Widow not getting 6 exotic animals

Widow not getting 6 exotic animals

COLUMBUS

Six exotic animals that were among dozens freed by their suicidal owner and survived a big-game hunt by deputy sheriffs with shoot-to-kill orders will be kept under quarantine at a zoo for now instead of going to his widow, the state Department of Agriculture ordered Thursday.

The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium was trying to stop Marian Thompson from reclaiming three leopards, two primates and a young grizzly bear that have been cared for by the zoo since last week, when owner Terry Thompson mysteriously set them and other wild animals including tigers and lions free in a rural area of eastern Ohio. The other animals were killed by each other or by deputy sheriffs armed with high-powered rifles.

Poor clerk wins $1M on Indian game show

NEW DELHI

A poor government clerk from a desolate region of eastern India has become the first person to win $1 million on an Indian game show.

Sushil Kumar’s staggering win on the popular Indian version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” has transformed him into a role model for millions of aspiring youths yearning to escape from lives of poverty and find a role in India’s burgeoning economy.

His win echoes the plot of the 2008 Oscar-winning film “Slumdog Millionaire,” whose impoverished protagonist won the grand prize on the show.

UN votes to lift Libya no-fly zone

UNITED NATIONS

The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Thursday to lift the no-fly zone over Libya on Monday and end military action to protect civilians, acting swiftly after the death of Moammar Gadhafi and the interim government’s declaration of the country’s liberation.

The council authorized the actions March 17 in response to an Arab League request to try to halt Moammar Gadhafi’s military, which was advancing against rebels and their civilian supporters. The NATO bombing campaign that followed was critical in helping the rebels oust Gadhafi from power in August.

Texas man executed

HUNTSVILLE, Texas

Former San Antonio street-gang member Frank Garcia was executed Thursday evening for fatally shooting a veteran police officer who was trying to resolve a domestic dispute that also left Garcia’s wife dead.

Garcia, 39, shouted “Thank you Yahweh” over and over until he lost consciousness.

The lethal injection, the 12th this year in the nation’s most-active death-penalty state of Texas, came some 30 minutes after the U.S. Supreme Court turned down Garcia’s appeals.

Boy pulled alive from quake rubble

ERCIS, Turkey

Rescuers, working under floodlights, pulled a 13-year-old boy alive from the rubble of a collapsed apartment building early today, more than 100 hours after a massive earthquake leveled many buildings in eastern Turkey, killing at least 550 people.

A picture by the state-run Anatolia news agency showed a rescue team carrying Ferhat Tokay out of the debris, wearing a neck brace. In other pictures from a field hospital, he appeared to be conscious and looking at his rescuers.

18 die in Iraq blasts

BAGHDAD

A twin bombing killed 18 people Thursday in a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad — the deadliest attack to rock Iraq since President Barack Obama declared the full withdrawal of U.S. forces at the end of the year.

Two police officials said the first explosion, at a music store, killed two people. The second bomb struck four minutes later as rescue workers and others rushed to the scene, the officials said.

Associated Press