odds ’n’ ends
BEAVER, Utah:
Two girls are recovering from a lightning strike after their dog brought help to the mountainside scene in Utah.
Authorities say the girls, ages 8 and 16, were crossing a meadow to explore during a family camping trip when the lightning hit Friday morning.
The Beaver County Sheriff’s Office says the dog ran back to the campsite and alerted family members. They followed the dog back to the unconscious girls.
The Deseret News reports that a Utah Department of Public helicopter that happened to be in the area for a biological study flew the girls to a hospital.
The 8-year-old suffered critical injuries, and the 16-year-old suffered serious injuries.
They were later flown to hospitals in Salt Lake City, about 200 miles (321 kms) north of Beaver. (AP)
ISTANBUL:
An international animal welfare charity was on Friday completing the evacuation of a dozen animals stranded in a neglected zoo in the conflict-torn Aleppo province of northern Syria.
The Four Paws group was seeking to move two lions and two domestic dogs from the “Magic World” zoo and amusement park in Syria over the border into Turkey and then to an animal protection centre in the north of the country, a spokesman for the charity told AFP.
The convoy with the animals crossed the Syria-Turkey border late Friday and was now on their way to the animal protection facility in Karacabey, outside the northwestern Turkish city of Bursa, said spokesman Martin Bauer.
In an initial operation, Four Paws said it had on July 21 evacuated nine animals — three lions, two tigers, two Asian black bears and two hyenas — from the “neglected” Magic World. (AFP)
ALBUQUERQUE, NM:
A 115-year-old desert tortoise that disappeared from its garden at a New Mexico senior living community was returned.
The Albuquerque Journal reports the tortoise, Diablo, was returned Friday to Manzano del Sol Village. He had ventured to the backyard of a nearby home after a family bought the shellwearing wanderer from kids at a local park.
Millie Tjeltweed, who owns Diablo, says she doesn’t know the circumstances of the tortoise’s disappearance.
Tjeltweed says the family that purchased Diablo called the senior living community after seeing a news report on the tortoise’s disappearance. Tjeltweed and some administrators from the facility went over to the home, and Tjeltweed was able to verify that it was her pet of 35 years. (AP)