Drunken elephants go on deadly rampage
Tuesday, December 17, 2002 Posted: 10:52 PM HKT (1452 GMT)
GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) -- A herd of wild elephants driven berserk by country liquor trampled to death six people, among them four children, during a rampage in India's northeastern state of Assam, police said on Tuesday.
The animals came out of the forest on Sunday, attacking granaries and drinking country liquor stored by villagers in Tinsukia, about 550 km (341 miles) east of Guwahati, Assam's biggest city.
"The elephants, after consuming huge quantity of country-made liquor, went berserk, killing six people on the spot," a police spokesman said.
Experts say hundreds of wild elephants in search of food regularly emerge from the forests of Assam to trample rice fields and destroy granaries.
Destruction of the animals' natural habitats and a growing elephant population are the main causes of the problem, they say.
"It has been noticed that elephants have developed a taste for rice beer and local liquor and they always look for it when they invade villages," Dinesh Choudhury, an elephant expert in Guwahati, said.
The region, racked by separatist and tribal insurgencies for more than 50 years, is home to more than half of India's elephant population of 10,000.
Choudhury said the Assam government's protection of elephants over the last 20 years, including a ban on their capture, had spurred a rise in their population, to about 5,500 now.
Forest officials said wild elephants have killed at least 200 people and angry villagers have killed more than 100 elephants in Assam in the past couple of years.
asia.cnn.com
Data indicates Trekkies not weird
Wednesday, December 18, 2002 Posted: 10:19 AM EST (1519
GMT)
LONDON, England (Reuters) -- The crew of the Starship Enterprise have sprung to the defense of Trekkies -- No, they are not obsessive weirdos who need to get a life.
The message from Troi, Data and Captain Jean-Luc Picard was the same: stop being mean to Star Trek fans.
Captain Kirk, alias Hollywood Star William Shatner, poked gentle fun at the Trekkies in his book "Get A Life," mocking their meticulous attention to detail in the five television series and 10 Star Trek movies.
But Patrick Stewart, the bald-headed British classical actor who plays Captain Picard and bestrides the most famous bridge in space, was much more charitable about the Star Trek devotees. Stewart, in London for the premiere of "Star Trek Nemesis" and the launch of a new Star Trek Exhibition, did concede: "There are a tiny percentage of Star Trek fans who might be categorized as obsessive."
But he defended the vast majority who revel in one of cinema's longest-running and most successful franchises that has earned more than $1 billion at the box office. "I know fans who would not dream of missing an episode who are Vice Chancellors of Universities, internationally famous classical musicians, opera singers, celebrities, members of President Bush's cabinet, high-ranking members of the military," he told reporters. "These are not people that you would want to be apprehensive about. They are fascinating to meet."
The American actor Brent Spiner, who has portrayed the android Data for all seven seasons of the television series "Star Trek: The Next Generation," is equally loyal. "I think Trekkies get a really bad rap," he said. "For some reason, they have this reputation for being really peculiar. I don't think they are."
"At a Star Trek convention, there are 2,000 to 3,000 people and maybe about 25 who have uniforms and make-up on. The rest are just people who watch Star Trek and enjoy it. They are not anywhere so peculiar as football fans. Nobody ever gets hurt at a Star Trek convention," he added.
But when it comes to devotion to the fan base, English actress Marina Sirtis knows no equal as a convention regular. Sirtis, who portrays the half-human, half-Betazoid Commander Deanna Troi, said of the Trekkies: "They are very knowledgeable and ardent fans."
"I can't say anything bad against them," Sirtis said. "Because of them, I have a really nice house in Los Angeles, I drive a Porsche, I have nice clothes, I have my lovely American husband and all the bits that go with it." She added, "So I say 'God bless them for turning on their television sets every day.'"
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