Hungarians vote to name elephant

HUNGARY: The first elephant born in Budapest's zoo since 1961 has been named Asha following a public vote in which over 200,000 people took part, the zoo said Tuesday.

Since her birth on February 14, Valentine's Day, Asha's progress at the 147-year-old zoo has been closely followed by a star-struck Hungarian public.

Born three months earlier than expected, Asha -- whose Sanskrit name means "hope" -- weighed 75 kilograms (165 pounds) and was 85 centimetres (2.78 feet) tall on arrival.

The poll, which closed Monday, offered a choice of six names - Asha, Anita, Angyal, Amelie, and Aishwarya - all beginning with A to honour her mother Angele.

AFP

Bin Laden off sanctions list

UN: The UN Security Council has finally taken Osama bin Laden off its sanctions list -- almost two years after the death of the Al-Qaeda mastermind.

But the council will maintain a freeze on Bin Laden's assets to stop them being used by others for militant activities.

The Security Council's Al-Qaeda sanctions committee announced in a statement this week that bin Laden's name had been deleted from its list for a travel ban and arms embargo.

The statement said, however, that UN member states would have to make a special request to the sanctions committee before any assets are released.

AFP

Batman to lose Robin

US: Batman may be able to save the world, but he'll lose his sidekick Robin -- who in his current incarnation is his son -- in the upcoming Batman Incorporated comic book series.

DC Comics said the caped crusader's acrobatic young assistant, Batman alter ego Bruce Wayne's son Damian, will die in Wednesday's issue number eight.

"This master theme of damaged and ruined families was nowhere more in evidence than in the creation of Damian, the first 'Son of Batman' to be acknowledged in the canon," series writer Grant Morrison said in a statement.

AFP

Chile says 20 beached whales die in Strait of Magellan

CHILE: Twenty killer whales died and 25 others were rescued after becoming stranded along the Strait of Magellan by an unusually low tide, Chile's National Fishing Service said Tuesday.

Fishermen and Chilean navy personnel struggled to save the orcas after they ran into trouble near Susan, a village on the strait that links the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans at the southern tip of South America, officials said. "The maritime authority and fishermen in the area succeeded in returning 25 to the sea, but due to an unusually low tide, 20 animals could not be rescued and died at the scene," said Jorge Sierpa, director of the Fishing Service in Punta Arenas.

AFP

Bishop offers Rolex to pay church electricity bill

BULGARIA: A top Bulgarian cleric accused of leading a privileged lifestyle, has offered his luxurious Rolex watch to pay his cash-strapped church's electricity bills.

"Plovdiv Metropolitan Nikolay has offered one of his few personal objects, a Rolex watch, to the Saint Marina church, requesting that it be sold so that the electricity bill can be paid," said the church, one of the main ones in the central Bulgarian city of Plovdiv.

Bulgaria's Orthodox Church is the largest property owner in the country after the state but is short on liquid funds and its clergy receive a pittance in salary.

AFP

Sheriff shot in courthouse

CANADA: Two men shot their way out of a courthouse in a small town in Western Canada on Tuesday, injuring a sheriff and fleeing in his van before being recaptured, authorities said.

A justice department spokeswoman said the sheriff was shot in the hand shortly before noon local time and was being treated in hospital for "non-life-threatening" injuries.

AFP