly supports the zoo's downtown location.
"I would have to concede that it represents a consensus, but speaking personally, not a unanimous decision," said society president Richard Miller.
Miller brought to the board the society's own recommendation: To submit a millage proposal to city residents to fund zoo operations at the current location. Residents would fund the zoo at its present spot if given the choice, Miller said.
But that proposal gained little traction with other zoo board members.
"This is, in my view, a way of stalling and delaying the inevitable," Biederman said.
http://www.record-eagle.com/2005/sep/30zoo.htm
Przewalski's horse back from the brink
Holly Kirkwood
27 December, 2005
A working group from London Zoo has recommended that the Mongolian Przewalski's horse should be reclassified from "extinct" to "endangered"
The Przewalski's horse has made an incredible recovery in the wild, according to scientists from London Zoo, and should be taken off the "extinct" list, and reclassified as "endangered."
In 1945 the horse was all but extinct — they numbered 45 — but following a sustained programme to breed them in captivity there were more than 1500 Przewalski's horses by the early 1990s. Work then began to slowly reintroduce them to their native Mongolian habitat.
The programme has now been heralded as a fantastic success. The scientists responsible have applied to have their project results officially noted by The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), by the reclassification. .
"This finding is significant as it shows reintroductions can work," said Sarah King, the project manager in Mongolia. "The status change is exiting because it illustrates that the horses haven't been weakened by captivity, which was an initial worry."
"There were some concerns," agreed Nick Lindsay of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). "However, there are now 248 free-ranging Przewalski's horses in the wild, which is an incredible achievement."
"If the application is accepted by the IUCN, this reclassification is set to be a milestone for large mammal conservation," he added.
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/397/72569.html
Killer dragon the superstar of Shedd show (It's a guy thing.)
By William MullenTribune
staff reporter
March 30, 2006
Even with his bad table manners, smelly breath and lethal bite, Faust, the first Komodo dragon ever to take up residence in Chicago, has become the darling of his keepers at the Shedd Aquarium.
At 7 feet 10 inches long, 129 pounds and growing, Faust is a member of the monitor lizard species Varanus komodoensis, which happen to be the biggest lizards in the world, up to more than 10 feet long and weighing more than 300 pounds after a good meal.
As a representative of the Komodos, which have been known to eat the occasional human, Faust is the star of a temporary lizard exhibit that will open April 8 at the Shedd. It features more than 25 species of lizards from around the world, ranging in bulk from the sleek, muscular, lime-green beauty of Faust down to tiny geckos the size of a pinky finger.
In between lies an impressive array of green tree monitors, caiman lizards, Gila monsters and the world's longest lizard, the crocodile monitor, which can be as long as 15 feet.
Crocodile monitors may grow longer than Komodos, but they are no match for them in bulk or strength. A full-grown Komodo lizard, with its rancid, razor-sharp teeth, can pull down a 1,000-pound water buffalo and kill it.
The Komodo is also one of nature's great gluttons, able to eat up to 80 percent of its body weight in a single sitting, so that a mature, 200-pound male might balloon out to 360 pounds in a matter of hours.
"Isn't he a beauty?" marveled Ray Owczarzak, a senior keeper at the Shedd who hours earlier had given Faust his first Chicago meal: six large, dead white rats--fur, tails and all."
He wolfed each one down in a gulp," Owczarzak said. "I figured it would take half an hour or so, but he was done in 7 minutes."
Owczarzak flew to Chicago with Faust a week ago from the Ft. Worth Zoo, which lent the big lizard to the Shedd for the duration of the exhibit. His impressively appointed, 1,000-square-foot habitat, separated from the public by a panoramic, half-inch-thick window of laminated glass, takes up a third of the lizard exhibit.
Faust is 13 years old, having hatched in captivity at the San Diego Zoo in 1993, and has resided in Texas since 1994. As he pulls his bulk from one heated lounging rock to another, his huge tail leaves furrows in the habitat's 20-inch-deep floor of sand.
His benign, placid appearance doesn't conjure up much sense of fear, but Komodos can be extremely dangerous, Owczarzak said."
When we go in with him to clean out his area in the morning, we always have to keep in mind his potential speed and temperament. We try to go in fairly early, when he is still slow and waking up," Owczarzak said. "
The Ft. Worth Zoo worked with him for a long time so that he would be friendly and connected to people. When I was in with him this morning, he followed me all around, checking out what I was doing and licking my ankles. It tickles."
Endangered in the wild, Komodos live on only a few small, hot volcanic islands in Indonesia, including Komodo Island, from which the giant lizard gets its name.
The area is so remote that the lizard first was described to science fewer than 100 years ago, in 1912. In the U.S. it first became known popularly through a 1927 National Geographic article that marveled at its size, strength and foot-long, flickering, flame-yellow tongue. The magazine called it a "dragon," a name that stuck.
In the wild, it is a fierce killer, patiently hiding along forest trails for passing prey, especially deer. It waits until the animal passes, then rushes out in a 12 m.p.h. burst, its powerful jaws snapping at the prey's rear legs.
It then will go for the stomach, using its teeth to open the animal up and let it bleed to death. If the animal's skin was broken by the Komodo's bite, it usually dies even if it manages to escape."
There is always a lot of lot of rotting flesh stuck in their teeth from their last meal, so their bite is full of deadly bacteria," said Owczarzak, "and anything it bites usually dies from infection."
The Komodo eats every part of its prey--hooves, fur, teeth, everything except for the contents of the prey's stomach and intestines. But it vigorously shakes those organs until they are emptied so that it can eat the organ tissue.
It takes a week or more for a Komodo to digest its enormous meal, aided by colonies of bacteria in its guts. The well-fed Komodo seeks out hot, flat rocks to lie upon, and the warmth encourages the heat-loving bacteria inside to go to work.
Shedd officials said they mounted the $750,000 temporary lizard show after they saw how fascinated visitors have been by their permanent lizard exhibits elsewhere in the building. Faust is undoubtedly the focal point of the show. "
He is a very impressive, charismatic animal," Owczarzak said. Only 78 Komodo dragons are in captivity in North America, he added. "There is nothing in the works to bring Komodos here permanently, so come see him while you can."
Enter the Komodo
The Komodo dragon is the world's largest lizard. It can grow to more than 10 feet long and weigh more than 300 pounds.
Lives in tropical savanna forests on volcanic islands in Indonesia.
Can detect prey from as far away as 2 miles with its yellow forked tongue.
Can devour any kind of meat as well as bones, hooves and hide--even a 1,000-pound buffalo.
Can eat up to 80 percent of its body weight in a single sitting. Has serrated teeth containing deadly bacteria that can kill a victim within a week.
If you go
WHAT: "Lizards and the Komodo King," featuring 25 species of lizards, including basilisks, caimans and chameleons.
WHERE: Shedd Aquarium.
WHEN April 8 to Feb. 28, 2007
HOW: "All Access" tickets cost $23 for adults, $16 for seniors and kids ages 3-11. Discounts available to Chicago residents.Source: Smithsonian National Zoo and Shedd Aquarium
http://www.sheddaquarium.org/
continued …
Do I have to say it? It's not good news. This is however 12:00 PM (click to animate)
The movement of heat ONTO Antarctica is coming from the high latitudes to the bottom of the world. The wind animation clearly illustrates the winds influence on the temperatures over the ice (click 0n).
This is mostly true over the Wedell Sea and the Ross Ice Shelf. However, that makes sense. The cooling effects of the ice is what this is all about. So the spike in temperatures with some abatement will clearly indicate an air movement with a cooling of it and causing a change to cooler air causing a sinking of the air over the ice. The Peninsula is continually hot but not sustaining the highest of temperatures either. That is because of the substantial air movement TOWARD the top of the Blue Ice.
What is very much a surprise is the sustained high temperatures over the east continent, specifically, from Enderby Land to the Emery Ice Shelf to the Shakelton Ice Shelf and to the inner continent to Mac Robertson Land. This was never estimated to be a place where heat would accumulate causing a sublimation of the ice over Eastern Antarctica. This is the three mile Blue Ice.
What is of greatest concern is the edging closer to a sustained heat mass over Antarctica and evidently even the Eastern Ice Mass. If one examines the temperature closely there is some abatement of the heat when the solar radiation sets to dusk with a cooling trend in darkness but it never completely resolves back to solidly cold temperatures.
The surface temperatures across the entire of the continent are rising. There are far more temperate areas (freezing or above) and much, much higher humidity rates. This week places normally stable are experiencing warming even in subfreezing temperatures.
Cape Ross -12 degrees C with 38% humidity at 2:38 PM with winds at 11 km/hr
McMurdo - 12.9 degrees C with 41% humidity at 5:15 AM with winds calm
Vostok - 42 degrees C with 41% humidity at 6:00 PM with winds at 17 km/hr
The surface temperatures do not reflect the air temperatures over the ice continent because as the air cools it sinks and at the surface is cooler than aloft.Sea level rise should be considered a global emergency.
The weather in Antarctica (crystal ice chime) is:
Scott Base
Conditions : Clear
Temperature : -10.0 C
Updated Wednesday 15 Nov 3:15AM
The weather at Glacier Bay National Park (crystal ice chime) is:
Elevation : 13 ft / 4 m
10 °F / -12 °C
Light Snow
Humidity : 79%
Dew Point : 5 °F / -15 °C
Wind : 15 mph / 24 km/h from the WNW
Wind Gust : 22 mph / 35 km/h
Pressure : 29.36 in / 994 hPa
Wind Chill : -6 °F / -21 °C
Visibility : 2.5 miles / 4.0 kilometers
UV : 0 out of 16
Clouds : Overcast 1600 ft / 487 m
(Above Ground Level)
Scott Base
Conditions : Clear
Temperature : -10.0 C
Updated Wednesday 15 Nov 3:15AM
The weather at Glacier Bay National Park (crystal ice chime) is:
Hopefully this is an indication the Arctic Ocean is having a better fall and winter than it did spring and summer.
Elevation : 13 ft / 4 m
10 °F / -12 °C
Light Snow
Humidity : 79%
Dew Point : 5 °F / -15 °C
Wind : 15 mph / 24 km/h from the WNW
Wind Gust : 22 mph / 35 km/h
Pressure : 29.36 in / 994 hPa
Wind Chill : -6 °F / -21 °C
Visibility : 2.5 miles / 4.0 kilometers
UV : 0 out of 16
Clouds : Overcast 1600 ft / 487 m
(Above Ground Level)
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