US/ A VERY DETERMINED DOG: Mason is one lucky boy. The scrappy dog had been hiding in a garage in North Smithfield, Alabama, when a tornado roared in on April 27. It whipped through the community, destroying houses and uprooting trees, but when it had passed Mason was nowhere to be seen. His family had all but given up hope when 2 weeks later they returned home to sift through belongings only to find the dog on their doorstep. He was in a bad way with what appeared to be broken limbs. The family rushed him to the Birmingham Jefferson County Animal Control shelter where veterinarians said he had 2 badly broken front legs. They were not in alignment, thus vets said Mason had to have crawled back home on the 2 broken legs. With the help of donations and the generosity of a nearby veterinary clinic, Mason underwent an operation to fix plates into his 2 front legs last week. He is now doing well and will go home to his family in 6 weeks time.
US/ TOLL IN JOPLIN REACHES 132: The death toll from the massive tornado that devastated Joplin, Missouri, on Sunday, reached 132 today, a city spokeswoman said, while the state worked to pare down the list of people missing and unaccounted for since the storm. A Joplin city spokeswoman confirmed the new death toll shortly before state officials announced that the missing list had been trimmed to 156 people. At least 90 people on the original list had been located alive. But at least 6 were identified as among the dead, and some new names had been added to the scroll of the missing. Authorities had said they believed many of the missing were alive and safe but simply hadn't been in touch with friends and family, in part because cell phone service has been spotty. But they also cautioned that they believed some of those originally listed may have been killed in the storm. Search and rescue crews remained undeterred, with 600 volunteers and 50 dog teams out again today. The tornado, an EF5 packing 200 mph winds, was the nation's deadliest single twister in more than 6 decades. More than 900 people were injured. Business leaders, meanwhile, have been busy tallying the storm's bleak economic toll. The Joplin Chamber of Commerce announced Thursday that at least 300 businesses and 4000 jobs were affected by the tornado. One of the city's largest employers, St. John's Hospital, was destroyed. But hospital officials have vowed to rebuild and said they are committed to retaining the hospital's 2000 employees. Home Depot and Wal-Mart, also large employers, say they will rebuild.
Morgan the penguin is "really unusual". He simply doesn't want to swim. The white-flippered penguin is about 16 years old and was found skinny and lost at Flea Bay, Banks Peninsula, New Zealand, about 3 weeks ago. Now in quarantine at Christchurch's International Antarctic Centre, Morgan is the 1st penguin staff have ever seen that refuses to swim. When placed in water Morgan uses his beak and flippers to quickly haul himself out. Morgan also has a unique habit of flipping his water bowl upside down and standing on it,. A head Penguin keeper said Morgan was "full of character" and was "definitely a ladies man". In 25 days' time he will be introduced to the centre's main penguin encounter, where keepers hope he will befriend Parnia, a single female white-flippered penguin. White-flippered penguins are one of the smallest and most endangered penguins in the world. They are endemic to Canterbury, breeding only on Banks Peninsula and Motonau Island.
WORLD/ MOSCOW WARNS GAY PRIDE MARCHERS: Police in Moscow said today they will enforce the city's ban on a gay pride march scheduled for tomorrow in the Russian capital. Nikolai Alexeyev, Russia's leading gay rights activist and head of the Moscow Gay Pride organization, has said activists will try to hold the city's 1st gay rights rally, despite the ban on the event. In response, the Moscow police said today they would cut short any "unlawful actions." The request to hold the rally was rejected earlier this month by the city government, which restated its position on Wednesday. The city received complaints from religious groups, ultra-nationalists and the Moscow City Parent Committee over the application and warned that such a protest could trigger violence. Former Moscow mayor, Yury Luzkhov, who was in power for 18 years before being dismissed by President Dmitry Medvedev in September last year, famously described gay pride parade as "satanic." The capital's gay community expressed the hope that a parade would be permitted by new Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, but in February he said gay parades were unacceptable in Moscow. Last year, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia had violated the rights of gay activists by refusing to allow them to openly protest, and ordered the government to pay a fine and damages amounting to about $40,000.
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