Texas man injured as bullet ricochets off armadillo

A man from Texas has been wounded after a bullet he fired at an armadillo ricocheted and hit him in the head, the local sheriff says.

The shooting incident took place in the Marietta area of East Texas.

Three shots were fired and at least one ricocheted off the shell.

The gunman was treated for a minor injury to the jaw, USA Today reports, but the small armoured creature has not been found and its fate remains unclear.

Cass County Sheriff Larry Rowe told Reuters that the shooter opened fire in the early hours of Thursday morning when he spotted the armadillo on his property.

"He went outside and took his .38 revolver and shot three times at the armadillo," Mr Rowe said.

"Karmadillo!" tweeted the comedian and animal rights supporter Ricky Gervais.

Thursday's incident is not the first armadillo bullet deflection to end in a human wounding in the southern United States in recent months.

In April a Georgia man injured his mother-in-law when a bullet ricocheted off an armadillo, "hit a fence, went through the back door of his mother-in-law's mobile home, through a recliner she was sitting in, and into her back," local TV station WALB News reported.

The armadillo was killed

Chinese regulators admit making inexperienced mistakes in share crash

PHOTO: Investor and regulator inexperience is being blamed for a Chinese extremely volatile share markets

Chinese officials have admitted that inexperience hampered their attempts to deal with the turmoil on the country's share markets over recent weeks.

Chinese regulators have told a financial forum in Sydney that China needs to improve its share market regulation after a sell-off that saw around $US4 trillion wiped off the value of Chinese stocks since mid-June.

The comments were made at the first regional conference of the Boao Forum for Asia, a China-based conference set up after the Asian financial crisis, holding its latest meeting in Sydney.

Among the high-profile attendees, former World Trade Organisation head Pascal Lamy addressed the forum on the impact of the global financial crisis.

"We all have to recognise that this big '08 crisis started because of a lack of proper international regulation," he said.

"Since then, I think, some progress has been done. Where improvements should take place, at least if you compare it to the trade side, is in the quality of institutions."

Also on the agenda was integrating Asia's financial systems with the rest of the world.

Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens said an opening up of China's financial markets could see $400 billion a year in investment in and out of the country.

"The size of the potential capital flows here may be very large. It's very hard to predict," he said.

"They could end up being something of the order of $US 400 billion a year which is a sizeable proportion actually of global capital flows of a portfolio nature.

"If that happens, and I don't know if it will, but if such flows did happen, it's going to be very important that the depth and the quality of financial markets in Asia, in China and around the rest of Asia, continues to develop.

"That's a big challenge but one worth meeting.

China is considering more financial reforms, such as relaxations on interest rates and fewer restrictions on the flow of money overseas.

However, Chinese regulators at the conference also acknowledged that some investors got caught in the recent share market rout because they did not see the risks of share market investing and more investor education is needed.

One official told the forum that authorities were inexperienced in handling the market volatility.

Zhang Xiaohui, assistant governor of the People's Bank of China (PBoC), China's central bank, argued that the country needs to improve its financial system regulation to prevent risks.

Coast Guard Suspends Search for Missing Teen Fishermen

Coast Guard Suspends Search for Missing Teen Fishermen

Perry Cohen (L) and Austin Stephanos, both 14 years old.

The families will press ahead with a private search

(OPA-LOCKA, Fla.)—After hundreds of rescue workers fanned out across a massive swath of the Atlantic for a full week, the Coast Guard’s search for two teenage fishermen ended Friday, a heart-rending decision for families so convinced the boys could be alive they’re pressing on with their own hunt.

The agency said it ended the search at sunset, as it had announced earlier in the day. The Coast Guard searched waters from South Florida up through South Carolina without success.

Even as officials announced at noon that the formal search-and-rescue effort would end at sundown, private planes and boats were preparing to keep scouring the water hoping for clues on what happened to the 14-year-old neighbors, Perry Cohen and Austin Stephanos.

Capt. Mark Fedor called the decision to suspend the search “excruciating and gut-wrenching.” He suggested what long had been feared by observers — that the boys had surpassed any reasonable period of survivability — with his offering of “heartfelt condolences.”

“I know no statistics will ease the pain,” he said in recounting the seven-day, nearly 50,000-square-nautical-mile search. “We were desperate to find Austin and Perry.”

With volunteers ready to keep searching all along the coastline and about $340,000 in search-fund donations by Friday evening, the families promised to keep looking for their sons.

Nick Korniloff, the stepfather of Perry, addressed a horde of media outside his home on a quiet street in Tequesta, Florida, saying air searches led by private pilots would go on alongside new efforts led by former members of the military and others with special training.

“We know there’s a window here and we think there’s an opportunity,” he said, “and we will do everything we can to bring these boys home.”

Those who have met with the families believe the private search could go on at least for weeks.

“How could you go back to normal?” said Tequesta Police Chief Christopher Elg, who has stayed in regular contact with the families. “They may very well devote a large portion of the next few weeks, months, maybe even years just toward hope and doing what they can to bring themselves a sense of peace.”

The Coast Guard had dispatched crews night and day to scan the Atlantic for signs of the boys. They chased repeated reports of objects sighted in the water, and at times had the help of the Navy and other local agencies. But after the boys’ boat was found overturned Sunday, no useful clues turned up.

The families had held out hope that items believed to have been on the boat, including a large cooler, might be spotted, or that the teens might even have clung to something buoyant in their struggle to stay alive. Even as hope dimmed, experts on survival said finding the teens alive was still possible. The Coast Guard said it would keep on searching until officials no longer thought the boys could be rescued.

The saga began July 24, when the boys took Austin’s 19-foot boat on what their families said was expected to be a fishing trip within the nearby Loxahatchee River and Intracoastal Waterway, where they were allowed to cruise without supervision. The boys fueled up at a local marina around 1:30 p.m. and set off, and later calls to Austin’s cellphone went unanswered. When a line of summer storms moved through and the boys still couldn’t be reached, police were called and the Coast Guard search began.

The boys grew up on the water, constantly boated and fished, worked at a tackle shop together and immersed themselves in life on the ocean. Their families said they could swim before they could walk. They clung to faith in their boys’ knowledge of the sea, even speculating they might have fashioned a raft and spear to keep them afloat and fed while adrift.

“It is a mother’s prayer that you will be safe and sound in our arms today,” Austin’s mother, Pamela Cohen, tweeted Friday. “Missing you both more than you could ever imagine.”

Many unknowns about the boys’ status persisted throughout the ordeal, including whether they were wearing life jackets and whether they had food or water. The Coast Guard said it tried to err toward optimism in deciding how long to press on.

Along the way, some suggested the teens shouldn’t have been allowed to boat on their own. Many others, though, voiced support, saying voyages with set boundaries are normal among boating families, and that the parents had no control over what ultimately happened.

Locals turned out night after night for vigils, poured money into the private search fund, used their own boats and planes and walked the coastline in pursuit of any little clue that might make a break. The efforts got an early boost from a high-profile neighbor of the families, NFL Hall of Famer Joe Namath, who helped garner publicity for the story.

Shell braces for extended low oil prices with mass job cuts

PHOTO: Shell has announced a large cutback in exploration and development spending. 

Global energy giant Royal Dutch Shell is sacking 6,500 of its workers as the lower price for crude oil bites into its profits.

Shell's quarterly profit dived by almost 40 per cent because of the oil slump and, with the oil price set to remain low, it has slashing capital spending by another $US3 billion.

The action by Shell comes as it seeks to convince investors it can withstand a long period of lower oil prices, with its planned purchase of BG Group yet to be approved.

Matthew Beesley, head of global equities of Henderson Global Investors, told AM that the Shell job cuts represent 7 per cent of its entire workforce.

"They are very keen to signal to investors that should oil prices stay at these low levels, currently below $US50, then there's more they can do in terms of job cuts, more they can do in terms of cost cuts and more they can do in terms of capital expenditure reduction," Mr Beesely said from London.

"Shell, in trying to buy BG, are making a bet that oil prices are going to go higher, so for them it's important in advance of a completing the acquisition that they get their own house in order so they can weather lower prices if indeed we are in an environment where prices are lower for longer."

Mr Beesley believes the jobs losses are likely to extend beyond staff directly employed by Shell.

"I think that's inevitable. There will be cuts from the contracting work phase too and, on top of that, Shell is looking to acquire BG and you have to think that most of the white-collar workforce at BG will be vulnerable too," Mr Beesley added.

Shell's proposed acquisition of BG Group is now more important than ever given bets that the boom in demand for LNG might offset a lower crude oil price.

"The Curtis Island project in Queensland is a project that is ramping up now, and is a key part of the attraction for Shell in acquiring BG," Mr Beesley said.

"It will give Shell in total the best part of a third of the global LNG market by the time we get out to 2018.

"Of course for them to make the amount of money that they hope to make out of this business, they will need oil prices and gas prices to be higher."

The job cuts at Shell follow a record $US1.05 billion quarterly loss posted by fellow energy giant Peabody Energy.

Total coal volumes were down 8.5 per cent in the June quarter prompting Peabody to write down its coal portfolio by $US901 million.

Landslides triggered by torrential rain near Nepal's popular Annapurna trek route kill at least 30

PHOTO: Rescuers search for victims of the landslide at Lumle village in Kaski district. 

Landslides triggered by torrential rain in Nepal have swept through villages, killing at least 30 people close to the nation's most popular trekking circuit, home ministry officials have said.

The landslides struck the villages near the resort town of Pokhara, 125 kilometres west of Kathmandu, shortly after midnight on Thursday.

In the village of Lumle about half of the homes were buried or destroyed by a torrent of mud and rocks.

"I heard a big demonic sound, I thought it was an earthquake," said Kabi Ram BK, a 64-year-old farmer whose daughter and granddaughter were killed when the landslide smashed into their home.

Soldiers and policemen, working in heavy rain, used shovels to search missing villagers.

"Over 200 of our personnel are still working at the site to search and rescue," Kaski police chief Kedar Rajaure said.

At least 13 bodies have been recovered from the village.

Lumle is about 15 kilometres from the start of the Annapurna Circuit, a hiking route around the world's 10th tallest mountain that attracts about 100,000 tourists a year.

Two powerful earthquakes in Nepal this year that killed almost 9,000 people have raised the risk of landslides across the mountainous country during the rainy season, which lasts from June to September.

Heavy monsoon rains have also caused flooding and fatalities across northern India in recent days.

Snoop Dogg Stopped by Italian Customs With $422,000 in Cash

Snoop Dogg Stopped by Italian Customs With $422,000 in Cash

Snoop Dogg performs onstage during his headline show at the end of day one of Y Not Festival at Pikehall on July 31, 2015 in Matlock, England.

Half the money was taken by authorities

(MILAN)—Snoop Dogg has had another run-in with European authorities.

Italian financial police said they stopped the rapper at the Lamezia Terme airport in Calabria on Saturday with $422,000 in cash, well above the limit that can legally be transported across EU borders undeclared. The incident comes less than a week after Snoop Dogg was briefly stopped in Sweden on suspicion of drug use after a concert near Stockholm.

Financial police confirmed a report by the Italian news agency ANSA that half of the cash was impounded under Italian anti-money laundering codes. In such cases, the balance is returned minus any fine set by magistrates.

Travelers within the European Union are required to declare 10,000 euros ($11,000) or more in cash.

Snoop Dogg played in Calabria Friday night, and is scheduled to perform Sunday at the Kendal Calling Festival in England.

Last weekend in Sweden, the rapper was questioned and tested for suspected drug use north of the capital. Authorities said test results would not be available for some time

Ebola vaccination trial success in Guinea holds hope for end to deadly outbreak of virus

The world is on the verge of being able to protect humans against the Ebola virus as a trial in Guinea finds a vaccine to have been 100 per cent effective, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.

Initial results from the trial, which tested Merck and NewLink Genetics' VSV-ZEBOV vaccine on some 4,000 people who had been in close contact with a confirmed Ebola case, showed complete protection after 10 days.

The results were described as "remarkable" and "game changing" by global health specialists.

"We believe that the world is on the verge of an efficacious Ebola vaccine," WHO vaccine expert Marie Paule Kieny said during a briefing in Geneva.

The vaccine could now be used to help end the worst recorded outbreak of Ebola, which has killed more than 11,200 people in West Africa since it began in December 2013.

WHO director-general Margaret Chan said the results would "change the management of the current Ebola outbreak and future outbreaks".

The Gavi Alliance, which buys vaccines in bulk for poor countries who struggle to afford them, immediately said it would back an Ebola shot once it was approved.

"These communities need an effective vaccine sooner rather than later," Gavi chief executive Seth Berkley said.

"We need to be ready to act wherever the virus is a threat."

This and other vaccine trials had been fast-tracked with huge international effort as researchers raced to test potential therapies and vaccines while the virus was still circulating.

"It was a race against time and the trial had to be implemented under the most challenging circumstances," said John-Arne Rottingen of Norway's Institute of Public Health, chair of the trial's steering group.