Tiger in Chinese zoo kills gardener
A zoo gardener is believed to have climbed over a fence at a zoo on Thursday, then fell into the tiger’s pen where he was mauled and died before help could save him, zoo officials in South China’s Shenzhen city said.
The 54-year-old gardener, Sheng Jinhua, was found in the tiger’s pen in Shenzhen Safari Park at about 2: 45 pm. Zookeepers called police and an ambulance before they drove a vehicle into the pen to intervene, but it was too late.
Doctors arriving at the park declared Sheng had died from severe bite wounds.
Zoo officials said Sheng, who started work at the zoo in July on a two-year contract, violated safety rules when he climbed over the fence. Police are investigating the death.
Liu Xiang regains honor at Daegu worlds
Three years after his sudden withdrawal from the Beijing Olympic Games, China’s star hurdler Liu Xiang regained honor after dramatically taking silver at the IAAF World Championships in Daegu on Monday night.
Dayron Robles of Cuba hit the finishing line first in 13.14 seconds but was disqualified of his mark and the title for disruption of the event after the Chinese team made an appeal.
Cuba made a protest, but was rejected by the organizers.
The medal for U.S. emerging star Jason Richardson who ran in 13.16 was changed from silver to gold.
The silver was awarded to Liu who clocked 13.27 as his blistering pace slowed down after the hand contacts with the neighboring Robles.
In spite of missing the chance to step on the top podium, Liu believed he had proved his competitiveness and recovery, both physically and mentally, from the nightmare-like injury that forced him out of the Beijing Games.
“I felt like someone touched my elbow and I lost my balance for a while but then I managed to recover,” said Liu.
“It happens all the time in the competitions. I am OK with everything that happened today and this is a legacy to me. I tried my best (and got) no regret.”
Liu also said he didn’t care much about the color of the medal.
Liu winced in pain and limped off the track during the men’s 110m hurdles first heat at the Beijing Games, leaving the 60,000-plus spectators at the Bird’s Nest stadium and millions of home audience watching in front of television in shock.
But Liu claimed one day after his withdrawal that he would run even faster when he fully recovered from the tendon injury. And in the following three years he gave himself all out trying to carry out his words.
After a 13-month absence during which he received a surgery on his right Achilles tendon in the United States in December 2008, Liu returned to competition in style by finishing second in 13.15 at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix on Sept. 20, 2009.
From then on, the 2004 Olympic champion continued to claimed titles in the Chinese National Games and the Asian Championships in 2009, as well as the Asian Games in 2010.
After clocking a decent 13.09 seconds to win the gold medal at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, the still confident but more mature Liu set his eyes on the worlds and Olympics.
Striving to return to his peak form, Liu adopted to a new technique of approaching the first hurdle with seven steps instead of eight this season, which proved effective in his recent races.
He beat American David Oliver with a winning time of 13.07 seconds to claim the title in the Shanghai Diamond League this May, the first race after he switched to the new technique. And Liu clocked his after-injury personal best of 13.00 at the Prefontaine Classic meeting in Eugene in June.
Now with the World Championship silver in hand, Liu should be more confident. He has shown his quality in his first Championship final clash with world’s top runners — Robles, this year’s fastest man David Oliver of the United States, and the rising star Richardson.
If Liu could make good use of the one year time left ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games to improve his new technique and keep away from further injuries, the rise of an even faster Liu in London will not be a “mission impossible.”
Panasonic has announced the release of two new fixed lens superzoom Lumix cameras in its FZ Range. Both the new FZ150 and FZ47 feature 24x optical zoom, creative controls, a 25mm Leica lens and Full HD AVCHD recording.
Both cameras have 12.1-megapixel sensors: the FZ150 is MOS while the FZ47 is CCD. The FZ150 also includes Panasonic’s Light Speed Auto Focus, which is listed as being “around 0.1 seconds”.Both cameras include Creative Controls, which allow users to experiment with different imaging themes on the camera. This is a particularly popular feature at the moment, with Canon and Olympus both also heavily promoting creative filters.
The new Panasonic models include the following controls: Expressive, Retro, High Key, Sepia, High Dynamic, Film Grain, Pin Hole and Miniature Effect.In addition to Full HD recording, these cameras also enable users to take still images, at 3.5-megapixels, while recording movies.
“These models are a step up from the successful FZ100 and FZ40,” said Panasonic Lumix group marketing manager, Alistair Robins. “They offer popular features such as Full HD AVCHD recording and a Leica lens as well as excellent creative control modes in both still and movie recording, and with a faster response time you will never miss that photo opportunity.”
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