Komodo dragon attacks two workers

A Komodo dragon in Indonesia has attacked two employees in one of its protected island habitats, leaving its victims in hospital with serious injuries. Source: AFP

A KOMODO dragon in Indonesia has attacked two employees in one of the giant lizards' protected island habitats, leaving its victims hospitalised with serious injuries, an official said.

One victim, a 50-year-old park ranger, was sitting at his desk at the Rinca island front office, where tourists usually check in, when the two-metre-long monitor snuck into his room on Tuesday afternoon.

"The man panicked when he saw the Komodo and tried to escape by jumping on a chair, but the Komodo quickly grabbed and bit one of his legs," said Komodo National Park official Heru Rudiharto.

Mr Rudiharto said the ranger was the victim of a similar Komodo attack in 2009 and was still traumatised.

Another employee, aged 35, heard the ranger scream and quickly ran to his aid, but the lizard also attacked him, taking a bite at his leg.

Both are in good condition after being given stitches at a health clinic, Mr Rudiharto said, but they are being monitored in hospital to ensure an infection does not develop.

Until recently, Komodos were believed to hunt with a "bite and wait" strategy using toxic bacteria in their saliva to weaken or kill their prey, before descending in numbers to feast.

But recent research found that the dragons' jaws are armed with highly sophisticated poison glands that can cause paralysis, spasms and shock through haemorrhaging.

They are native to several Indonesian islands and are considered a vulnerable species, with only a few thousand left in the world. Their normal diet consists of large mammals, reptiles and birds.

A Komodo in October attacked a woman collecting grass for animal feed at the park, Mr Rudiharto said. She has recovered from a serious leg injury.

The world's largest monitor lizard, Komodos can grow up to three metres and typically weigh up to 70 kilograms.
 

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Aussie a suspect in terror bombing

Bulgarian police have said a suspect in an attack on Israeli tourists was carrying an Australian passport.

AN Australian citizen was part of a Hezbollah-backed terror cell that carried out the bombing that killed five Israeli tourists in Bulgaria last year, it has been revealed.

In the first insight into the July 18 bombing that killed the tourists, their Bulgarian bus driver and injured 30 others, authorities have revealed a suspected terrorist entered the country with an Australian passport and may have carried the bomb in a rucksack into the bus.

Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said a second suspect from the terror cell entered the country on a Canadian passport.

"We have well-grounded reasons to suggest that the two were members of the militant wing Hezbollah,'' Mr Tsvetanov said yesterday.

"We expect the government of Lebanon to assist in the further investigation.''

He also called on Australian authorities to assist in their inquiries.

The Australian Federal Police today said they were assisting the Bulgarian authorities in their investigation.

A spokesman for the AFP said the agency, along with other international law enforcement, had provided assistance to Bulgarian authorities, but would not say what that was.

A truck carries the bus damaged by the suicide bomb blast which targeted a group of Israeli tourists at the airport in Bourgas, Bulgaria. Picture: AFP

"It is not appropriate for the AFP to comment on the operations of another law enforcement agency,'' he said.

He said the AFP would not release any information on the individual alleged to have been involved.

"The AFP does not confirm or deny who it is, or is not investigating,'' the spokesman said

Initially it was believed the suspect was acting as a suicide bomber but it has now been revealed the bomb they were carrying was detonated by remote control.

The bomb exploded as the bus took a group of Israeli tourists from the airport to their hotel in the Black Sea resort of Burgas.

The bomber, described as a tall and lanky pale-skinned man posing as a tourist, also died in the blast.

The Australian was possibly a dual Lebanese-Australian national. According to authorities, there was evidence he was paid to carry out the attack by Hezbollah.

Europol, which helps coordinate policing among its 27 member states and select ovearseas partners including Australia, is liaising with the Australian Federal Police and other intelligence and security agenies on further investigation into the Australian's background.

It is understood the bomber, who never intended to die in the attack, had lived in Lebanon since 2010. Two US counterfeit driver's licences found at the scene have been linked back to Lebanon. The two foreign passports were ruled genuine.

Hezbollah, a Shite militant group and political party, has been linked to attacks and kidnappings around the world. Hezbollah officials have denied being part of the attack.

Iran had been blamed for the attack by the Israelis, but Europol confirmed there was no evidence of this.

The White House said Europe and other international partners, including Australia, needed to uncover Hezbollah's infrastructure and disrupt the groups finances and network.

Israel and the US consider Hezbollah a terrorist group but the European Union does not.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the finding was "further confirmation'' of Hezbollah's global terrorist network.

"The attack in Burgas was an attack on European land against a member of the European Union. We hope the Europeans learn the proper conclusions from this about the true character of the Hezbollah.''

British Foreign Secretary William Hague this morning added his voice for demands for Lebanon to "fully cooperate" in investigating the Australian and Canadian dual Lebanese citizens who apparently belonged to Hezbollah. He said those behind the attack needed to be brought to account.

A destroyed bus in the background after the deadly attack. AFP PHOTO / BULFOTO

"It is important that the EU respond robustly to an attack on European soil," he said.

"Every act of terror is an attack on our shared values. In committing an attack, terrorists seek to undermine our resolve but they should only serve to strengthen it."

Mr Hague also praised Bulgarian authorities for their excellent investigative work.

Homegrown terrorists are a growing trend, with British-born terrorists carrying out  the London bombings in 2005, shoe bomber Richard Reid, the 2007 Glasgow Airport attack and the failed 2010 bombing of Times Square in New York.

Europol warned Europe should be prepared for further similar attacks.

Smoke rising over Bourgas airport after the bombing last year. AFP PHOTO / BULFOTO

An unidentified injured Israeli tourist is carried in front of Burgas hospital after the explosion at the airport. Picture: AP

Prime Minister Boiko Borisov (right) and Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov at their press conference on the terrorist attack. Picture: AFP

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Tsunami washed some out to sea

A tsunami alert has been cancelled for the Pacific region after a strong quake rocked the Solomon Islands.

A MAJOR 8.0 magnitude earthquake has killed at least five people in the Solomon Islands and generated a tsunami 1.5 metres high that hit homes.

Authorities cancelled tsunami warnings on more distant coasts.

Solomons officials reported that two 1.5m waves hit the western side of Santa Cruz Island, damaging between 70 and 80 homes and properties, said George Herming, a spokesman for the prime minister. Many villagers had headed to higher ground as a precaution, Mr Herming said.

Sirens were heard in Fiji, locals said. "Chaos in the streets of Suva as everyone tries to avoid the tsunami!!" tweeted Ratu Nemani Tebana from the Fiji capital.

The waves reached as far away as Japan, which was hit by a huge tsunami in March 2011 that killed more than 19,000 people.

Japan's Meteorological Agency reported a 20-centimetre wave hitting the Ogasawara island chain south of Tokyo eight hours after the quake struck. Smaller waves were later recorded on Japan's main island of Honshu.

Tom Steinfort (@tomsteinfort) posted these images on Twitter: More images rolling in of traffic mayhem and people heading for higher ground in Fiji in wake of the tsunami warning pic.twitter.com/uj9jaCmF.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre cancelled its regional alert for Pacific-island nations about two and a half hours after the powerful quake struck near the Santa Cruz Islands.

Australian and US monitors said a tsunami wave measuring 91 centimetres washed into the town of Lata, on the main Santa Cruz island of Ndende.

"We can report five dead and three injured," Chris Rogers, a nurse at Lata Hospital, said.  "One of the dead was a male child, three were elderly women and one an elderly man."

Solomon Islands Police Commissioner John Lansley said local police patrols reported that several people were presumed dead, though the reports were still being verified.

"Sadly, we believe some people have lost their lives," he said. "At the moment we potentially know of four, but there may of course be more."

A picture take in Luganville, Espiritu Santo in Vanuatu by reader Alasdair Ross. Picture: Alasdair Ross

One of the people presumed dead was fishing in a dugout canoe when the first wave hit, sweeping him out to sea, Mr Herming said. Officials were searching for his body. Another woman was believed to have drowned when the water rushed into her village.

Four villages on Santa Cruz were hit by the waves, with two facing severe damage, Mr Lansley said. Other areas of the Solomons did not appear to have been seriously affected.

Disaster officials were struggling to reach the remote area after the tsunami flooded the airstrip at the nearest airport and left it littered with debris.

The tsunami formed after a magnitude-8.0 earthquake struck near the town of Lata, on Santa Cruz in Temotu, the easternmost province in the Solomons, about a 3-hour flight from the capital, Honiara. Temotu has a population of around 30,000.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said a tsunami of about a metre was measured in Lata wharf. Smaller waves were recorded in Vanuatu and New Caledonia.

This picture of school children seeking higher ground in the Solomon Islands has been posted on Twitter: "School kids moved to higher ground after SI tsunami warning," said Bec McNair. http://twitter.yfrog.com/h6588nyj Picture: Twitter/@benmcnair

Richard Dapo, a school principal on an island near Santa Cruz, said he lives inland but has been fielding calls from families on the coast whose homes have been damaged by the waves.

"I try to tell the people living on the coastline, 'Move inland, find a higher place. Make sure to keep away from the sea. Watch out for waves,"' he said.

He said he heard the waves swamped some smaller islands, although he was not aware of any deaths or serious injuries. He said it was difficult to contact people because mobile phone coverage was patchy in the region.

In Honiara, the warnings prompted residents to flee for higher ground.

"People are still standing on the hills outside of Honiara just looking out over the water, trying to observe if there is a wave coming in," Herming said.

The 8.0 quake struck just off the Solomon islands. Map: USGS

Atenia Tahu, who works for the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corp. in Honiara, said most people were remaining calm.

"People around the coast and in the capital are ringing in and trying to get information from us and the National Disaster Office and are slowly moving up to higher ground," Tahu said. "But panic? No, no, no, people are not panicking."

Dr Rooney Jagilly, the medical superintendent at the National Referral Hospital in Honiara, said the hospital asked about half its 200 patients to leave and stay with families or friends as a precautionary measure because the hospital is located near the shoreline. Those patients who weren't mobile enough to move stayed, but the hospital remained ready to evacuate them.

Dr Jagilly said there had been no flooding and he hoped the hospital would return to normal Thursday. He said his staff was ready to mobilise to Santa Cruz because the small hospital there has no doctor after the previous one recently died.

An official at the disaster management office in Vanuatu said there were no reports of damage or injuries there.

The US Geological Survey said the quake struck the Santa Cruz Islands, which have been rocked by a series of strong tremors over the past week, at a depth of 28.7 kilometres.

About 20 aftershocks were recorded, including one at 6.6-magnitude.

"Sea level readings indicate a tsunami was generated," the Hawaii-based Pacific warning centre said after the 8.0 quake, before lifting its tsunami alert for several island nations.

Lata Hospital director of nursing Augustine Bilve said some patients were evacuated to higher ground to prepare for any injured from the villages along the coast.

Settlements did not appear to be seriously damaged in the quake, he said, but added: "We were told that after the shaking, waves came to the villages."

More than 50 people were killed and thousands lost their homes in April 2007 when a magnitude-8.1 quake hit the western Solomon Islands, sending waves crashing into coastal villages. The Solomons comprise more than 200 islands with a population of about 552,000 people. They lie on the "Ring of Fire" - an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones that stretches around the Pacific Rim and where about 90 percent of the world's quakes occur.

Here is a list of the greatest earthquakes since the beginning of the 20th century, according to the moment magnitude scale.

• May 22, 1960: A 9.5-magnitude earthquake, the biggest ever recorded, kills 5,700 people in Chile while the tsunami it triggers leaves 130 dead in Japan and 61 in Hawaii.
• March 27, 1964: An earthquake measuring 9.2 in southern Alaska followed by a tsunami kills more than 100 people.
• December 26, 2004: A 9.1-magnitude undersea quake off Sumatra island causes a tsunami that kills 220,000 people in countries around the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 in Indonesia.
• March 11, 2011: A 9.0 magnitude quake triggers a devastating tsunami off northeast Japan, leaving some 19,000 people dead or missing and crippling the Fukushima nuclear power plant in the world's worst atomic disaster in 25 years.
• November 4, 1952: More than 2,300 people are killed when a 9.0-magnitude quake occurs on Siberia's Kamchatka peninsula, causing a tsunami felt as far as Chile and Peru.
• February 27, 2010: A huge 8.8-magnitude earthquake rocks Chile, killing at least 450 people and triggering tsunami warnings across the Pacific.
• January 31, 1906: An earthquake measuring 8.8 off the coasts of Colombia and Ecuador causes a tsunami that kills about 1,000 people.
• February 4, 1965: An 8.7-magnitude earthquake shakes the Aleutian Islands in the northern Pacific Ocean, causing damage but no deaths.
• March 28, 2005: An 8.6-magnitude quake on Indonesia's Nias island off Sumatra leaves at least 900 dead.
• March 9, 1957: An earthquake measuring 8.6 hits the Andreanof Islands in Alaska, generating a tsunami reaching as far as Hawaii, causing damage but no casualties.

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Man burned as smartphone catches fire

A man's Samsung smartphone has caught fire in his pocket. Source: AP

SOUTH Korean fire officials say a man suffered burns after the battery from a Samsung smartphone caught fire in his trouser pocket.

Officials at Bupyeong Fire Station in Incheon city said on Wednesday the lithium-ion battery was not in the phone when it caught fire. Such batteries are quick to charge but prone to overheating.

The man suffered second-degree burns and a one inch wound on his thigh from Saturday's incident.

Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported the battery from the 2011 Galaxy Note exploded but fire officials couldn't confirm that.

Officials declined to identify the man. Samsung said no investigation was planned.

It is the second known time in a year in South Korea that a Samsung smartphone battery has caught fire.

Lithium-ion batteries are behind the worldwide grounding of Boeing 787s.

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Tunisian opposition leader shot dead

Tunisian opposition leader Choukri Belaid, seen speaking to activist lawyers in 2020, was shot dead with three bullets at close range as he left his Tunis home. Source: AFP

OUTSPOKEN government critic and leading Tunisia leftist opposition leader Chokri Belaid was shot dead on Wednesday, sparking angry protests by his supporters and attacks on offices of the ruling Islamist Ennahda party.

The murder prompted President Moncef Marzouki to cut short a foreign tour, one of his advisers Ghassen Dridi told AFP, as the presidency urged "restraint and wisdom".

Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali denounced the murder as an "act of terrorism" while the presidency in a statement dubbed it an "odious" crime designed to "lead the Tunisian people to violence."

Protests erupted in several Tunisian towns and demonstrators torched one Ennahda party office and ransacked another, as Belaid's brother accused the Islamist Ennahda party of being behind the assassination.

At least 1000 people protested outside the interior ministry in Tunis shouting abuse at Ennahda.

Chokri Belaid's widow Basma Choukri, centre, mourns with supporters.

Mr Jebali, from the Ennahda party, said a lone gunman wearing the traditional hooded long burnous robe shot Belaid with three bullets fired at close range as he left his Tunis home on Wednesday morning.

"This is a criminal act, an act of terrorism not only against Belaid but against the whole of Tunisia," Mr Jebali told private radio station Mosaique FM, while promising to do everything possible to swiftly arrest the murderer.

"The Tunisian people are not used to such things. This is a serious turn ... our duty to all, as a government, as a people, is to be wise and not fall into the criminal trap which seeks to push the country into chaos."

France condemned the murder, describing Belaid as a courageous fighter for human rights.

French President Francois Hollande (R) welcomes Tunisia's President Moncef Marzouki in Strasbourg. Mr Marzouki called the murder an "act of terrorism" seeking to push Tunisia into chaos.

"This murder robs Tunisia of one of its most courageous and free voices," French President Francois Hollande said,.

The family of Belaid, who headed the opposition Democratic Patriots party and was a harsh critic of Tunisia's Islamist-led government, was in no doubt as to who was behind the murder.

"My brother was assassinated. I am desperate and depressed," said Abdelmajid Belaid.

"I accuse (Ennahda leader) Rached Ghannouchi of assassinating my brother," he said. Mr Ghannouchi later emphatically denied involvement.

Belaid's wife told told Mosaique FM her husband was hit by two bullets as he left home.

The murder of Belaid comes at a time when Tunisia is witnessing a rise in violence fed by political and social discontent two years after the mass uprising that toppled Ben Ali.

Several opposition parties and trade unions have accused pro-Islamist groups of orchestrating clashes or attacks against them.

The killing fuelled anger across Tunisia.

Around 1000 protesters massed outside the interior ministry on Habib Bourguiba Avenue - epicentre of the 2011 uprising that ousted ex-dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and sparked the Arab Spring- shouting anti-Ennahda slogans and singing the national anthem.

Demonstrators torched Ennahda offices in Mezzouna near Sidi Bouzid and ransacked Gafsa in the centre of the country while protests rocked several cities, including Sidi Bouzeid.

Sidi Bouzid was where the desperate act of a jobless young man who set himself alight in late 2010 triggered the Tunisia uprising.

Tunisian president Mr Marzouki scrapped foreign engagements to rush back home, his office said.

Mr Marzouki was in Strasbourg, France on Wednesday morning, where he took part in a session of the European parliament and met Mr Hollande, and was due to fly later to Cairo to attend a summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

Belaid's party belonged to the Popular Front coalition of leftist parties that has emerged in opposition to the Tunisia government.
 

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FBI tells what went on inside bunker

A tent covers the bunker where where a 5-year-old child was rescued by law enforcement after being held for nearly a week in Midland City, Alabama. Source: AFP

AS FBI negotiators tried for nearly a week to coax a US man into freeing a 5-year-old boy held hostage, the captor was making his own plans.

He rigged the bunker with explosives and tried to reinforce it against any raid, and when agents stormed the shelter on Monday, Jimmy Lee Dykes engaged in a firefight that left him dead, the FBI and officials said.

Relatives said the boy, who turns 6 on Wednesday, was back at home and appeared to be doing well. He was seized off a crowded school bus on January 29 after authorities say the gunman shot the driver dead and took the boy at random. Officials said there was no indication that Dykes had harmed the boy.

While the FBI has said little about how it monitored Dykes' behaviour and mood in the days leading up to the rescue, the latest revelations suggest authorities were dealing with an abductor prepared for more violence even as he allowed police to send food, medicine and toys into the bunker for the boy.

For days, officers communicated with Dykes through a plastic pipe that rose up from the bunker, which was similar to a tornado shelter and apparently had running water, heat and cable television.

An FBI statement late on Tuesday said Dyke, 65, had planted an explosive device in a ventilation pipe he'd told negotiators to use to communicate with him on his property in the rural Alabama community of Midland City. The suspect also placed another explosive device inside the bunker, the FBI added.

Dykes appears to have "reinforced the bunker against any attempted entry by law enforcement,'' FBI special agent Jason Pack said in the statement providing significant new details about how it all ended. When agents stormed the bunker, Dykes "engaged in a firefight,'' Mr Pack said.

Officers killed Dykes, said an official in Midland City, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official wasn't authorised to discuss a pending law enforcement investigation.

The two devices were "disrupted,'' Mr Pack said, but did not say whether they were detonated or disarmed.

On Monday, authorities said, Dykes had a gun and appeared increasingly agitated, and negotiations were deteriorating. The Midland City official said law enforcement agents had been observing Dykes with some sort of camera, which is how they saw that he had a gun.

Dale County Coroner Woodrow Hilboldt said on Tuesday that he had not been able to confirm exactly how Dykes died because the man's body had remained in the bunker. An autopsy was to be conducted once the body was removed.

The boy, who has Asperger's syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, was said to be acting like a normal kid after his rescue.

"We know he's OK physically, but we don't know how he is mentally,'' Betty Jean Ransbottom, the boy's grandmother, said.

Neighbours had described Dykes as an unstable menace who beat a dog to death and threatened to shoot trespassers while patrolling his property armed.

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Boy run over in one-child policy dispute

China's family planning bureaucracy has swollen over the one-child policy's more than three decades and has been accused of using excessive fines to fill government coffers. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

POLICE have detained a local official and a driver for fatally running over a 13-month-old boy during an argument with his family over the payment of a fine for violating China's strict family planning limits.

The boy's death on Monday is the latest incident to aggravate long-running public resentment over the family planning rules that limit many families to one child and some rural ones to two.

After the incident in a village outside the eastern city of Rui'an, thousands of residents protested outside local government offices, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

Police detained the two people on unspecified charges late Tuesday, said a statement on the Rui'an government's official website. Xinhua identified them as a local Communist Party chief named Bai and a driver.

How the toddler came to be run over is not completely clear from the government and state media accounts. Rui'an's party Propaganda Department declined further comment.

A team of 11 officials went to the village to persuade Chen Liandi and his wife Li Yuhong to pay a fine for violating the family planning limits. Xinhua said the requested fine totalled more than 30,000 yuan ($4,575) and was for giving birth to the boy, the couple's third child.

An argument ensued and Mr Chen tried to prevent the officials from taking Ms Li to a government office, though she soon relented and agreed to get into a car and go, the accounts said. In the confrontation, the boy dropped from Mr Chen's arms and was run over by a vehicle, the government statement and state media said. Xinhua said Mr Chen tried to pull the boy away but was too late.

If they didn't pay the fine, "they would have detained us",' Xinhua quoted Mr Chen as saying. It reported that Mr Chen said he had been detained after the birth of the couple's second child, a daughter who is now 11.

Reports of the incident have further inflamed popular dislike of the family planning limits and the use of beatings, forced abortions, sterilisations and other aggressive enforcement measures. The family planning bureaucracy has swollen over the policy's more than three decades, and though local officials are under pressure to keep births within quotas assigned by Beijing, they have also at times been accused of excessive fines to fill government coffers.

Photos posted online of a woman forced to undergo a forced abortion when seven months' pregnant sparked national outrage last year. Feng Jianmei was beaten and then forced to abort the pregnancy because the family could not pay the fine of 40,000 yuan for having a second child. She was later paid 70,600 yuan as compensation by authorities.
 

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Monopoly adds cat, tosses iron

The newest Monopoly token, a cat, rests on a Boardwalk deed next to other tokens still in use including the wheelbarrow and the shoe. Picture: AP Source: AP

SCOTTIE dog has a new nemesis after Monopoly fans voted to add a cat to the game and eliminate the iron token.

The results were announced about midnight AEDT by Hasbro Inc after the shoe, wheelbarrow and iron were neck and neck in the final hours of voting that sparked passionate efforts by fans to save their favourite tokens and businesses eager to capitalise on publicity surrounding pieces that represent their products.

The vote on Facebook closed about 4pm AEDT yesterday, marking the first time that fans have had a say on which of the eight tokens to add and which one to toss. The pieces identify the players and have changed quite a lot since Parker Brothers bought the game from its original designer in 1935.

Other pieces that contested for a spot on Monopoly included a robot, diamond ring, helicopter and guitar.

Fans from more than 120 countries voted.

"We put five new tokens out for our fans to vote on and there were a lot of fans of the many different tokens, but I think there were a lot of cat lovers in the world that reached out and voted for the cat to be the new token for Monopoly," said Jonathan Berkowitz, vice president for Hasbro gaming marketing.

Cat lovers have triumphed in the vote for a new Monopoly token. Picture: AP

The online contest to change the tokens was sparked by chatter on Facebook, where Monopoly has more than 10 million fans. The initiative was intended to ensure that a game created nearly eight decades ago remains relevant and engaging to fans today.

"Tokens are always a key part of the Monopoly game ... and our fans are very passionate about their tokens, about which token they use while they play," Mr Berkowitz said.

Monopoly's iconic tokens originated when the niece of game creator Charles Darrow suggested using charms from her charm bracelet for tokens. The game is based on the streets of Atlantic City, New Jersey, and has sold more than 275 million units worldwide.

To make the game relevant to fans abroad, the names are changed to well-known streets in when it is introduced to a new country.

The eight tokens are an iron, racecar, Scottie dog, a shoe, thimble, top hat, wheelbarrow and battleship. Most of the pieces were introduced with the first Parker Brothers iteration of the game in 1935, and the Scottie dog and wheelbarrow were added in the early 1950s.

The end has come for the iron token as Monopoly fans voted it out of the game. Picture: AP

The social-media buzz created by the Save Your Token Campaign attracted numerous companies that pushed to protect specific tokens that reflect their products.

That includes garden tool maker Ames True Temper Inc. of Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, that spoke out in favour of the wheelbarrow and created a series of online videos that support the tool and online shoe retailer Zappos which pushed to save the shoe, Mr Berkowitz said.

"We've even had some companies like Jolly Time Pop Corn reach out and petition to have a popcorn token added to the game, even though that's not one of the new five tokens," he said.

Versions of Monopoly with the new token will come out later this year.
 

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Nine-year-old girl gives birth

A nine-year-old girl is now a mother, having given birth to a 2.7kg baby girl. Picture: Thinkstock Source: Supplied

A MEXICAN girl aged nine has given birth to a girl of her own, local authorities and family members have said.

"The girl was just over eight when she got pregnant. The father is a boy who is 17, but we have not found him, since he ran away," the mother of the girl, identified only as Dafne, told local officials in Jalisco state.

"We are looking for the young man to get his story because she does not understand what has happened. This is a rape or child sex abuse case," said Jorge Villasenor with the state prosecutors' office.

The baby girl was born January 27 in Zoquipan Hospital, weighing 2.7kg (5.7 pounds).

Both girls were released from the hospital over the weekend, apparently doing well, but the hospital said it would have to do extensive follow-up due to the new mother's age.

 

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