A surfer has been killed in a savage shark attack off Australia’s west coast, the fifth such fatality in the region in less than a year.

JAKARTA An orangutan who became the star attraction of a zoo for her penchant for puffing on cigarettes is being forced to quit. Visitors began throwing lit cigarettes into the cage of 15-year-old Tori when she was five, and the orangutan developed an addiction over the years, Centre for Orangutan Protection coordinator Daniek Hendarto said. [...]

After much discussion, Bali is to get a second international airport, with work on the mega-project due to begin next year.

  Makeover: Jl Gaja Mada in Denpasar, beside Badung Market, is being paved, for the better enjoyment of pedestrians and improved ease of use of vehicles. The project is part of an overall improvement of Bali’s infrastructure, and follows a similar paving in Legian. Photograph by Juliyusman Sine/The Bali Times

By Anand Krishna “Death is imminent,” says Krishna to his friend and disciple Arjuna, and continues, “as also birth after death.” Life is not linear. Krishna perceives life as cyclical. “This span of life you are living now, Arjuna, is not the first or the last one. Neither shall the death you experience at the [...]

By S.BS. Surendran There was a time when we all lived connected to nature with a sense of deep gratitude for all that the bountiful Earth had given us. Living by the riverside, close to luscious woods, cultivating agricultural produce, breathing fresh, unpolluted air, it was a feeling of heaven on Earth, and no doubt [...]

The authorities in China’s remote northwestern region of Xinjiang have culled more than 150,000 chickens following an outbreak of bird flu. The outbreak of the H5N1 strain of avian flu initially killed 1,600 chickens and sickened about 5,500, the agriculture ministry said late early this week. In an effort to contain the disease, agricultural authorities [...]

The Mexican government declared a national animal health emergency this week in the face of an aggressive bird flu epidemic that has infected nearly 1.7 million poultry. More than half the infected birds have died or been culled, the agriculture ministry said of an epidemic that was confirmed on Friday by the UN’s Food and [...]