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■ AUSTRALIA

Toad-killing day urged

Queensland lawmaker Shane Knuth wants to designate a special day for people to hunt and kill the poisonous cane toad. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has said it backs the "Toad Day Out" plan, but only if the creatures are killed humanely, such as euthanizing them in a freezer. "Obviously we're not idiots. We understand a lot [of] people will be highly reluctant to fill their fridges and freezers with dying cane toads, but at the moment that is the only humane way that we can recommend," society spokesman Michael Beatty said. Knuth said yesterday that he wanted "a special day that Queenslanders, especially children, could all play their part ... The toad is probably the greatest environmental vermin and probably the most disgusting creature known to man."



■ NEW ZEALAND

Nudity doesn't stop cop

A policeman in Balclutha did not let the fact that he was naked hold him back from chasing a thief trying to steal his car. The constable was asleep when his wife woke him in the early hours, the New Zealand Press Association said. When the policeman realized the sound his wife heard was someone trying to steal their car, he ran out with nothing more than a flashlight. The offender bolted, but was later picked up by a police patrol.



■ INDONESIA

Australian faces charges

Australian David Houston, 38, is facing up to 10 years in jail after a prosecutor on Bali accused him yesterday of possessing drugs. Police found 3.5g of marijuana when they raided a house he had rented in Kuta on Dec. 12, the prosecutor said.



■ INDONESIA

Runaway returns home

A nine-year-old boy who ran away from home with US$10,000 in cash and went on a spending spree has returned safely, his father said yesterday. Ahmad Legal Civiandi ran away last week following a row with his mother and returned on Tuesday after a taxi driver recognized him. The boy reportedly spent his first night in a shopping mall, treating himself to toys and a PlayStation before moving on to a hotel. His father said almost none of the cash was left, but that he had forgiven the child. Police arrested a shopping mall security guard accused of helping the boy change his dollars into rupiah. The complaint was later dropped.



■ NEW ZEALAND

Asian heritage growing

The part of the country's population with Asian heritage is expected to grow faster than any other group, almost doubling in the next 20 years, government officials said yesterday. Government statistician Geoff Bascand said the Asian minority was expected to grow 3.4 percent a year, rising from about 400,000 in 2006 to 790,000 by 2026. Those with Asian heritage will make up around 16 percent of the population by 2026, up from 10 percent in 2006. That growth is "mainly driven by migration, with a net inflow of about 240,000 migrants assumed over the 20-year projection period," Bascand said.



■ MALAYSIA

Wives split with husband

The two wives of a Muslim man got along so well that they decided to leave him at the same time. Faced with their united stand, Roslan Ngah, 44, divorced his two wives, aged 46 and 35, in a court in Terengganu State on Tuesday, Salwa Mansor, the second wife's lawyer, said. Mansor said the wives cited irreconcilable differences and other complaints. Raslan married the first woman in 1986 and the second in 1995, the Star newspaper said. "They are like good friends, but I never imagined that both of them had collectively decided to divorce me," Raslan said.



■ BANGLADESH

Toddler survives crash

A toddler escaped unscathed when a truck crashed into his family's shack yesterday, killing his parents, police said. The accident occurred when the driver of the truck lost control of the vehicle on a highway at the Gournadi area of Barisal District, police official Abdul Hye Sarkar said. The driver and an assistant survived, but fled the scene, Sarkar said. The vehicle plowed through the bamboo shack of Khokon Mondol, killing him, his wife, his mother, an 11-year-old brother and a cousin. Mondol's 14-month-old son, however, survived the accident unhurt.



■ IRELAND

Ahern to resign on May 6

Prime Minister Bertie Ahern will step down on May 6, bowing to mounting pressure for him to go early following a string of embarrassing appearances in the witness stand at an anti-corruption tribunal. "It is my intention to tender my resignation to President [Mary] McAleese on Tuesday 6 May," Ahern told reporters in Dublin. He insisted he was not stepping down because of pressure, saying: "I know in my heart of hearts that I've done no wrong and wronged no one." Ahern is one of Europe's longest serving heads of government after almost 11 years in office. He previously said this would be his last term in office but that he did not intend to go until it ended in 2012.



■ UNITED KINGDOM

Girls find severed head

Two schoolgirls playing on a Scottish beach found a woman's severed head, police said on Tuesday. The girls found the head wrapped in a plastic bag on a beach outside Arbroath, about 90km south of Aberdeen. A hand and other body parts were found later. "They were upset by the discovery and their parents contacted the police," Detective Chief Inspector Graham McMillan of Tayside Police said. Part of the beach remains cordoned off, as 40 officers comb the area for evidence. Police have not released details of the dead woman's race, identity or age but say the head does not appear to be linked to any pending murder or missing person investigation.



■ NORWAY

Kidnappers return crocodile

A dwarf crocodile was recuperating on Tuesday from a kidnapping ordeal that included having his mouth taped shut, an aquarium director said. Taggen, fours years old, was reported missing on Monday from his cage at the Bergen Aquarium after his captors broke the latch over the weekend and took the reptile, said marine biologist Kees Oscar Ekeli, the aquarium's director. After the theft of the 70cm long croc made national news, the kidnappers handed him over to reporters from the TV-2 television network through a middleman late on Monday, reports said.



■ KOSOVO

Oil smugglers caught

Police have arrested a Serb-Albanian gang for smuggling oil into the new republic from Serbia, a police spokesman said on Tuesday. Disregarding ethnic hostilities that flared after independence was declared six weeks ago, smugglers have spirited away 1,000 tonnes of oil since last month, officials said, avoiding local customs duties. Police spokesman Besim Hoti said three Serbs and one Albanian were stopped on Monday night as they went to pick up two transport vans that contained about 6 tonnes of illegal fuel.



■ ITALY

Scuba divers hit Venice

Tourists packing a sunhat and Italian phrase book for a visit to Venice have been advised to add a snorkel and fins after marine biologists stumbled on a plethora of fish, crustaceans and undersea vegetation swarming to a new sea barrier. Mobile barriers collectively known as the "Moses program" are now under construction across three channels to protect the city's churches and piazzas from flood tides. Two of the barriers, which rise from the sea bed at high water thanks to compressed air, are protected by breakwaters built over the last three years that have given Venice an instant reef that boasts 150 species of fish, sea creatures and colorful algae.



■ UNITED STATES

Sex-change case reviewed

The new commissioner of the Massachusett's prison system said on Tuesday he plans to re-examine the case of a convicted killer who is suing the Department of Corrections to try to get a sex-change operation. Prison officials have strenuously opposed a request from Michelle Kosilek to have the surgery, saying it could make her a target for sexual assault by other inmates. But Corrections Commissioner Harold Clarke, who took over the department in November, said he has not yet decided whether to continue fighting Kosilek's request. Robert Kosilek was sentenced to life in prison for murdering his wife, Cheryl, in 1990. Kosilek legally changed her name to Michelle in 1993 and has been living as a woman in an all-male prison in Norfolk.



■ CHILE

Mayor disrupts Bond shoot

The mayor of Sierra Gorda where the latest Bond film is being shot was arrested on Tuesday for driving onto the set in a Jeep leading a group of 200 people, local media said. Carlos Lopez, the mayor of the small town in the Antofagasta region, 1,200km north of Santiago, was charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing, Radio Cooperativa said. He got away lightly considering he nearly ran over two people standing near a derelict train station that was being used as a set, witnesses said. The shoot, for the 22nd film in the James Bond franchise, resumed a few minutes after the incident.



■ BRAZIL

Alligator corpses discovered

The skinned and salted corpses of about 740 alligators have been found in a nature reserve in the Amazon jungle, apparently destined to be served up as lunch in restaurants. About 8 tonnes of dried alligator corpses were discovered in the Piagacu-Purus reserve with the skins, usually the most valuable part of the animal, likely dumped in rivers, the Amazonas state environmental protection agency said. The meat was to be sold for human consumption in neighboring Para State. It was found on the premises of four local merchants who operate stores on floating houses typical in the region, some 300km west of the Amazonas state capital, Manaus.



■ UNITED STATES

Students in murder plot

Police say a group of eight and nine-year-old students plotted to attack their teacher, bringing a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape and other items for the job and assigning children tasks including covering the windows and cleaning up afterward. The plot by as many as nine boys and girls at Center Elementary School in south Georgia was a serious threat, Waycross Police Chief Tony Tanner said on Tuesday. "We did not hear anybody say they intended to kill her, but could they have accidentally killed her? Absolutely," Tanner said. The children, all third graders, were apparently mad at the teacher because she had scolded one of them for standing on a chair, Tanner said.



■ BRAZIL

Drug lord sent to prison

A reputed Colombian drug lord whose cartel is accused of having shipped hundreds of tonnes of cocaine to the US was sentenced on Tuesday to more than 30 years in prison for crimes committed in that country. Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia, who was arrested last year, was found guilty of money laundering, corruption, conspiracy and use of false documents in this South American country. Besides the sentence, Ramirez Abadia must also pay a fine worth US$2.5 million.
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