Ronaldo,Torres Up For Fifa Award

Manchester United midfielder Ronaldo and Liverpool striker Fernando Torres have been shortlisted for the Fifa World Player of the Year award.

United and Portugal winger Ronaldo, 23, scored 42 goals for his club last season and collected the European Player of the Year award on Sunday.

Torres scored 33 goals in his debut season for Liverpool and the winner for Spain in the final of Euro 2008.

Kaka of AC Milan and Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Xavi are also shortlisted.

Ronaldo finished third in voting last year, while Barcelona’s Messi, who inspired Argentina to Olympic gold, was runner-up to AC Milan playmaker Kaka.

The nominations were made by the coaches and captains of national teams from around the world. The award will be handed out on 12 January at the Zurich Opera House.

Russian Crowned Miss World Winner

Russian contestant Kseniya Sukhinova has won the Miss World 2008 competition at a ceremony in South Africa.

Trindad and Tobago’s Gabrielle Walcott was second runner-up and India’s Parvathay Omanakuttan was first runner-up, from among 109 contestants.

Millions of people were expected to watch the annual pageant, being held in Johannesburg.

It was the sixth time that South Africa has held the event, more than any other country except England.

South Africa organisers were said to be keen to calm concerns about the country’s ability to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

For this first time in the competition’s history, viewers in 180 countries had the opportunity to vote for one of the semi-finalists through the internet.

An international jury decided the winner.

Miss Sukhinova is from Siberia, studying for an engineering degree.

Elephants ‘Die Earlier In Zoos’,Shock Report

A new study comparing wild, captive and working elephants has found that living in zoos can significantly shorten the animals’ lives.

Writing in the journal Science, researchers say obesity is a major cause of death in adult zoo elephants.

They also cite stress as the key factor in the death of young captive animals when they are moved from zoo to zoo.

They say ideally zoos should not take on new elephants if they cannot provide suitable environments.

Still births

The study focused on the lives of female elephants, comparing more than 4,500 individuals. The researchers looked at wild elephants in Kenya’s Ambosseli National Park, working elephants in the Burmese logging industry, and zoo elephant populations in Europe.

For African elephants, the average lifespan in captivity was only 19 years compared with 56 years in the wild.

Rates of mortality amongst zoo-born Asian elephants were two to three times higher than for those born in the logging camps.

Ros Clubb from Britain’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) says diet and lifestyle are the key factors influencing elephant lifespan in zoos.

“The vast majority are overweight in zoos, this could explain the high still-birth rates and why they’re dying early. Bigger mothers have bigger calves and more of these are still-born,” she said.

Early death was also more likely to occur in captive animals born in the wild or transferred between zoos. Dr Clubb says this is probably caused by the stress of being taken away from their herd, mothers or family group.

“In the wild they live in large stable groups, separation does cause stress; we know this from studies of other species,” she said.

Working elephants

Khyune Mar, now at the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at Sheffield University, used to work for Myanma Timber Enterprise, the commercial arm of Burma’s forest ministry.

The company uses elephants to haul logs from the forests. Analysis of the lives of these working Asian elephants was based on data Dr Mar collected in Burma.

She says their longer life expectancy – more than 40 years compared with less than 19 in zoo elephants – can be put down to their lifestyle; for half the time the Burmese working elephants are allowed to act naturally.

“We keep working elephants in the workforce for no more than six to eight hours a day. For the remaining hours we let them loose in the forest, they live like wild elephants, they can meet and mate with wild elephants, they have a full elephant life, good exercise and good food,” she said.

Dr Mar says there are lessons from the treatment of these working elephants that could be taken on board by zoos.

“They have a very monotonous lifestyle, every day is the same for zoo elephants, they have to live in the same compound, with limited roaming, this makes them more stressed,” she said.

“They need a huge home range, more systematic enrichment, bigger compounds, grooming areas, mud wallows, hills.”

She says its important to allow them the freedom to behave naturally and has a straightforward message for zoos.

“If the zoo does not have space, its simple – don’t take elephants.”

The report’s authors say transfers of elephants between zoos should be avoided, calves should be kept with their mothers for as long as possible to avoid stress-related death, and there should be regular screening for signs of obesity.

UK zoos

A separate study looking in detail at all the elephants in UK zoos has found significant health problems and evidence of widespread psychological distress.

Researchers from Bristol University studied 77 animals in 13 zoos and found that almost half of the elephants displayed abnormal behaviour.

This included repeatedly swaying the trunk, pacing backwards and forwards and retracing their steps over and over again.

“Some of the animals were born in the zoos and must have developed it there,” said Chris Sherwin, from Bristol University’s Department of Veterinary Science.

“It’s possibly their way of coping with stress, but almost certainly indicates they’re in an environment which is inappropriate for their needs. This is not behaviour you see in the wild.”

The report says unless the animals’ health and psychological suffering can be addressed, the ethics of keeping elephants in zoos must be questioned.

“In my opinion, given the correct housing and care it would be ethically acceptable to keep a few elephants in a few zoos, but certainly not the numbers we have in all the zoos we have now,” Dr Sherwin added.

The Zoos Forum, the UK government’s independent advisers on zoos, will consider the new findings and report to the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) within six months.

US Man Uses Pizza In Self-Defence

A Florida pizza delivery man who was challenged by armed robbers in the city of Miramar got in first with his own weapon – a large pepperoni pizza.

Eric Lopez Devictoria, 40, flung the piping hot pizza at the gunman, then turned on his heels and ran.

He made a safe getaway, according to the Florida Sun-Sentinel, despite one shot being fired as he fled.

Police later arrested three teenage suspects, who have been charged with armed robbery.