SHELLENG, Nigeria — A hippopotamus that killed two fishermen in Nigeria’s northeast has been shot dead, authorities said Tuesday, highlighting how ill-equipped Nigerian wildlife control officials are to protect both wildlife and the communities that surround them.
Local hunters killed the hippopotamus in the town of Shelleng on the bank of the Benue river last Sunday, said Babangida Jimeta, head of the hunters association of Adamawa State.
He said hunters were on the lookout for two other hippopotamuses that had turned violent in a sanctuary of about 200 hippopotamuses on Kiri dam.
State wildlife control officials, who gave permission for the hunters to hunt down the hippopotamus, said killing the animal was a last resort.
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NORTH PLATTE, Neb. — The Nebraska mother of two boys that police found locked in a dog kennel will serve two years of probation after pleading no contest to felony child abuse.
The North Platte Telegraph reported that 23-year-old Ashly Clark changed her plea on Monday as part of an agreement with prosecutors. Several other charges were dropped.
Prosecutors made deals with Clark and other defendants in the case after a judge ruled that some of what they told investigators could not be used as evidence.
Police say they found Clark’s two boys, ages 3 and 5 at the time, sleeping in a wired-shut kennel Oct. 24 inside a filthy trailer home littered with trash and feces.
Police were following up on a tip that four children in the home were living in an unsafe environment.
Police say Clark told officers she put the boys in the 30-by-42-inch kennel at night to keep them from climbing out of a window.
Neither Clark’s attorney nor Lincoln County prosecutors responded immediately to messages about the case Tuesday....
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NEW YORK — A state lawmaker canceled an event for women to learn ‘‘posture, deportment, and the feminine presence’’ on Tuesday after critics charged he was out of touch with the lives of working women.
Senator Marty Golden’s website said women from his Brooklyn district would be taught to ‘‘sit, stand, and walk like a model’’ and how to ‘‘walk up and down a stair elegantly’’ at the July 24 event.
The online newspaper City & State reported on the planned event after a reader who had received Golden’s mailing passed it along.
‘‘Have we stumbled into an episode of ‘Mad Men’?’’ the newspaper asked, referring to the television show about 1960s advertising executives.
A spokesman for Golden, a Republican, told City & State that the goal of the event was to help young women land jobs.
But after critics including a Senate colleague questioned the event, Golden canceled it without explanation.
Earlier Tuesday, state Senator Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat, said she sometimes feels as though she drives ‘‘three hours north and 50 years back in history’’ when she goes to the state capital, Albany.
‘‘Making sure that we walk correctly?’’ Krueger said. ‘‘If you’re a woman in the workforce, do you really think that this is an issue for 2012?’’
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