■HONG KONG
Pet cat rescued from pipe
A pet cat has been rescued after being trapped inside a gas pipe for 12 days, a news report said yesterday. The cat named Meow-Meow was found after faint mewing was heard coming from a gas pipe behind the wall of the restaurant run by his owner, the Hong Kong Standard reported. The fire brigade was called by a rescue team from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and drilled into the wall to free the cat. After firefighters drilled for one hour, the frightened tabby cat squeezed out of the pipe and into the arms of owner Yeung Ming, the newspaper reported.
■NEW ZEALAND
Thieves nab fertilizer
Police said yesterday they were investigating the theft of 65 tonnes of fertilizer, missing from a manufacturer’s store in the North Island township of Marton. Police said it would have taken at least two large trucks to steal the product, worth NZ$38,000 (US$27,000), from the Ballance Agri-Nutrients’ store, which is 10km off the main North Island highway, during the early hours of Wednesday.
■AUSTRALIA
Roo cull angers locals
The culling of some 140 kangaroos on one of the nation’s most famous race car tracks prompted outrage yesterday from environmentalists and animal rights activists. The eastern gray kangaroos were reportedly removed from the Mount Panorama circuit, about 300km west of Sydney, to ensure the safety of drivers and spectators in the V8 Supercar Bathurst 1000 car race next week. The bounding marsupials had created problems for drivers before — in 2007 a kangaroo was filmed jumping between race cars traveling at almost 200km an hour and three years earlier one was hit and killed by a car.
■BANGLADESH
Police arrest militant
Police said yesterday they had arrested a suspected Indian militant commander believed to have close ties with the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group blamed for last year’s Mumbai attacks. Emdad Ullah, 30, was picked up during a raid on a house in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka on Thursday. “He has been in Bangladesh for three years and was living here under another name. We believe he was the Bangladesh commander of the Indian-based militant group Asif Reza Commando Force (ARCF),” Deputy Police Commissioner Monirul Islam told AFP.
■VIETNAM
Monk appeals to Vietnam
Trich Nhat Hanh, one of the world’s most influential Buddhist monks, appealed on Thursday to Vietnam to end harassment of his followers, saying it betrayed the nation’s traditions. The France-based monk, who was nominated by US civil rights icon Martin Luther King for the Nobel Peace Prize, wrote a letter to Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet after followers said they were evicted from their monastery.
■SRI LANKA
Bomb blast not Tamils
An explosion in a van that wounded 13 people in the northwest appeared to be part of a personal feud and not caused by remnants of the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels, authorities said. The blast occurred in the northwestern town of Kurunegala and was the first since the separatist rebels were crushed in May. Police spokesman Nimal Mediwake said officers were investigating but found indications the matter was personal.
■UNITED KINGDOM
Gem just a paperweight
The “Gem of Tanzania,” once valued at £11 million (US$17.5 million) and the key asset of a British construction company, has proved to be little more than an unusual paperweight, reports said. Once thought to be one of the most expensive rubies in the world, the 2.1kg purple rock was listed in the assets of now collapsed Wrekin Construction Company, but after examination by experts on behalf of administrators Ernst and Young, the stone was “not thought to be of sufficient gem quality” to cut. The rock is now believed to be a large lump of anyolite, a low-grade form of ruby, with a value of just £100, the Independent newspaper said yesterday.
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