US/ MISSING CHIHUAHUA FOUND AFTER 5 YEAR SEARCH: A 5 year mystery was solved last weekend when a Chihuahua that disappeared from her owner's surburan home was discovered wandering near downtown San Diego, California, the county Department of Animal Services said yesterday. The chihuahua named Cookie was found wandering on C Street in Golden Hill on Saturday and reunited with her surprised owner thanks to an implanted identification microchip. The female dog vanished from from her Chula Vista residence 5 years ago, and despite a long search and rewards offered, was not found. It is unknown how Cookie made it from the South Bay to downtown San Diego. The director of Animal Services for the Country said the happy ending shows the importance of micro-chipping and registering pets.
WORLD/ ANIMAL SMUGGLER ARRESTED IN BANGKOK: Authorities at Bangkok's International Airport arrested a first-class passenger last week whose suitcases were filled with baby leopards, panthers, a bear and monkeys. The animals had been drugged and were headed for Dubai. The 36 year old man, whoh is a United Arab Emirates citizen, was waiting to check in for his flight at Suvarnabhumi International Airport when he was apprehended by undercover anti-trafficking officers, who had been monitoring him since his black market purchase of the rare and endangered animals, according to the FREELAND Foundation, an anti-trafficking group based in Thailand. When authorities opened the suitcases, the animals yawned, said a director of the foundation, who was present during the arrest. There were 2 leopards, 2 panthers, an Asiatic black bear and 2 macaque monkeys, pictured; all about the size of puppies. "It looked like they had sedated the animals and had them in flat cages so they couldn't move around much," the director said. Some of the animals were placed inside canisters with air holes. Authorities believe the man was part of a trafficking network and were searching for suspected accomplices. Thailand is a hub for illegal wildlife trafficking, but authorities typically find rare turtles, tortoises, snakes and lizards that feed demand in China and Vietnam. It was not known if the animals were destined to be resold or kept as exotic pets, a practice popular in the Middle East.
WORLD/ JAPAN QUAKE SHIFTED OCEAN FLOOR 65 FEET: The Japan March 11 mega-quake shifted the ocean floor sideways by more than 65 feet (20 meters), according one instrument placed on the seabed off the nation's coast. This direct measurement exceeds the displacement suggested by some models built only from data gathered on land. The figure was recorded by the Japan Coast Guard which maintains underwater geodetic equipment along the fault responsible for the giant tremor. An upwards movement of 10 feet was registered by the same instrument. The data underlines once again the colossal nature of the Magnitude 9.0 quake and its associated tsunami. The research is reported in 1 of 3 online submissions to the journal Science this week. The trio of papers shed further light on the causes and complexity of the devastating event. The earthquake occurred close to the Japan Trench, the tectonic plate boundary where the dense rock of the Pacific Ocean floor is being pulled down (subducted) underneath Japan as it moves westwards towards Eurasia.
An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.9 struck NW Turkey late last night, killing at least 2 people and injuring 79. The tremor struck just before midnight local time and centred on the town of Simav, in Kutahya province, some 190 miles W of the capital Ankara. Terrified residents ran into the streets, and many spent the night in cars after being warned not to go back to their homes. 1 person died after jumping from a window in panic, officials said. Turkey's Environment Minister put the death toll at 2, and said that of the 79 injured only 1 was in a serious condition. State media reported that at least 1 derelict building collapsed and the windows in some buildings were shattered by the quake. The quake was followed by around 50 aftershocks, the Kandilli observatory in Istanbul reported. Turkey is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes because it sits on major geological fault lines. At least 2 earthquakes in 1999 with a magnitude of more than 7.0 killed almost 20,000 people in densely populated parts of the NW of the country.
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