System of transferring prisoners unescorted

LONDON: A convicted robber who had served six months of a 32-month sentence escaped after he was given a bus ticket and instructions to transfer to another prison, police said, reports

"It makes a mockery of all our hard work,' a policeman said Thursday while searching for Roy Turner, 32.

This is yet another indication of the lax legal system In this country. It's ludicrous.'

Turner, convicted of robbing a betting parlour, fled after being allowed to transfer himself unescorted from Everthorpe prison to Rudgate open prison, a distance of about 70 miles (110 kilometres).

Everthorpe Governor Roy Smith defended the honour system of transferring prisoners unescorted, saying. 'We have been doing this with success for 18 months and I don't feel a mistake was made tn this case.'

Victim runs into rapist after 2 yrs

WINCHESTER (England): A rape victim queuing at a job centre found herself face-to-face with the man who attacked her more than two years earlier, a court heard on Thursday, reports Reuter.

The prosecution said the 19-year-old woman recognised Richard Bartellot, 30, by his voice at the job centre and froze in terror when he asked her ’Don't I know you?'

She denied knowing him. But she looked over his shoulder as he filled In a form and noted the first few letters of his name so that she could notify the police.

Bartellot admitted raping the woman as she walked home from college and was jailed for four years by the court in the southern English town of Winchester.

130 zoo animals die due to abuse at hands of visitors

BEUING: One of China's largest zoos has loot 130 animals In three months due to abuse at the hands of visitors, an official newspaper reported Thursday, according to AP.

Eleven of the animals that died between March and June at the Shanghai Zoo were from species nearing extinction and eight were under state protection in China, the China Youth Dally (Zhongguo Qingnlan Bao) reported.

In most cases, the animals died after ingesting large amounts of plastic bags fed them by visitors.

The newspaper detailed the death of Haibin. a female giraffe given to the zoo by Japan. She had produced four babies since 1981, nearly doubting the zoo's giraffe population, and was worth about 100,000 yuan (dlrs 17,360). it said.

But in June, about a month after giving birth for the fourth time, Haibln developed a bad case of diarrhoea that did not respond to treatment and died. An autopsy revealed two clumps of plastic bags in her stomach and Intestines, each measuring about 20 centimetres (8 inches) long and 5-6 centimetres (about 2 inches) tn diameter.

Deer mice harmful ?

GLASGOW (Scotland): Scientists are looking for ways to tackle a new killer virus harboured by Deer mice on a Navajo Indian Reservation In southwestern United States, reports Reuter.

Dr Brian Mahy, of the Centres for Disease Control tn Atlanta, Georgia, told an International virology conference In Glasgow on Tuesday that the virus was the most virulent of Its type so far found.

Around half the 15 people killed In the new outbreak were Navajo Indians and only four people have survived Infection by the virus, Mahy said.

"A big problem is getting the Navalo to accept that the friendly little deer mice can do them any harm," he added.

The Infection has been traced to contact with the urine or droppings of a fast-growing population of deer mice.