■ INDIA
Man wakes up in morgue
A pilgrim knocked unconscious in a stampede at the Naina Devi shrine that killed 150 people woke up in a morgue as doctors prepared to perform a postmortem examination on him, the Times of India reported yesterday. Mange Ram, 19, lost consciousness in the stampede in Himachal Pradesh triggered by rumors of a landslide that caused panic among thousands of people climbing a steep mountain path, the report said. “When I woke up, I was in the middle of a row of bodies waiting for postmortem,” Ram said. “My throat was parched and I asked for water. Towering over me the doctors and nursing staff at Anandpur Sahib Civil Hospital looked dazed. They must have been surprised to see a dead man come alive like that,” he said.
■ NEW ZEALAND
Reptile to be dad at 111
An indigenous New Zealand reptile regarded as one of the last living descendants of dinosaurs will become a father for the first time in decades at the age of 111, officials said yesterday. Henry the Tuatara and his mate Mildred, aged between 70 and 80, produced 12 eggs in the middle of last month after mating earlier this year at the Southland Museum on South Island, Tuatara curator Lindsay Hazley said. Henry has lived at the Southland Museum since 1970 and had shown no interest in sex until he recently had a cancerous growth removed from his genitals. He is now enjoying the company of three females and might breed again next March, Hazley said.
■ KYRGYZSTAN
Nine doctors jailed
A court has jailed nine doctors for infecting children with HIV in several hospitals across the south of the country, Aki news agency cited a judicial source as saying on Tuesday. The doctors were given prison terms ranging from three to five years and ordered to pay US$10,000 in damages and interest to the children and their families. Prosecutors said 41 children and four mothers were contaminated at two hospitals in a scandal that was first made public in July last year. The health ministry said last year that the infections occurred “during injections and blood transfusions.”
■ SINGAPORE
Authorities hunt for croc
A crocodile, spotted earlier this week in a suburban park near a housing enclave, has sparked a hunt by authorities. Experts told local newspapers that the 1m long reptile seen at Pasir Ris Park is most likely a saltwater crocodile, more commonly found in neighboring Malaysia and Indonesia. Civil servant K.C. Wong, who was at the scene with his son, told the Straits Times newspaper: “I wanted to see the crocodile in its natural habitat before someone does something to it. After all, Singapore has so little wildlife left.” But experts urged the public to stay clear of the toothy animal.
■ INDIA
Group says mom negligent
A social welfare group asked a court on Tuesday to charge the mother of a 15-year-old British girl who was raped and killed in India’s Goa with neglect. Utt Goenkara, a local privately funded organization, has lodged a petition with the district court, saying Scarlett Keeling died because her mother had left her alone in Goa, an area with a reputation for widespread drug abuse. The girl’s mother, Fiona MacKeown, was traveling elsewhere in India when police believe two men gave Keeling a cocktail of illegal drugs before one of them repeatedly raped her and left her for dead in February. MacKeown has denied the accusations, her lawyer said.
RSS