Daily Archives: November 20, 2013

India to put monkeys on the pill in bid to tackle rising population of marauding macaques

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Հնդկաստան,կապիկներ

 

Indian council chiefs have come up with a novel way of dealing with a scourge of marauding monkeys – putting them on the pill.

New Delhi is currently plagued by thousands of red-bottomed Rhesus Macaques or Bhandar monkeys and their population is rising.

The primates often attack people to steal food, chew through internet cables and roam free through government buildings.

In 2007 Delhi’s deputy mayor SS Bajwa died after falling from his first-floor terrace trying to fight off monkeys.
The city had previously employed monkey catchers who would use larger black-faced Langur monkeys to scare the smaller primates away.

But the practise was banned earlier this year forcing officials to come up with a new solution.

India’s Central Zoo Authority got in touch with the National Primate Centre in California which recommended using oral contraceptives, female sterilisation and vasectomies, officials said.

The oral contraceptives will be put in food and left for the monkeys to find while those that can be caught will be sterilised.

Professor P.C. Tyagi of the Wildlife Institute of India said the plan would only get the go-ahaead when they were sure it would have no harmful effect on the animals or their behaviour.

 

Prime Minister Attends CIS Council of Heads of Government Meeting

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A regular session of the CIS Council of Heads of Government was held today in the city of St. Petersburg, the Russian Federation.

After a narrow-format meeting of heads of government, an enlarged sitting was held to discuss issues related to the development of cooperation within the CIS. In particular, the agenda featured implementation of the free trade agreement between the CIS-member States, power generation and use, etc.

Several instruments were signed at the meeting, including on financial statements to be produced by member countries’ business entities, information security, cooperation between customs authorities, statistics and other areas, as well as documents on amendments to a number of agreements.

As part of the agenda, the following was discussed and approved: an action plan to prepare for and celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, a strategy to develop cooperation in the field of tourism for the period up to 2020, a concept of cooperation in the field of renewable energy along with a priority action plan for its implementation, a program of action for 2014-2015 to implement the strategy of international youth cooperation within the Commonwealth of Independent States, a concept note to develop the Unified State Radar Identification System.

The meeting decided to hold the next meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of Government in May, 2014 in the city of Kiev, Ukraine.

Al Qaeda-linked group claims responsibility for bomb attack on Iranian embassy that killed 23 in Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut

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Ալ Քաիդա,Բեյրութ,Իրանի դեսպանատուն, պայթյունները

 

An Al Qaeda-linked group claimed responsibility for twin suicide bombings that struck outside the Iranian Embassy in Beirut today, killing 23 people including an Iranian diplomat.

The obscure Abdullah Azzam Brigades said it carried out the mid-morning bombings in a Hezbollah stronghold – the latest strike in battles that have played out in the region for decades and now intensified with the civil war next door in Syria.

The authenticity of the claim could not be independently verified but it was posted on a militant website and on the Twitter account of Sirajuddin Zurayqat, a prominent Islamic militant leader.

The group said it will continue with such attacks until the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group withdraws its forces from Syria, where the group is fighting alongside President Bashar Assad’s forces against the mostly Sunni rebels seeking to topple him.

An unidentified Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman blamed Israel for the attacks while Hezbollah and Syrian officials indirectly blamed Saudi Arabia.

 

Saudi Schools Get Rain-Days off Amid Flooding

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Saudi authorities have canceled school in the capital, Riyadh, and other regions for a fifth consecutive day after heavy rains flooded roads and knocked out power across the kingdom.

Storms occur nearly every year in the arid kingdom as weather patterns shift in the cooler months, but this year’s cloudbursts have been among the most severe since more than 100 people died in floods in 2009. At least four deaths are blamed on the current downpours.

The official Saudi Press Agency said schools were closed again Wednesday in Riyadh and at least four other provinces. Classes have been out since Saturday, shortly after the rains began.

 

Wine developed by Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt at their estate in Provence is named 2012’s ‘Best Rosé in the World’

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As Oscar-winners, humanitarians and the parents of six kids, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are America’s ultimate power couple. And now, they can add yet another achievement to their repertoire – award-winning wine producers.

The Chateau Miraval Rosé 2012 – which the couple developed in a 1,200-acre vineyard at their estate in Provence – was ranked 84 in Wine Spectator‘s Top 100 Wines of the Year, making it 2012’s ‘Best Rosé in the world’.

According to the magazine’s managing editor Kim Marcus, the rosé is both ‘refined and elegant, offering pure and concentrated flavors of dried red berry, tangerine and melon.

The 38-year-old actress and her longtime love, 49, enlisted the help of the Perrin family, a fifth-generation France-based winemaking family, to produce the wine.

Each bottle is sold for between $23 and $28, and all of the 6,000 bottles that were released in March sold out within an impressive five hours.

At the initial blind tasting of the wine at Wine Spectator’s New York office, it scored 90 points out of 100, distinguishing it as ‘outstanding’.

And professional wine connoisseurs agree that it is more than just a wine with a celebrity name slapped on it.

 

‘Trojan horse’ thieves are hiding INSIDE suitcases to get into coaches’ luggage holds and steal from tourists’ bags, warn Spanish police

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իսպանիա,ոստիկանություն,գող,ճամպրուկ

 

Travellers have been told to look out for thieves hiding in luggage while on holiday.

Spanish police are warning tourists of contortionists that tuck themselves inside suitcases to carry out the ‘Trojan Horse’ robberies.

Officers say crooks, often acting with an accomplice, board buses in the luggage hold then creep out with a torch during the journey to rifle through people’s bags.

Officers are telling people travelling to the country to look out for this type of sneak thief as well as pickpockets that distract victims by telling them they have bird droppings on their clothes, the Times reports.

In 2011, Spanish police arrested a flexible thief who had hidden inside a suitcase to steal valuables.

The 5ft 9in (1.78m) contortionist pinched valuables including laptop computers from the baggage compartment during an hour-long journey.