Australian jail to be evacuated after mice plague

New South Wales: A plague of mice that has ravaged vast swathes of eastern Australia has forced the evacuation of a prison while authorities repair gnawed electrical wiring and clear dead and decaying mice from walls and ceilings.

Around 200 staff and 420 inmates will be transferred from the Wellington Correctional Centre in rural New

South Wales state to other prisons in the region during the next 10 days while cleaning and repairs take place, Corrective Services Commissioner Peter Severin said yesterday.

“The health, safety and wellbeing of staff and inmates is our number one priority so it’s important for us to act now to carry out the vital remediation work,” Mr Severin said.

Millions of mice have caused havoc in the graingrowing region of Australia’s most populous state for months, devouring crops and haystacks as well as invading homes, businesses, schools, hospitals and prisons.

Athens: A Greek helicopter pilot appeared in court in Athens on charges of premeditated murder over the death of his British wife, who authorities say he confessed to killing after claiming for more than a month that the woman had died during a brutal home robbery.

The 33-year-old Babis Anagnostopoulos arrived in court yesterday in Athens wearing a bulletproof vest and under heavy police guard.

He is accused of killing Caroline Crouch, 20, who died of suffocation on May 11 at the couple’s Athens home.

The pilot claimed armed robbers broke into their home at night, tying up and gagging him and his wife in their bedroom while their baby daughter slept. He had said the men stole cash before escaping.

Their baby was unharmed, but authorities said the family dog was found choked to death with its own leash.

Police investigators said analysis of data from a smartwatch worn by Ms Crouch helped reveal inconsistencies in the pilot’s account.

Colombo: Nearly a hundred carcasses of turtles with throat and shell damage, as well as a dozen dead dolphins and a blue whale, have washed ashore in Sri Lanka since a container ship burned and sank, raising fears of a severe marine disaster.

Ecologists believe the deaths were directly caused by the fire and release of hazardous chemicals while the Singapore-flagged X-press Pearl burned for 12 days and sank last week off Sri Lanka’s main port in the capital Colombo.

The fire started on the ship on May 20 and dead marine species started washing ashore days later.