■UNITED STATES
‘Dracula’ gets 20 years
A bank robber who masqueraded as Dracula was bitten with a 20-year prison sentence on Wednesday after he robbed the same Georgia bank twice. Nathaniel Little Jr, 43, committed two robberies in 2006 at the same CDC Federal Credit Union bank in Atlanta, Georgia, each time while wearing the same ghoulish mask. The 20-year sentence, said US attorney David Nahmias, “drives a stake into the heart of a simple yet dangerous crime: robbing banks. “This ‘Dracula’ bandit will now spend many nights in the dark and confined cavern of a prison cell,” he added.
■UNITED STATES
Chimps mate for meat
Human females may get offended at dates who expect a little something extra after they buy a steak dinner, but for chimpanzees, the exchange may be a fair one, German researchers said on Tuesday. They found that female chimpanzees mate more frequently with males who often share meat with them. “Our results strongly suggest that wild chimpanzees exchange meat for sex, and do so on a long-term basis,” Cristina Gomes of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, said in a statement. “Males who shared meat with females doubled their mating success, whereas females, who had difficulty obtaining meat on their own, increased their caloric intake without suffering the energetic costs and potential risk of injury related to hunting.”
■CANADA
Seal kill quota tops 63,000
The second phase of the annual seal hunt began on Wednesday with a kill quota of 63,500 seals set by authorities, amid a down market for their pelts. The commercial hunt resumed along the west coast of Newfoundland province and Quebec’s lower north shore, fisheries department spokesman Phil Jenkins said. But strong winds and freezing rain slowed the hunters, he said. Previously, 19,411 seals were slaughtered in the southern Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Local indigenous people also met their full quota of 1,650 animals. The International Fund for Animal Welfare said it welcomed news of fewer sealers taking part in this year’s hunt thanks to a “lack of markets for seal fur.”
■CHILE
Volcano under pressure
The crater of the erupting Llaima volcano is blocked with debris that could prompt a pressure build-up and renewed explosions of lava, experts warned on Wednesday. Llaima, about 700km south of the capital Santiago, began spitting lava in a fresh bout of activity last Friday. It belched ash 7km into the sky during the weekend, prompting the evacuation of 123 people from the surrounding area. Activity died down overnight and there is now a much smaller ash cloud but national emergency office ONEMI said the situation remained critical. “It would be much better if the crater were unobstructed, so it can release energy gradually and slowly,” said volcano expert Jorge Munoz, who works for Sernageomin, adding that the volcano’s eruptive activity was very erratic and could quickly surge.
■MEXICO
Drug tunnel discovered
Authorities found a tunnel that was allegedly used for drug trafficking in the northern town of Agua Prieta on the US border, the Mexican public prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday. Federal agents found the entrance to the 25m-long tunnel, with a 60cm diameter, on the wall of a drainage pipe. No one was arrested and the tunnel was closed off with cement.
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