The World

Man mauled after leap into zoo exhibit

NEW YORK -- Police and zoo officials say a visitor to the Bronx Zoo was mauled by a tiger on Friday after he leaped from an elevated monorail train and plummeted over a fence into an exhibit.

Police, who initially reported the man had lost a leg in the mauling, later said he suffered puncture wounds to his back. They also said he suffered a broken ankle and a broken arm, possibly from the jump.

The attack happened at around 3 p.m. in the Wild Asia exhibit, where a train with open sides takes visitors over the Bronx River and through a forest, where they glide along the top edge of a fence, past elephants, deer and a tiger enclosure.

Passengers aren't strapped in on the ride, and the 25-year-old man apparently jumped out of his train car, with a leap powerful enough to clear the perimeter fence.

Details of what happened next were unclear, but police said the tiger attacked.

The zoo's staff used a fire extinguisher to chase the tiger off, and the man was instructed to roll under an electrified wire to get to safety, zoo director Jim Breheny said in a statement. Zookeepers then called the tiger into a holding area.

Police said the man was hospitalized in critical condition.

Man convicted in 1984 killing of friend

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Texas jurors convicted a man Friday in the brutal 1984 stabbing death of a teenage friend who prosecutors allege had rejected his romantic advances.

Ryland Shane Absalon, 45, was found guilty of capital murder and automatically sentenced to life in prison because prosecutors didn't seek the death penalty. Prosecutors said he stabbed 18-year-old Ginger Hayden more than 50 times in her bed in Fort Worth, then confessed two years later during a drug-treatment program. But he wasn't charged until two decades later, after DNA evidence was tested.

Absalon lowered his head as the verdict was read, and his wife began crying. She ran out of the courtroom sobbing loudly as the judge read the sentence.

Hayden's relatives cried quietly in the courtroom.

"Mr. Absalon, it is not worth our time or energy... to tell you what you have done. You have shattered our hearts and our lives forever," Jennifer Bass, who was Hayden's best friend, said in the victim impact statement after the sentencing.

Defence attorney Gary Udashen had argued Absalon falsely confessed because he was pressured and abused at the centre and believed everything would be kept confidential. Some of Absalon's DNA was found in Hayden's apartment, the lawyer said, because they were former high school classmates and neighbours who would hang out.

But prosecutors said Absalon's 1986 confession supported the evidence and included details only the killer would know. His DNA was found on a towel and one of the bloody socks he used as gloves, investigators said.

Harvard not sold on papyrus claims

BOSTON -- Harvard University says it hasn't committed to publishing research that claims a fourth-century piece of papyrus contains writing that proves some early Christians believed Jesus had a wife.

That's even though its divinity school touted the research during a publicity blitz this week.

The editor of the Harvard Theological Review said Friday the journal is awaiting further study of the papyrus fragment, which includes text in which Jesus uses the words "my wife." The journal is awaiting results of scientific dating tests and reports from experts on Coptic papyrus and grammar.

Divinity school professor Karen King announced Tuesday the papyrus fragment was the only existing ancient text in which Jesus explicitly talks of having a wife. Scholars have questioned its authenticity, but King says two experts have determined it very likely is authentic.

Japan's tsunami debris arrives in Hawaii

HONOLULU -- A large plastic bin is the first confirmed piece of marine debris from last year's tsunami in Japan to arrive in Hawaii, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Friday.

Japanese consular officials confirmed the blue bin found earlier this week floating in the ocean is from Fukushima, said Ben Sherman, a NOAA spokesman in Washington, D.C.

It is the 12th confirmed piece to hit U.S. or Canada waters, he said. The bin was spotted off Waimanalo, on the southeast coast of Oahu, by Makai Ocean Engineering staff and was retrieved by the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory. Used for transporting seafood, the 1.2-by-1.2-metre) cube bears the name Y.K. Suisan Co. Ltd., the state Department of Land and Natural Resources said.

Nikolai Maximenko, a University of Hawaii researcher and ocean currents expert who is studying the trajectory of the tsunami debris, said the bin's arrival is consistent with his predictions for when the first pieces would get to Hawaii.

-- from the news services

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 22, 2012 A25