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Australian authorities plan to corral about 6,000 wild camels with helicopters and gun them down after they overran a small Outback town in search of water, trampling fences, smashing tanks and contaminating supplies. The Northern Territory government announced its plan Wednesday for Docker River, a town of 350 residents where thirsty camels have been arriving daily for weeks because of drought conditions in the region. "The community of Docker River is under siege by 6,000 marauding, wild camels," local government minister Rob Knight said in Alice Springs, 310 miles (500 kilometers) northeast of Docker. "This is a very critical situation...

An Oz Outback community is battling to regain control of its town from a 6,000-strong feral camel invasion, which has seen the thirsty dromedaries cause "chaos" in their search for water. According to the Times, the drought-hit beasts have descended on the Northern Territory's Docker River en masse, "trampling through homes, breaking water tanks and even damaging the emergency airstrip".

Wild dromedary camels, brought to Australia in the mid-19th century to help explore and develop the outback, were left to breed and survive on their own. Now they number a million in the wild and have become pests, officials say. Camels are not usually associated with Australia, but Australia is home to the largest herd of feral camels in the world. About 12,000 dromedary camels were brought to Australia in the mid-19th century to carry people and supplies during the exploration and development of the Interior but after the advent of the automobile, they were abandoned and left to fend...

Australia has begun drawing up plans to cull hundreds of thousands of wild camels amid concerns that marauding herds are tearing up the environment and depleting valuable supplies of water. One-humped dromedaries were imported into Australia after 1840 to help colonial settlers conquer the arid continent’s inhospitable interior. A century later, the robust pack animals were no longer needed, superseded by trucks and trains. While some were slaughtered, many others were released into the desert where they have thrived. Apart from wild dogs, Australia’s camels have had little to fear until now. Deploying marksmen in helicopters is part of an...

SYDNEY -- Thousands of camels in Australia's remote Outback could be killed by marksmen in helicopters under a government proposal aimed at cutting down the population of the havoc-wreaking creatures. First introduced into Australia in the 1840s to help explorers travel through the Australian desert, there are now about 1 million camels roaming the country, with the population doubling every nine years. They compete with sheep and cattle for food, trample vegetation and invade remote settlements in search of water, scaring residents as they tear apart bathrooms and rip up water pipes. Last month, the federal government set aside 19...

Thousands of camels will be shot from helicopters and turned into burgers in a bid to halt their trail of havoc across Australia. Marksmen plan to gun the animals down amid concern the thirsty dromedaries are barging into people's homes and ripping up their bathrooms looking for water. Government officials plan to wipe out 650,000 of the feral population in the remote Outback area of the country. The creatures were first introduced to Australia in the 1840s to help explorers travel through the Australian desert. There are now about one million camels roaming the country. They compete with sheep and...

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — It may have seemed like a mirage: Two camels nibbling on a pine tree along a street in this desert metropolis on the Texas border. Police tried lassoing the animals, which lunged at the officers with snapping teeth as onlookers chuckled. But in the end, officials say all it took was some juicy green leaves on a branch held by the caretaker to lure the camels back into captivity.

He has a host of relatives in exotic locations from Hawaii to Kenya, and during his run for the American presidency he discovered that he had an aunt living in Boston. Now Barack Obama is being claimed by not one but as many as 8,000 Beduin tribesmen in northern Israel. Although the spokesman for the lost tribe of Obama has yet to reveal the documentary evidence that he says he possesses to support his claim, people are flocking from across the region to pay their respects to the “Beduin Obama”, whose social standing has gone through the roof. “We knew...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) -- Hundreds of camels have died in Saudi Arabia this week from a mystery ailment. Cars stop on a Riyadh highway to make way for a caravan of camels. The animals are big business in Saudi Arabia. The Agriculture Ministry has said 232 camels died in the space of four days in the Dawasir Valley, 250 miles south of Riyadh. King Abdullah has promised compensation for owners, who say the real number of deaths is far higher. Agriculture ministry officials have denied an infectious disease caused the deaths and blamed them on animal feed supplied by...

RIYADH (Reuters) - Hundreds of camels have died in Saudi Arabia this week from a mystery ailment. The Agriculture Ministry has said 232 camels died in the space of four days in the Dawasir Valley, 400 km (250 miles) south of Riyadh. King Abdullah has promised compensation for owners, who say the real number of deaths is far higher. Agriculture ministry officials have denied an infectious disease caused the deaths and blamed them on animal feed supplied by food storage authorities.

archaeologists say could be the biggest fossil find in Pinellas County in nearly a century... The jaw and tooth weigh 65 pounds and are about a yard long. Sarti-Sweeney took the bones home and, after some online research with her older brother, determined the football-sized rock was actually the tooth of a long-extinct mammoth. Paleontology and archaeology experts have confirmed the find, and recent digging at the site has turned up teeth and bones from a second mammoth, giant sloths, camels, turtles with shells up to 6-feet-long, saber-toothed cats and giant armadillos the size of Volkswagen Beetles. Scientists believe the...

RIYADH, 28 August 2006 — You might have seen films or flipped through comic strips about the adventures of Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan could communicate with animals but not with humans after having lived with apes and other denizens of the forest. Muhammad Iqbal, an Indian expatriate, too could not communicate with humans after tending camels for 13 years in the desert of Al-Summan in the Thumama district near Riyadh. Then, following a chance encounter with his own compatriot, he slowly regained his voice and his memory. He then realized, “I have only milk to...

CUERO — The bellows and growls of camels on the move are again echoing across Texas, thanks to history buffs who are retracing the path of cloven footprints left 150 years ago. On May 20, six camels left the Port of Indianola, where in 1856 the first of about 100 of the animals imported by the Army arrived. The six were bound for Camp Verde, site of a frontier-era camel base. Along the way, Doug Baum and other handlers are holding show-and-tell sessions at civic clubs, school campuses and even at the Alamo on the great "camel experiment." "I think...

While it might seem strange scientists would think to develop dipsticks to measure caffeine, how they're making them is even weirder. How about three llamas and two camels. The animals, both called camelids by scientists, are among the few whose immune systems produce antibodies that are not destroyed by hot coffee. We did not look into who figured that out or why. Anyway, the researchers injected proteins linked to caffeine into the five beasts to elicit an immune response. The animals produced antibodies in their blood that were reactive to caffeine. Then in the lab, these antibodies were found to...

Iranian police seized 18 kilograms of opium after cutting open the stomachs of six camels, which are being increasingly used to carry narcotics from Afghanistan, media reported Tuesday. Iran is one of the world's key narcotics thoroughfares, carrying opiates from Afghanistan to Europe. It boasts 25 percent of opium seizures worldwide. The official IRNA news agency said police in the central city of Nain slaughtered the camels which they found in the back of a truck pulled over at a checkpoint. The bellies of four animals yielded drugs and the truck driver was arrested. Networks of forts and ramparts across...

Saddam planned to deploy 'camels of mass destruction' By James Langton (Filed: 26/03/2006) Saddam Hussein planned to use "camels of mass destruction" as weapons to defend Iraq, loading them with bombs and directing them towards invading forces. The animals were part of a plan to arm and equip foreign insurgents drawn up by the dictator shortly before the American-led invasion three years ago, reveals a 37-page report, captured after the fall of Baghdad and just released by the Pentagon. It is part of a cache of thousands of documents that the United States Department of Defence says it does not...

The municipality of Løten, in the southeastern county of Hedmark, has failed to win financial support from the Directorate of Immigration (UDI), TV 2 reports. Løten is home to many refugees from African nations and the local initiative to start a camel farm was viewed as a way to have a positive effect on the lives of new residents. Many of the refugees have lived as nomads and for them the camels are domesticated animals and a source of milk, meat, hide and wool. But the UDI has refused to earmark funds for the creative project, and the Løten camel...

DUBAI, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Muslims have decried as hypocrites Western dailies which have cited free speech as the reason for printing disrespectful cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, saying the same newspapers take pains to avoid lampooning Jews. The caricatures, first published in a Danish daily in September and then reprinted across Europe, have unleashed fury among Muslims who view any portrayal of their Prophet as blasphemous, let alone one showing him as a terrorist. What is really insulting, some Muslim clerics and politicians say, is that Europeans do not think twice about denigrating Islam but view ridicule of Judaism...

KUWAIT today held the first regional camel race using robots as riders after child jockeys were banned from the lucrative sport following criticism by human rights groups. Teams from the six Gulf Arab states participated in the race held on the dusty tracks of a racing club outside the capital Kuwait City. "We hope this sport, which is part of our cultural heritage, will be spared from suspicion,"said Kuwait's Energy Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah who opened the five-day championship. The remote-operated robots are shaped like small boys. Rights groups said thousands of boys, some as young as four, worked...

African hopes ride on Norway camels By Lars Bevanger BBC News, Oslo Camels have no problem surviving Norway's cold winters A small community in wintry Norway wants to help a group of East African refugees back to work by importing a flock of camels. The local refugee council says it will allow refugees with nomadic background to use their camel-farming skills while also securing an alternative income for local agriculture. But how do camels adapt to Arctic conditions in the far north of Europe? Igor, a five year-old Bactrian camel, is living proof his particular breed of camel has no...

A local refugee council in a small Norwegian township faces plenty of humps over its novel plan to create jobs and help clients by importing camels. The township of Løten is otherwise best known for its historic production of the strong Norwegian drink known as akevitt. Now its refugee council (Flyktningtjenesten) wants to launch production of camel milk, a project it thinks will benefit refugees from African countries who miss the milk and need jobs. Environmental groups and Norway's food inspection agency are skeptical, to say the least. Environmentalists suggest Norwegian officials need to take better care of the animals...

Iraq's interior minister lashed out yesterday at a Saudi minister who voiced worries about growing Iranian influence and Shi'ite power, saying Iraq would not be lectured by "some Bedouin riding a camel." Ethnic tensions within Iraq's governing coalition also heightened, with the nation's Kurdish president called on the Shi'ite prime minister to step down. Prince Faisal, foreign minister of Sunni Saudi Arabia, had expressed concern about growing Shi'ite influence in Iraq during a visit to Washington last month. Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, a member of the Shi'ite Islamist Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, fired back during a...

ABU DHABI -- A camel was sold for $185,000 at an auction in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where camel racing is hugely popular, a newspaper reported on Wednesday. Mohammed Bin Taloub "chose carefully" among the camels on offer at the auction in the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi on Tuesday before stumping up 680,000 dirhams, said Gulf News, published in nearby Dubai. The sister of the prized male camel fetched just some $8,000 "because she was only his half-sister. They had the same mother but different fathers. The father of the male camel was much stronger," according to one...

Sorry if this is a repost. Elephants and lions unleashed on North America? 18:00 17 August 2005 NewScientist.com news service Kurt Kleiner Elephants, lions, cheetahs and camels could one day roam the western US under a proposal to recreate North American landscapes as they existed more than 13,000 years ago, when humans first encountered them. The plan, proposed in a commentary in Nature and co-authored by 13 ecologists and conservation biologists, would help enrich a North American ecosystem that was left almost devoid of large mammals at the end of the Pleistocene period. It would also help preserve wildlife that...

ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Remote-controlled robot jockeys made their debut as camel riders in the United Arab Emirates Monday, competing in a trial race after the Gulf Arab state tightened a ban on child jockeys. Robots weighing up to 15 kg (33 lb) were dressed in the clothes of human jockeys during the race held in the capital Abu Dhabi, which officials described as "successful," the WAM news agency reported.

The emirate of Abu Dhabi is expected to hold a camel auction during the September 12 to 16 International Hunting and Equestrian exhibition, organizers said on Wednesday. The event will feature the auction of 135 female Arabian camels, produced by artificial insemination at Abu Dhabi's Suwaihan Camel Reproduction Center. Camel crossbreeding is a widespread practice in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which has a unique hybrid species from a male camel and a female llama produced at the Dubai Camel Reproduction Center. Gulf residents are passionate about camel races, a long-standing traditional activity and a popular national sport. In January...

That's what U.S. authorities wondered as they expelled two security guards at the Iranian mission to the United Nations last weekend, after the mission was warned repeatedly against permitting its employees to videotape the Statue of Liberty, the subway, bridges and other New York landmarks.<snip> ...Hassan Abassi, head of the Revolutionary Guards' Center for Doctrinaire Affairs of National Security Outside Iran's Borders: "We will map 29 sensitive sites in the United States and give the information to all international terror organizations," ...Mr. Abassi, about compiling a target list of "29 sensitive sites." And also: "We have a strategy drawn up...

JEDDAH, 14 May 2004 — A beauty contest for camels was held recently in Hayaniya village, 190 km north of Baqaa in the Hail region, attracting more than 5,000 people from the Kingdom. Some 2,500 camels were entered in the rare contest to win the Prince Sultan ibn Muhammad Cup. Competitions were held for four types of camels with 100 camels (25 in each category) declared winners. Cash prizes worth SR600,000 were distributed by Jedaie ibn Awad Laghaisem on behalf of Prince Sultan at the end of the event. The contest was held over three days, turning Hayaniya village into...

JEDDAH, 14 May 2004 — A beauty contest for camels was held recently in Hayaniya village, 190 km north of Baqaa in the Hail region, attracting more than 5,000 people from the Kingdom. Some 2,500 camels were entered in the rare contest to win the Prince Sultan ibn Muhammad Cup. Competitions were held for four types of camels with 100 camels (25 in each category) declared winners. Cash prizes worth SR600,000 were distributed by Jedaie ibn Awad Laghaisem on behalf of Prince Sultan at the end of the event. The contest was held over three days, turning Hayaniya village into...

Turning away from its usual obsession with high-tech solutions, the Israeli military is reaching back into history for a means to transport its anti-smuggling patrols on the Israel-Egypt border - the camel. In the desert dunes and hills, camels can go where soldiers, jeeps, trucks and even tanks can't, the military concluded, and decided to rent camels from a firm that usually hires them out to tourists for jaunts around Israel's southern port of Eilat, the soldiers' weekly Bamahaneh reports in its current issue. The long, peaceful Israel-Egypt border between the Sinai and Negev deserts is not fortified, and smugglers...

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NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania - Herd boys tug at camels' udders, loosing the raw material for a unique, creamy cheese this desert nation's growers hope to place alongside Roquefort and cheddar on the world's crackers. If foreigners bite, camel cheese exports could put sorely needed cash in the robes of this West African nation's nomads, helping them to modernize herding practices. But there are hurdles: European Union and American import and health regulations demand costly testing impoverished Mauritania, like most African nations, is unable to provide. "If the Europeans buy that cheese, our milk production will skyrocket. We'll get the technology —...

Tens of thousands of tourists are attending the world's biggest camel fair, on the border between India and Pakistan. About 50,000 of the animals will be sold during the nine day Pushkar Camel fair in Rajasthan, India, reports Sify.com. The Pushkar Fair is being put in the spotlight by India to try to revive tourism, slowed by Islamic militancy in Kashmir and war tensions with Pakistan. "This year we have seen a jump in the arrival of tourists here, a figure that is 30 percent higher than last year," said Rajeeva Swaroop, tourism chief of Rajasthan. "We expect 20,000 international...

16:19 Negev police to start painting camels with luminous paint, as part of effort to reduce number of accidents they cause

Saddam, despite the fact that Little Tommy Daschle opened his big mouth to play the partisan blame game, I want to make my own personal attempt at avoiding war. No, I do not plan to be a human shield. What I have for you is information to get out of town. You have until 1:00 AM Greenwich Mean Time on Thursday, March 20 to take your two insane sons, several of your henchmen, a few suitcases and get the hell out of town. Here you go: Planes: prior to Shock and Awe, there are 13 flights out of Baghdad, including...

ABU DHABI [MENL] -- Iran and Kuwait plan to launch talks on the demarcation of their long-disputed border. The talks are expected to take place over the weekend during the visit to Teheran by Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sabah Al Ahmed Al Jaber Al Sabah. Al Sabah will meet Iranian leaders in an effort to coordinate diplomatic and security positions amid expectation of a U.S.-led war against neighboring Iraq. Al Sabah said Kuwait wants to remove obstacles to relations with Iran. He said the delineation of borders between the countries would top his agenda in Saturday's visit to Teheran. Gulf defense...

<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge in California entered a directed verdict Tuesday in favor of the top two U.S. cigarette makers in a suit brought by the family of a deceased smoker, saying the plaintiffs did not bring enough evidence to back their claims that Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds were responsible for the smoker's death.</p>

What is going on in the Muslim world? Why does it produce suicide hijackers on the one hand and, on the other, lethargic and haphazardly capitalist societies that have delivered neither economic development nor democracy? A partial answer — because it is limited to the Arab region — can be found in a United Nations “development report” written by a group of Arab intellectuals which concludes that the Arab sector, with its oil wealth, is “richer than it is developed”. Its economies are stagnant, illiteracy is widespread, political freedom is rare and its inhabitants, especially women, are denied basic opportunities....

DHAKA (Reuters) - Alam was kidnapped five years ago, taken to the Middle East and forced to race camels. Now the 12-year-old is back home in Bangladesh but faces a whole new set of problems, such as trying to recognize his mother. "Police say Bedena Begum is my mother and I was taken away from her," Alam says shyly. "I also feel she is my mother, but I can hardly remember her face," the boy says, mumbling in broken Bangla, a mother tongue he is having to learn all over again. Alam is staying at a camp set up to...