ODDLY ENOUGH

ODDLY ENOUGH

New-York-to-Vegas rally nets speeding tickets and an arrest

DENVER

Colorado authorities say five drivers were ticketed and another was arrested for speeding during a luxury auto rally from New York City to Las Vegas.

The Colorado State Patrol says it received several complaints as the Bullrun Live Rally passed through Colorado last Wednesday.

Authorities say the driver who was arrested was going more than 40 mph over the speed limit of 65 mph near Idaho Springs on Interstate 70. The driver faces charges of reckless driving and excessive speed.

Trooper Heather Cobler says five other drivers were also ticketed and several others received warnings.

She says several of the cars in the rally had police scanners.

Former NBA star Dennis Rodman participated in the 2005 rally and was also ticketed for speeding in Colorado.

Liberian elephant rampages against timber company

MONROVIA, Liberia

The unlikeliest of activists — a rampaging elephant that residents claimed was supernaturally possessed — has aired rural Liberians’ frustrations with the country’s profitable timber industry.

The elephant killed a logging worker in June when it charged onto the local company’s property, and had also been known to menace other employees and local farmers in previous weeks.

This unlikely confluence of superstition, corporate activity and a big, mad, male elephant ended last week in a macabre draw, when logging officials killed the elephant after it killed the logging company employee.

But the dead elephant — which officials said Thursday was killed by sandwiching it between two industrial logging machines — trumpeted a growing unease between nature and industry in rural Liberia, a tiny West African country still struggling to recover from a 14-year civil war.

Residents said the elephant was possessed by human spirits and had channeled their frustrations into its rampages.

A local advocacy group says the logging industry decimates their forests while leaving no social development behind.

Timber is one of Liberia’s main exports and draws millions of dollars in foreign investment.

Elephants are endangered and protected in Liberia, but a forestry official said the animal had to be killed for residents’ safety.

In what appeared to be an attempt at reconciliation, officials have distributed elephant meat to residents there.

It was unclear whether residents ate the meat or not.

Associated Press