A bus crashed into an elephant that escaped from a circus near some of Mexico's most famous pyramids, killing the nearly five-tonne animal and the bus driver, Mexican news reports said.
The elephant, named Hilda and about 40 years old, broke free while being fed on Monday evening, crashed through a gate and later stumbled onto a major road near Mexico City at around midnight.
Mexican media quoted police at the scene as saying the bus stood no chance of avoiding the elephant, near the Teotihuacan pyramids. Several passengers on the bus were injured in the crash.
Sea eagles upset sheep farmers
Sheep farmers in remote northwest Scotland are furious about a sea eagle reintroduction programme, saying the huge birds of prey are damaging their livelihoods by killing 200 lambs in the past year.
The Scottish Crofting Foundation said some crofts, small farms producing mainly lamb or beef, had seen lamb numbers fall over the past five years because of the sea eagles' diet.
"It's come to the stage now that we have lost, in the whole peninsula, around 200 lambs and we believe this is solely due to the sea eagles," William Fraser, chairman of the Gairloch and Poolewe branch of the Crofting Foundation, told said. "In a few years time there'll be no sheep left on the hills," said Fraser, who owns a four-acre croft with 150 sheep.
Conservation groups began gradually reintroducing sea eagles to parts of Scotland from 1975. Britain's largest bird of prey had become extinct there in the early 20th century.
Pious Jewish press shuns Livni images
The Syrian state press has described her as a "Mossad beauty". A Palestinian cartoonist compared her to the Mona Lisa. One Canadian report called her "naturally blonde with eyes as blue as the Mediterranean".
Yet Tzipi Livni, asked by Israel's President on Monday to form a government following Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's resignation, remains largely faceless when it comes to her country's powerful ultra-Orthodox Jews, or haredim.
Citing concerns for feminine modesty, the ultra-Orthodox refuse to publish images of women in their newspapers - a core source of information as the reclusive community generally shuns the television, internet and most radio stations.
That poses a unique challenge for Ms Livni, the 50-year-old Foreign Minister, as she tries to piece together a governing coalition and campaigns for support among ultra-Orthodox who make up an estimated eight to 15 per cent of Israel's population.
At meetings with religious legislators on forming political partnership, Ms Livni dons demure skirts and wrist-length jackets, not the trouser-suits she usually favours.
Skydivers set for new heights over Mount Everest
Dozens of skydivers will attempt the first parachute jumps over Mount Everest next week, organisers said yesterday.
At least 34 skydivers from 14 countries - including Britain, the United States, Canada, Denmark and New Zealand - plan to jump from an aircraft flying 140 metres above the Everest summit on October 2.
Hurtling past the 8,850-metre peak, the skydivers plan, weather permitting, to freefall for one minute before deploying their parachutes and cruising for eight to 10 minutes to land in a flat drop zone at 3,764 metres.
Each participant will wear an oxygen mask and carry a larger than normal parachute to help a fast descent through the thin air of the world's highest drop zone.
"It is a very big adventure, it is a truly historic adventure," said 40-year-old Danish participant Per Wimmer.
Italian dog owners face new fines
Dog excrement used to be merely a nuisance to pedestrians, now it could be used as evidence against pet owners and may lead to fines.
A town in northern Italy plans to create a DNA database of all registered dogs and then test droppings left on pavements and in parks to identify the culprit and fine owners who fail to clean up after their pets, La Stampa daily reported yesterday.
"If signs and invitations aren't enough, we'll try genetics. I want a clean city," Antonio Prencipe, councillor in charge of the environment in Vercelli, a town of some 45,000 inhabitants near Turin, told the paper. DNA tests would cost around €13, which would be more than covered by fines, La Stampa said. It did not estimate the cost of creating a database.
The Israeli town of Petah Tikva launched a similar six-month trial programme earlier this month, under which dog owners were asked to take their animals to a municipal veterinarian, who then swabs its mouth and collects DNA.
Election campaign goes to the dogs
A pet food company has come up with a novel way of gauging the public mood ahead of the New Zealand's general election - which political leader would you like to see fed to the dogs?
Masterpet has made rubber chew toys for dogs with likenesses to the two politicians vying to run the country after the November 8 election, website http://www.stuff.co.nz has reported.
Masterpet said it will publish sales of the Helen Clark and John Key toys as an informal "dog tucker poll". Whoever sells the most could be in trouble come election night.
"Early data in our reverse poll suggests a preference for (Prime Minister) Helen Clark," Masterpet North Island sales manager Peter Couchman told Stuff.co.nz.
So far Masterpet's poll mirrors actual opinion polls, which show Ms Clark's Labour-led government trailing the main opposition National party, led by Mr Key.