SAN FRANCISCO — A Siberian tiger that mauled a zookeeper last year escaped from its pen at the San Francisco Zoo on Tuesday, killing one man and injuring two others before police shot it dead, authorities said.
The three men were in their 20s; they were together and were not zoo employees, San Francisco police spokesman Steve Mannina said.
They were attacked just after the 5 p.m. closing time outside the zoo’s Terrace Cafe on the east end of the 1,000-acre grounds.
It was unclear how the tiger, named Tatiana, escaped or how long it was on the loose. The zoo was evacuated immediately after the attack was reported.
Police arrived to find the tiger on top of one victim. The tiger then started moving toward a group of approaching police officers, and they opened fire with handguns, Mannina said.
Colorado: Lawsuit sparks outrage
People upset over a man who sued an 8-year-old boy and his father over a ski collision have subjected him and his wife to “an electronic tar and feathering,” their lawyer said. David Pfahler and Marlene Ambrogio left their Allentown, Pa., home because angry people tied up their phone lines with repeated, automated calls since news reports of the lawsuit, attorney Jim Chalat said Monday. The couple sued Scott Swimm of Vail and his father, Robb Swimm, in federal court in September. They said Scott, then 7, skied into Pfahler, 60, at Beaver Creek in January, requiring $35,000 surgery on a rotator cuff and clavicle. Robb Swimm contends his son “tapped” Pfahler’s ski boots and that it was not a violent crash.
Storm delivers white Christmas
A winter storm delivered a white Christmas to parts of the Midwest, causing some traffic accidents and flight delays but no major problems with fewer travelers taking to the roads and sky Tuesday. Denver saw up to 7 inches of snow, resulting in a handful of flight delays. United Airlines canceled about 50 flights in Denver and some in Chicago to catch up from delays caused by an earlier Midwest storm. Snow fell in parts of Wyoming, Minnesota and the Nebraska Panhandle, sometimes making travel difficult. By Tuesday afternoon the skies had cleared and winds diminished.
Nepal: Footbridge fails; 15 dead
A steel footbridge collapsed Tuesday in western Nepal under the weight of hundreds of people on their way to a fair, plunging scores about 100 feet into icy Himalayan waters. At least 15 were killed and more than 100 were missing and feared dead, officials said. Authorities believe some 500 people traveling to a village fair were crossing the Bheri River on the bridge when its support cables snapped under the weight, an official said, but hopes of finding more survivors in the treacherous mountain river were slim.
Turkey: 200 Kurdish targets hit
Turkish airstrikes and artillery have hit more than 200 Kurdish rebel targets in the mountains of northern Iraq since Dec. 16, killing hundreds of insurgents, the military said Tuesday. Up to 175 rebels were killed on Dec. 16 alone, the military said in a statement posted on its Web site. The military said other hideouts were hit in a cross-border airstrike on Saturday, followed by artillery fire. In Iraq, a Kurdish official said Turkey’s claims were exaggerated.
S. Korea: Cargo ship vanishes
Coast guard boats and helicopters searched Wednesday for 14 sailors feared dead in chilly waters off South Korea after their cargo ship was thought to have sunk in high seas. The ship, carrying 2,000 tons of nitric acid, went missing after it sent out a distress signal early Tuesday off Yeosu, 280 miles south of Seoul. One sailor was rescued but the remaining 14 crew members had yet to be located. The nitric acid on board was not likely to cause environmental damage because it easily dilutes, coast guard officials said.
Russia: New ballistic missile test
Russia’s military on Tuesday successfully test-fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads. The RS-24 missile was launched from the Plesetsk launch facility in northern Russia and its test warheads successfully hit designated targets on the Kamchatka Peninsula some 4,340 miles east, a Strategic Missile Forces spokesman said.
Indonesia: Landslides kill 59
Hours of heavy rain triggered landslides today that killed at least 59 people in western Indonesia, media reports said. The deaths occurred in several districts on the main island of Java after more than 12 hours of nonstop rain, said el-Shinta radio station, which put the death toll at 61. Metro TV said 59 people had died.
Egypt: Building death toll at 12
Rescue workers have pulled 12 bodies from the rubble of a 12-story building that collapsed in Egypt’s Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, the city police chief said Tuesday. Three people were rescued while 15 more are feared dead, Maj. Gen. Abdel-Meguid Selim told the Associated Press. On Monday, when the building collapsed, officials reported at least three dead. Rescue workers from Cairo and other nearby provinces with sniffing dogs were sent to search the site.
From Herald news services
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