In this picture provided by the German police, a policeman carries an alligator they caught in Gross-Rohrheim, Germany Thursday July 1, 2010. Police have returned the alligator to its circus home after it escaped and was found loitering outside a motorcycle shop in the small German town. Police say they apprehended the one-meter (3-foot) reptile in Gross-Rohrheim, south of Frankfurt, after a caller reported spotting the creature in a town street in the early hours of Thursday. Officers took the creature into custody while they figured out where it had come from. (AP Photo/ddp/HO /Police)
BERLIN (AP) -(Mainichi Japan) July 2, 2010-
Police have returned an alligator to its circus home after it escaped and was found loitering outside a motorcycle shop in a small German town.
Police say they apprehended the one-meter (3-foot) reptile in Gross-Rohrheim, south of Frankfurt, after a caller reported spotting the creature in a town street in the early hours of Thursday.
Officers took the creature into custody while they figured out where it had come from.
Alligators are only native to the United States and China.
Astronaut John W. Young, commander of the Apollo 16 lunar landing mission, leaps from the lunar surface as he salutes the United States flag at the Descartes landing site during the first Apollo 16 extravehicular activity.
Astronaut Charles M. Duke Jr., lunar module pilot, took this picture. The Lunar Module "Orion" is on the left.
The Lunar Roving Vehicle is parked beside Orion and the object behind Young (in the shadow of the Lunar Module) is the Far Ultraviolet Camera/Spectrograph.
Stone Mountain dominates the background of this lunar scene.
(CNN) -- Humanitarian relief supplies carried by a flotilla of aid ships are finally arriving in Gaza, two months after a deadly confrontation at sea sparked an international response.
United Nations officials told CNN Thursday that the first truckloads of aid have entered Gaza. The rest of the cargo should be delivered in the weeks ahead.
May flotilla humanitarian aid arrives in Gaza by truckloads
The supplies are part of the cargo carried by the the flotilla, which sailed for Gaza in May. The six vessels in the convoy were stopped by Israeli commandos on May 31. Nine activists were killed after violence erupted on one of the ships, the Mavi Marmara.
Israel said its troops were attacked with knives, metal poles and other objects. But passengers on board the boat insist they were fired upon without provocation.
The incident triggered a wave of international condemnation of Israel and it's policies toward Gaza. It has also strained relations between Israel and Turkey, once Israel's strongest ally among Muslim countries.
Israel imposed the blockade after Hamas took over Gaza three years ago. Israeli authorities say the blockade is in place to stop weapons from reaching militants in Gaza who want to attack Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently announced an easing of the Gaza blockade. The changes include expanding operations at the existing land crossings, as well as streamlining the authorization process for international aid
groups the Israeli gov
ernment recognizes. The naval blockade remains in place.
Palestinian officials say the steps are an improvement but still insist that the blockade should be completely lifted
A date for a referendum on reform of the Westminster voting system will be announced next week
The London Evening Standard.,02.07.10
A date for a referendum on reform of the Westminster voting system will be announced next week, it has been confirmed - amid reports that the vote will be held in May next year.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg indicated that a statement on the timing of the public vote on a move to the alternative vote system was imminent.
The BBC reported that May 5, 2011 - the same day as local elections in England and Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly polls - had been chosen.
Agreement to a referendum on a switch from first-past-the-post to the alternative vote was a key Liberal Democrat demand for forming a coalition Government with the Tories.
Mr Clegg's party wants it to coincide with next year's elections to improve turnout.
But there are fears an early vote could prove highly damaging for the coalition as the Tories will campaign for a public "no" vote.
Mr Clegg has hailed the vote as a "once in a generation" chance to make voting fairer - though it falls well short of his party's long-held desire for proportional representation.
"I'm hoping to make an announcement literally in a couple of days, next week," he said when asked about the timing of the referendum.
Asked about the BBC report, a Government source said: "The date will be announced in due course when it is finalised. That is likely to be in the next week."
Police in the Pakistani city still investigating the source of a third blast that followed the two suicide bombs
Rescue workers carry a victim of a suicide bomb that went off at a shrine in Lahore. Photograph: Rahat Dar/EPA
At least two suicide bombers attacked a popular Muslim shrine in Pakistan's second largest city tonight, killing 35 people and wounding 175 others, the city's top official said.
The bombers struck as thousands of people were visiting the Data Darbar shrine, where a famous Sufi saint is buried. Muslims in Pakistan visit shrines and mosques in large numbers on Thursday and Friday nights.
Lahore has experienced a growing number of attacks as Taliban fighters along the north-west border with Afghanistan have teamed up with militant groups in the country's heartland once supported by the government.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. But Islamist extremists have often targeted Sufis, as well as Shias and other minority groups.
The first bomber detonated his explosives in a large underground room where visitors sleep and wash themselves before praying, said Khusro Pervez, the top government official in Lahore.
Minutes later, a second bomber detonated his explosives in a large courtyard upstairs as people tried to flee the first attack, he said.
The blasts ripped concrete from the walls, twisted metal gates and left wires hanging from the ceiling, television footage showed. Blood stained the shrine's white marble floor.
Police are still investigating the source of a third blast that followed the two suicide bombers. The heads of the two bombers have been found, said Pervez.
At least 25 of those wounded in the attacks are in critical condition.
Demonstrators gathered outside the shrine in the hours after the attack, protesting the security lapse that allowed the bombings to occur. Police fired into the air and threw rocks to disperse the protesters.
Lahore, the capital of Pakistan's most prosperous province, Punjab, and a key political, military and cultural centre, has been the scene of some of the most spectacular attacks in the country over the past year.
On 28 May, gunmen and a suicide squad lobbed grenades and sprayed bullets in attacks on two mosques in the eastern city packed with worshippers from the minority Ahmadi sect. At least 93 people were killed, and dozens wounded.
The government has been criticised for lacking the will to crack down on militants in the Punjab, many of whom are part of now-banned groups which started – with government support in the 1980s and 90s – to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan and pressurise India.
Many of these groups have formed links with the Pakistani Taliban, which has recruited militants to carry out attacks in parts of Pakistan far from its headquarters in the north-west.
One of the most high profile attacks in Lahore came in March 2009, when militants armed with rocket launchers, hand grenades and assault rifles attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team and security detail, killing six police and a driver and wounding seven players and a coach.
That assault led to the suspension ofTest and ODI matches in Pakistan.
In October 2009, teams of gunmen attacked three security facilities in Lahore, leaving 28 dead. In December 2009, two bombs killed 48 at a market in the city.
In this picture provided by the German police, a policeman carries an alligator they caught in Gross-Rohrheim, Germany Thursday July 1, 2010. Police have returned the alligator to its circus home after it escaped and was found loitering outside a motorcycle shop in the small German town. Police say they apprehended the one-meter (3-foot) reptile in Gross-Rohrheim, south of Frankfurt, after a caller reported spotting the creature in a town street in the early hours of Thursday. Officers took the creature into custody while they figured out where it had come from. (AP Photo/ddp/HO /Police)
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