International News Briefs

Calgary Zoo loses goat to hanging

CALGARY: Zookeepers at the Calgary Zoo found a rare Turkmenian markhor goat hanging dead from a tree in its enclosure.

According to Reuters, zookeepers estimate the goat accidentally hung itself after getting tangled in a rope. The goat had been playing with a ball attached to the rope, an activity designed to stimulate the animal, when it got caught in the rope and fell off the log it had been standing on.

Keepers’ attempts to resuscitate the goat were unsuccessful.

Yacht company designs island-on-a-boat

LONDON: Yacht making company Wally is hoping to offer the wealthy the first mobile tropical island.

The island, to be located on a yacht, is still in the design stages, but makers promise the Wally Island will offer over 1,000 square metres of deck space with tropical gardens, tennis courts, a pool and a helicopter landing pad.

The yacht’s designers say the ship simulates a personal island, allowing the owner to live completely independently.

Despite these amenities, the boat has no buyer yet, reported CNN.

11-year-old matador kills 6 bulls

MERIDA, Mexico: Eleven-year-old Michelito Lagravere Peniche became the youngest matador to kill six bulls in a single fight.

Peniche’s accomplishment was questioned after Merida’s mayor suspended the record because it is illegal for children under 18 to participate in bull fights.

Peniche has been fighting bulls since the age of four, when he killed a bull calf. The BBC reported he has killed dozens of bulls while travelling the world as a young matador.

Peniche’s father, a former French bull fighter, managed to have the mayor’s ban overturned in an appeal.

Georgian saints make the Top 10

TBILISI, Georgia: The country’s senior cleric, Patriarch Ilia II, is condemning a Georgian TV show for listing saints on a Top 10 Best Georgians program.

The patriarch said it was not appropriate to ask the public to rank saints; in Georgia the opinion of the Georgian Orthodox Church is held in high regard and the patriarch is considered more important than law, reported the BBC.

The show’s editors say they will go ahead with the program. The producers polled 300,000 Georgians to vote on 500 candidates from the country’s history. Eighteen saints made it on the short list.

The TV channel airing the show has yet to respond to the patriarch.

Castaways discovered

CANBERRA, Australia: Two Myanmar fishermen were found floating in an icebox off Australia’s north coast, a month after their ship sank.

Officials are looking into how the 12-metre fishing boat sank, what happened to the rest of the crew, and how the two men survived at sea for the last 25 days.

Their boat reportedly had no safety equipment or means of communication and the men used an icebox to stay afloat.

The men managed to survive shark-infested waters and recent cyclones at sea and were spotted by Australian coastal patrol last week.

Reuters reported the coastal patrol has no plans to search for the boat’s other 16 crew members.

Published in Volume 63, Number 18 of The Uniter (January 29, 2009)

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