One million cockroaches flee China farm
At least one million cockroaches have escaped a farm in China where they were being bred for use in traditional medicine, a report said.
The cockroaches fled the facility in Dafeng, in the eastern province of Jiangsu, after an “unknown perpetrator” destroyed the plastic greenhouse where they were raised, the Modern Express newspaper reported on Friday
Disease control authorities have sent five investigators to the area to come up with a plan to stamp out the insects.
Farm owner Wang Pengsheng invested more than 100,000 yuan ($16,000) in 102kgof periplaneta americana eggs after spending six months developing a business plan, the report said.
More armed security at schools after Newtown
In the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Pembroke Pines in Florida, USA, students returning to school this year are being greeted not only by their teachers and principal. They’re also meeting the armed school resource officer who will be stationed permanently on campus.
Crime in this middle-class community has been on a steady decline, but city officials decided to place a school police officer at every elementary, middle and high school after a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, last year.
Many districts across the nation are increasing the number of school resource officers on campus, and in a few cases, permitting teachers to carry concealed weapons themselves.
Crocodile takes man in Australia
A 24-year-old man was snatched by a crocodile in front of at least 15 onlookers as he swam across a northern Australian river with a friend, police said on Sunday.
Northern Territory police said the man was with a group celebrating a birthday at the Mary River Wilderness Retreat, about 110km from Darwin, on Saturday when he decided to plunge into the water.
Police conducted a search for the man but were unsuccessful. The search continued on Sunday, Bahnert said, adding that the largest crocodile at the site had been shot and killed as a precaution.
Reports suggested the men had ignored warnings not to swim in the river because of the risk of a crocodile attack.
Saudi Arabia: 1 more death from new virus
Saudi Arabia says one more man has died from MERS, a new respiratory virus related to SARS, bringing to 40 the number of deadly cases in the kingdom at the centre of the growing outbreak.
The Saudi Health Ministry said on Sunday that the 51-year-old man who died in Riyadh had also been suffering from cancer and other chronic diseases.
Tests of two new suspected cases involving two Saudi men in the southwestern province of Asir proved positive.
The new virus is related to SARS and belongs to a family of viruses that most often causes the common cold.