STORY HIGHLIGHTS Hiroo Onoda wouldn’t accept Japan’s World War II defeat until 1974 He stayed in the jungle on the Philippines island where he had been deployed His former commanding officer had to travel to the island to persuade him to give up Onoda died of pneumonia in a Tokyo hospital Thursday, a collegue says A Japanese soldier who hunkered down in the jungles of the Philippines for nearly three […]
Monkeys at a zoo have been banned from eating bananas because keepers say they are too sugary. Paignton Zoo in Devon says giving monkeys bananas cultivated for humans is like giving them cake and chocolate. Amy Plowman, head of conservation, said that is because they are too ripe for monkeys and can cause gastrointestinal problems. Dr Plowman said it had not been too hard to wean the monkeys off […]
ANSE-A-GALETS, Haiti — To traverse the 13-mile stretch of Caribbean Sea to the island of La Gonave, one must choose between three types of boats, none particularly safe. First there are the “fly boats,” speed boats with outboard motors that race a dozen people from one side to the other. From time to time they flip over. Few records exist as to how many people survive. Then there are the […]
More than 200 civilians in South Sudan have drowned in a Nile ferry accident while fleeing fighting in the town of Malakal, an army spokesman has said. He said women and children were among the victims in Sunday’s disaster. More than 350,000 people have been displaced by the fighting between the South Sudanese government and rebel forces, according to the UN. Malakal is the gateway to the oilfields of […]
STORY HIGHLIGHTS A lightning strike in Argentina kills three people and injures 22 Witness: “I saw my friend thrown to the ground” One victim was playing soccer on the beach A lightning strike killed three people on a beach in Argentina Thursday and injured 22 others, state media reported. “We were hiding in a tent to take shelter from the storm when we felt an explosion, and then I saw […]
STORY HIGHLIGHTS The temperatures from the polar vortex are far from being the coldest on Earth The U.S. holds two records — the greatest rainfall in a minute and the highest temperature The Kolyma Highway (M56) in Russia is the coldest road on Earth An escaped jail inmate turned himself in just so that he could warm up — that’s how cold the U.S. has been this week. With the […]
An Indian diplomat whose arrest in the US sparked protests from India has been formally indicted by a US grand jury. However, prosecutors said that Devyani Khobragade, 39, had also been granted immunity and that officials had asked her to leave the US. The Indian foreign ministry later confirmed that she was on a flight back to India. Ms Khobragade was detained on charges of visa fraud and of […]
The political traffic jam that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is facing over his office’s involvement in controversial lane closures last year could intensify on Thursday as an official at the heart of the scandal is slated to testify. The governor is also preparing to give a press conference late Thursday morning. The governor is trying to get a handle on the controversy, which could threaten the potential 2016 presidential […]
Germany is joining international efforts to destroy Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons, the foreign and defence ministries have announced. Waste from the destroyed weapons would be burned at a government facility in the town of Muenster, they said. Germany said it was responding to a request for help from the UN and OPCW, co-ordinators of the destruction plan. The first consignment of toxic chemicals left Syria on a Danish […]
Alcoholics are being paid in beer to clean the streets of Amsterdam as part of a project partly funded by the Dutch government – the organisers think other countries should abandon “old-fashioned political correctness” and adopt the same approach. Rene scours the streets, grasping at discarded wrappers. His movements are fuelled by a tangible pride. It is an unfamiliar emotion for a man whose alcohol addiction has cost him so […]
