■AUSTRALIA
Gorilla escapes enclosure
A gorilla used an overgrown palm tree to escape from his enclosure at a zoo, and keepers said yesterday they used bananas to lure him back to captivity. The nine-year-old simian named Yakini swung over the wall of his enclosure using overhanging palm fronds at Melbourne Zoo on Thursday, keepers said. Visitors were held in the gift shop and other buildings while staff attempted for 20 minutes to recapture the gorilla. “Must have either been wind or some other factor which dropped this palm frond just far enough into the dry moat for him to get a hand on it,” said Dan Maloney, the zoo’s general curator. “These animals are very bright and he’s learned a lot in his nine years,” Maloney said. Using bananas as bait, staff managed to bring Yakini into the elephant barn, where he was shot with a tranquilizer dart and returned to his habitat, which he shares with his father and brother, Maloney said.
■AUSTRALIA
Croc kills swimmer
Relatives saw a 20-year-old man taken by a crocodile yesterday in the Daly River in the country’s far north in the third fatal crocodile attack in as many months. The stretch of the river the man chose for his dip is a well-known crocodile haunt. Northern Territory police spokesman John Emeny said crocodile catchers were searching for what they believe to be a killer croc in the Daly River, 150km south of Darwin. “We have received information that there was a crocodile sighting in the area, so there is a likelihood the person has been subjected to a crocodile attack, but that has yet to be confirmed,” he said.
■HONG KONG
Peeping Tom numbers soar
The number of peeping Tom photographers in rail stations has soared 30 percent, a news report said yesterday. Ng Shan-ho, railway police deputy district commander, said there were 117 cases of people caught taking photos up the skirts of women last year, compared with 88 cases in 2007, the Hong Kong Standard reported. In 104 cases, police were able to catch the culprits, a success rate of 90 percent. Ng said the culprits were usually aged 13 to 35 and ranged from students to bank staff and teachers.
■CHINA
Protesters target professor
About 30 protesters tried to force their way into Peking University yesterday to confront a law professor who said 99 percent of the people petitioning the government with grievances are mentally ill. Sun Dongdong’s (孫東東) comments, published in China Newsweek last month, triggered outrage. Sun quickly issued a public apology, but his critics have dismissed it as insincere and many are now demanding he be fired. Sun is head of the university’s judicial expertise center, which helps court authorities evaluate the mental health of defendants.
■CHINA
Party chief kills official
The Communist Party chief of a village in the north of the country suddenly stabbed another top official to death in a bizarre killing during an official meeting, state media reported yesterday. Liu Junwen (劉軍文), party chief of Qijiabao village in Shaanxi Province, had called the director of the village committee, Qi Junping (戚軍平), and other officials to a meeting at local government headquarters on Thursday, the Beijing News said. To the horror of onlookers, Liu then pulled out a knife and stabbed Qi, who had been seated around a conference table with other meeting participants, it said.
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