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An "extremely venomous" two-meter-long green mamba snake is on the loose in the Netherlands, police said Tuesday, warning residents to stay indoors and under no circumstances attempt to ensnare the serpent.

IT may be brand spanking new but already the Royal Artillery’s futuristic Mamba radar system has saved the lives of countless British troops based at Camp Abu Naji, Iraq. The system, which is mounted on a Alvis Hagglunds BV206 tracked vehicle, can detect virtually any airborne missile launched within a 20km radius and provide an early warning of exactly where and when it will impact. This is good news for the battle-weary soldiers of Abu Naji, near Al Amarah, who have been mortared on an almost daily basis. Sitting in the cool, air-conditioned cab of his Mamba, Sgt Patrick Murray,...

LITTLE ROCK — Little Rock police have essentially closed the case on the mysterious death of a Scotsman who picked up some poisonous snakes at the city airport that were later found abandoned at an intersection. "We're basically done with it," said Little Rock Police Department spokesman Terry Hastings. "This is not a criminal investigation, it was ruled an accidental death and it's handled the same way as someone falling off the roof of a house." Garrick Wales, a 48-year-old Scotsman, was found dead in a rented Chevy Blazer near Little Rock's airport May 13. Days later police found...

A TRANSEXUAL porn actress who had a close friendship with snakebite victim Garrick Wales told yesterday of the "different world" they secretly shared before his death in America. Joanna Jet, who describes herself as a "she-male" with a taste for champagne and sexual depravity, revealed how she enjoyed a "very special friendship" with the father of three - in a world far removed from his family life in Scotland. "I knew a completely different side to Garrick, the different lifestyle, the different likes and dislikes," she said, speaking by telephone yesterday. "How we came to meet was through similar...

AMERICAN police investigating the death of a Scottish businessman thought to have been bitten by a deadly snake said yesterday that an autopsy had found no sign of bite-marks on his body. Computer programmer Garrick Wales, 48, from Kilmacolm, was found dead surrounded by vomit in a hire car near Little Rock airport in Arkansas on 13 May. Four highly poisonous snakes he had earlier ordered from a supplier in Florida were found in a box about half a mile away from his car two days later. But yesterday, police said that earlier theories that he had been bitten...

American detectives have released more information surrounding the bizarre death of a Scotsman found half-a-mile from a box of deadly snakes. Detectives say Garrick Wales ordered the snakes over the internet from a “reptile dealership” in Florida before police found his body in a rented car near a local airport, Detective Eric Knowles, of the Little Rock Police Department, who is investigating the death, said tonight that the snakes were transported from Florida to Little Rock National Airport at Mr Wales’s request. He understood Mr Wales, 48, had also taken delivery of other snakes on previous trips to the...

Investigators have reportedly drawn a connection between a Scotsman found dead last week in east Little Rock and venomous African snakes discovered the next day in a wooden box about half a mile away. Though Little Rock police confirmed the Scotsman and the snakes were connected, they wouldn’t say how they were linked or whether the man died from a snakebite, said Scott Carter, spokesman for the city of Little Rock. Police interviewed Little Rock Zoo officials Thursday morning, asking questions about venomous bites and the four snakes taken to the zoo last week. "They wanted to know what...