■ AustraliaWoman jumps crocodile
A 60-year-old woman jumped on the back of a crocodile as it dragged a man from his tent in northern Australia yesterday, but was then attacked by the crocodile, which dragged her towards the ocean until it was shot dead. The 60-year-old woman and 34-year-old man suffered broken limbs, cuts and bruises in the attack by the 4.2m-long crocodile, wildlife and rescue officials said. The attack occurred at around 4am as the man slept in a tent with his wife and child on the shore in far northern Queensland. After the woman jumped on the croc, it let go of the man and bit her, pulling her towards the water before another person shot it dead. The man suffered a broken leg and arm, while the woman also had an arm broken.
■ Singapore
Man breaks burger record
Spurred on by shouts of "shove it in, shove it in," 19-year-old Don Ezra Nicholas stuffed more than three McDonald's hamburgers into his mouth without swallowing and claimed a new global record at the close of Singapore's contest to be the world's wackiest. "I'm on top of the world right now, because everyone's going to know that I can shove more than three burgers in my mouth!" Nicholas said after his feat on Sunday. Twenty Singaporeans tried to smash 10 unusual records over the weekend in a bid to make Singapore stand out a bit more on the world map.
■ China
Pet dogs increase rabies
Rabies killed 237 people in China last month, remaining the biggest killer of all infectious diseases, Xinhua news agency said. It did not give a reason, but last year the China Daily blamed the new popularity of pet dogs for a huge increase in rabies cases. Rabies, tuberculosis, hepatitis B, AIDS and infant tetanus were the major causes of death last month, accounting for 81 percent of total reported deaths, Xinhua said late on Sunday. Tuberculosis had the highest incidence rate of serious diseases, followed by hepatitis B, dysentery, gonorrhea and syphilis. This is the sixth straight year that China has seen a big jump in rabies infections.
■ China
Chinese spur ivory trade
Booming demand in China is the biggest driver of the illegal ivory market and there is no clear link between allowing regulated legal trade and a rise in black-market supplies, a report to a UN conference said yesterday. It also said unregulated domestic markets in countries such as host nation Thailand were a significant factor in the trade, which conservationists say is soaked in the blood of slaughtered elephants. The report to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species weakens Kenyan assertions that legal trade in ivory will tempt poachers to launder their "dirty" ivory with legal supplies.
■ New Zealand
Acclaimed writer dies
Novelist Maurice Shadbolt, who wove local history, tradition and the country's breathtaking landscapes into his stories has died at age 72 after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease, friends said yesterday. Shadbolt, best known for his 11 novels and four collections of short stories, died on Sunday. Shadbolt began work as a journalist, later becoming a scriptwriter and director of documentary films for the National Film Unit. In 1959, after two years in Europe, Shadbolt published his first book to acclaim in Britain -- a collection of short stories titled The New Zealanders. He also wrote a volume of journalism, a war history and two autobiographies.
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