■ AUSTRALIA
"Monarchy to remain for now
The government will likely only break its ties with the British monarchy and become a republic when Queen Elizabeth II dies, the former leader of the campaign for a republic said yesterday. Malcolm Turnbull, now a conservative politician, said he did not believe the time was ripe for Australia to shake off a tradition spanning more than two centuries. "I know this is not very consoling to many republicans and this doesn't give me any joy to say it," the former chairman of the Australian Republican Movement told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. "But my own judgement is that the next time when you would have your best prospects would be at the end of the Queen's reign -- so when she dies, or abdicates."
■ CHINA
Elephant attacks teacher
A wild elephant in Yunnan Province attacked an American by tossing him with its trunk, causing the man to suffer from fractured ribs and stomach injuries, an official said yesterday. Jeremy Allen McGill, who teaches English in Wuhan, was found unconscious by a security guard around dusk on Thursday at the "Wild Elephant Valley" nature reserve in Xishuangbanna. "It wasn't clear why he was attacked," said an official with the Xishuangbanna foreign affairs office who would only give his surname, Chen. "The elephant just used its trunk to pick the man up and then let go." McGill's abdomen and lungs were "seriously injured" and he had broken ribs, Chen said.
■ INDIA
Vets raid homes for chickens
Veterinary staff in eastern India are capturing chickens in night-time raids on the backyards of homes to surprise villagers unwilling to part with their poultry as an outbreak of bird flu spreads. Bird flu has spread to 13 of West Bengal's 19 districts, with samples of dead chickens testing positive in two new districts, officials said yesterday. Experts fear the H5N1 strain could mutate into a form easily transmitted from person to person, leading to a pandemic, but there have been no reported human infections in India yet.
■ AUSTRALIA
Pig hunters face charges
Three pig hunters face 58 criminal charges after a wild hunting spree in which they drove their truck through fences and gates on 11 farms and were pursued by a farmer in an aircraft and police. The pig hunters are charged with a "spate of malicious damage incidents" over almost 12 hours on Australia Day on Saturday in New South Wales, police said on yesterday. The pig hunters, who smashed their four-wheel drive through fences and gates across 11 properties, were finally arrested on Sunday, police said. "Three men have been charged after their vehicle was tracked by witnesses in a small aircraft following a spate of malicious damage incidents," police said in a statement.
■ HONG KONG
US Navy warship docks
A US Navy warship yesterday made the first visit to Hong Kong by an American ship since November when an aircraft carrier group and two minesweepers were separately turned away, dealing a blow to improving China-US relations. The USS Blue Ridge and its 700 sailors would stay in Hong Kong for a couple of days, Captain David Lausman told reporters on board the ship. The arrival of the ship comes two months after the USS Kitty Hawk and its strike group, carrying about 8,000 sailors hoping to join their families in Hong Kong for a holiday break, were refused entry.
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