High school student struck in head by express train on 4 and 5 line while entering Union Square

Adrian Rodriguez, 18 from the Bronx, was struck and injured by a subway train today while he was on the platform at Union Square

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An award-winning teen chef was fighting for his life last night after he collapsed on a Union Square subway platform and a downtown train slammed into his head, officials said.

Adrian Rodriguez, a favorite of students and teachers at Marta-Valle High School, was rushed to Bellevue Hospital with serious head injuries after the 7:50 a.m. accident.

"I love that boy," said Cliftonia Johnson, 47, a member of the staff at the lower East Side school. "He's absolutely one of my favorites. Wonderful, wonderful person."

A witness told police the teen appeared pale as he walked along the platform — and then either fainted or fell and was clipped by the southbound No. 5 train.

The gruesome accident spattered blood on the platform, while disrupting morning rush hour service for about 90 minutes. Rodriguez was knocked backward on the platform and did not fall to the tracks.

Authorities said he was in serious condition at Bellevue.

Word of the tragedy spread quickly through the school, where the 18-year-old Bronx resident was known as a top chef, top student and all-around nice guy.

Investigators look over the platform where a passenger was struck by a train while on the downtown bound 4,5, and 6 train platform at Union Square Station.

"They call him Obama, 'cause he's always wearing suits," said fellow senior Jeanae Jones, 17, of Fort Greene. "If he's not in his normal suit, he's in his chef suit and hat, ready to cook."

Student Laura Cuautle, 17, said classmates became worried when Rodriguez didn't appear for their culinary class. Their fears grew when a distressed teacher suddenly bolted from the classroom.

"He's always at cooking class, and always early, so we were worried," Cuautle said.

"He was very friendly and respectful. He liked to talk a lot. He was always helping the principal; he was a really good student."

Rodriguez won the Careers through Culinary Arts Program junior competition last year, and was prepping for a shot at a scholarship to the prestigious Culinary Institute of America.

"He was cool," said junior Raheem Devenish, 16, of Crown Heights. "He knows what he wants, and he was going to go out and get it."

Kwame Onwuachi was a mentor to the young chef and hired Rodriguez as an intern with his new business, Coterie Catering.

"It’s so sad," said Onwuachi, 21, of Harlem. "He definitely had a bright future, and I hope he still does. He's one of those that does good all the time. He's a great student."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/04/01/2011-04-01_commuter_struck_in_head_by_express_train_on_4_and_5_line_while_entering_union_st.html#ixzz1IS2TYV4S

Dog saved from floating home 3 weeks after tsunami Japanese coast guard spotted animal on island of debris out to sea

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Cats doing Pat a Cake! lol

Dolphin rescued from rice field 12 days after tsunami

TOKYO — A baby dolphin has been rescued in Japan after being dumped in a rice field by a giant tsunami that hit the coast on March 11.
The dolphin was spotted in the flooded field, about a mile from the coast, said Ryo Taira, a pet-shop owner who has been rescuing animals abandoned after the 9.0 magnitude quake and tsunami left 23,000 people dead or missing.
"A man passing by said he had found the dolphin in the rice paddy and that we had to do something to save it," the 32-year-old Taira told Reuters.
Taira found the dolphin struggling in the shallow seawater on Tuesday and after failing to net it, waded in to the field, which had yet to be sown with rice, to cradle the four foot animal in his arms.

Japanese pet shop owner Ryo Taira rescues a young finless porpoise from a flooded rice paddy. The small cetacean was brought inland by the huge tsunami waves that inundated the area on March 11.

"It was pretty weak by then, which was probably the only reason we could catch it," he said.
Taira and some friends wrapped the dolphin in wet towels and drove it back to the sea, where they set it free. The dolphin appeared to perk up when it was back in the Pacific, he said.
"I don't know if it will live, but it's certainly a lot better than dying in a rice paddy," Taira told the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.

Man's forehead removed by surgeons after sickening drunken attack by 16-year-old thug

The victim of a drunken teenage yob had a huge part of his skull removedafter a 'murderous' attack left him close to death

Steven Cloak was targeted while walking home in Bideford, Devon, for looking at a 16-year-old 'in the wrong way' and was left with shocking head injuries.

Thug Jack Hobbs now face 10 years in prison for inflicting the savage beating, the results of which were deemed so severe as to be prejudicial if shown to the jury in his court case.

However, he was found guilty of grievous bodily harm with intent leading to the judge lifting a ban on his identification.

Mr Cloak, who had a titanium plate inserted where his skull was removed, is recovering from the ordeal at his home in Bideford, North Devon.

The court heard how Hobbs had been downing sambuca and beer with friends on the streets of his home town in the early hours of the morning in February.

Trial judge Philip Wassall remanded Hobbs in custody until he is sentenced early next year but warned him he faces 'a substantial custodial sentence'.

And Judge Wassall described the incident as 'a murderous attack' where Hobbs 'kicked this prone and injured man on the floor'.

He ordered reports including one from a psychiatrist because the judge believes Hobbs is an 'unassessed risk'.

Hobbs claimed in court that Mr Cloak - a total stranger to him - had nudged into him outside a takeaway shop in Bideford.

He has no memory of the incident or of the previous months of his life and did not give evidence in court because he has no recall.

His family said: 'He is the one with a life sentence. Steven doesn't have a violent bone in his body, he is so laid back he is horizontal.'

Meanwhile Hobbs who denied a charge of unlawfully and maliciously wounding grievous bodily harm during his trial at Exeter Crown Court, is facing the prospect of years behind bars after being convicted.

He had been drinking beer and sambuca with a gang of his friends but told a jury that 'personally, I was not drunk'.

Giving evidence, he said: 'There was a barge, that was it with Steven Cloak. The barge was quite forceful. It appeared to be Mr Cloak. I looked at him and that was it.

'I had never seen him before.'

He said afterwards: 'I noticed him, appearing to be looking at me, it was an intimidating look. I went to confront him.'

Mr Cloak was a regular at the takeaway after going out to see friends, and Hobbs lied as he tried to claim he acted in self defence as he followed and then confronted Mr Cloak who was holding his bag of food.

Hobbs told the jury: 'It seemed like he threw a punch at me... I did not see a fist. I thought he was going to hit me.'

He also claimed he only hit him once and said he went back to check on his victim - using his foot to move his head.

But key witnesses said Hobbs kicked Mr Cloak as he lay 'motionless and unconscious' on the road.

Prosecutor David Evans said it was the second punch that felled Mr Cloak whose had hit the pavement with a 'sickening crack'.

Mr Evans said: 'The sad truth is this 16-year-old was fired up, in drink, and playing the hardman.' He described the self-defence claim as 'ludicrous'.

After the vicious attack, around 500 protesters marched through the streets of the North Devon town to 'reclaim' it from anti social behaviour in Steven's name following the horrific assault.

His upset family said: 'He cannot remember what happened that night or for several months before it happened. It is as though he had blotted it out of his life.

'He just wants to get a job and move forward. We have been through all this because someone thought he had been given a look.'

Detective Constable Martin Pearse of Bideford CID said: 'This was a completely unprovoked and mindless act of violence which could easily, and very nearly, resulted in a death.

'Hobbs has now been found guilty and I hope that Steven and his family can now concentrate on rebuilding their lives and start looking towards the future.'

The detective also praised the quick thinking witnesses who dialled 999 who helped save Steven's life as the emergency services were on the scene within three minutes.

A RAF helicopter from nearby Chivenor airlifted Steven to a specialist head injury unit at Plymouth's Derriford Hospital where he spent a month being treated - and where surgeons removed part of his skull days later.

A friend said: 'Steven has had a hell of a year. He is recovering really well but what better Christmas present could he have than someone gives him a job to get him well and truly back on his feet.'

Then the spotty-faced teenager told police that Mr Cloak then 'looked at him' - and he followed him before confronting him just yards from the safety of the victim's home.

Hobbs, from Bideford, punched jobless factory worker Mr Cloak twice and felled him to the road - but he banged his head on the ground and suffered massive head and brain injuries.

The yob then returned to kick stricken Mr Cloak in the head - before running away telling his gang of friends to keep silent about what he had done.

The teenage thug, now 17, raced home and put his blood stained training shoes and clothes in the washing machine - but forensic scientists found tiny traces of Mr Cloak's blood on both his shoes.

At the scene, the callous teen had paused to wipe blood off the shoes before he fled into the night.

Some of his friends, disgusted at what he had done to an innocent man, gave evidence against him as he tried to say he is was acting in self defence.

Mr Cloak suffered massive head wounds and a fractured jaw and eye socket.

NYC woman lured over CraigsList to New Hampshire home where man raped, imprisoned her

A New Hampshire town official was charged with abducting and raping a New York City woman lured to his lakefront home by the promise of a fresh start in a new town.

Jeffrey Gray, who avoided arrest for two weeks by checking himself into a veterans' hospital, was jailed Thursday on charges of kidnapping, rape, false imprisonment and assault.

The elected planning board member attacked the 34-year-old victim after responding to her craigslist ad, where she was seeking a new home in New England, authorities charged.

Gray, 48, convinced the woman to visit his rented Windham, N.H., home on March 5. Police said she was instead taken captive, raped and held for three days before Gray drove her to Boston's Logan International Airport.
Instead of boarding a plane on March 9, the victim approached a state trooper and detailed her terrifying stay at Gray's lakefront home in a quiet town of 15,000.

The suspect, who was arraigned by video on Wednesday from the Rockingham County jail, has a rap sheet that includes criminal threatening and criminal mischief.

There were also several restraining orders filed against him - including one filed by an ex-girlfriend who claimed Gray threatened her and her children, local court officials said.
The unsuspecting woman came to Windham after a computer conversation with Gray about her search for a new home. She was later treated for minor injuries at Massachusetts General Hospital and released.

Landlord Kevin Bleeker, who rented the house to Gray, was distraught over the allegations.

"I thought he was pretty reputable," Bleeker said. "I should have done a background check. I would have found he had a long history of problems with women."



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/03/31/2011-03-31_nyc_woman_lured_over_craigslist_to_new_hampshire_home_where_man_raped_imprisoned.html#ixzz1IE8eJJkq

Bronx Zoo deadly escaped Egyptian Cobra is found alive after 6 days on the lam

Snakes alive! - the cobra has been found.

The Bronx Zoo's escaped snake was snared in the House of Reptiles on Thursday, six days after she slithered out of her enclosure.

"We found our snake and we're very happy," Jim Breheny, the zoo's director, told the Daily News.

The fanged fugitive was spotted coiled in a corner around 9 a.m., during one of three daily sweeps by a half-dozen zoo workers.

Using special tongs and hooks, they easily apprehended the deadly Egyptian cobra, which is now under observation.

"We knew it was going to be a game of patience. We set the place up to make it easier to search," Breheny said.

Contrary to one report, the zoo did not set any traps with mice for the snake. It simply kept the Reptile House dark and quiet.

"We wanted to just let her feel comfortable," he said. "We did everything we could to help her feel secure."

The snake escaped from a fiberglass box with a sliding glass front while no one was around.

"Clearly she finagled her way out of the enclosure," Breheny said of the cold-blooded Houdini.

Zoo officials are now reviewing the safety of the enclosures and plan to reopen the Reptile House soon.

The cobra will eventually go on exhibit - which should be a big draw, given its notoriety.

The hunt for the missing adolescent made headlines across the globe and prompted either anxiety or amusement from New Yorkers.

An anonymous wit even created a Twitter feed chronicling the reptile's made-up misadventures - and picked up nearly 200,000 followers, from Mayor Bloomberg to Ellen DeGeneres.

All along, zoo officials said they were confident the pencil-thin 20-inch-long reptile was still somewhere in the House of Reptiles, not roaming the city.



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/03/31/2011-03-31_bronx_zoos_deadly_escaped_egyptian_cobra_is_caught__near_the_reptile_house.html#ixzz1IE7hSLGX

Obese man cut from chair he was stuck in for 2 years dies; skin fused with maggot-infested fabric

A morbidly obese Ohio man who had to be cut loose from a chair he had not left for two years has died, officials said.

The 43-year-old man had been hospitalized since Sunday after his roommates called 911 when they found him unconscious in the living room chair.

Bellaire police had to cut the man free after finding that his skin had fused to the chair's fabric.

They said he sat in his own waste and was covered in maggots.

"The chair was very filthy, a lot of odor to it. Going in the house, the house was not clean," public health officer Jim Chase told WTRF-TV.

"The living room where the man lived in his chair was very filthy, very deplorable. It's unbelievable that somebody lives in conditions like that."

Authorities were forced to cut a hole in the wall of the man's house to remove him to the hospital.

The man - whose name was not released - lived with a roommate and a girlfriend who prepared him food since he was unable to get up.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/03/31/2011-03-31_obese_man_cut_from_chair_he_was_stuck_in_for_2_years_dies.html#ixzz1IBxKLYco

China executes 3 Filipinos despite Manila's pleas

SHENZHEN, China - China executed on Wednesday three Filipinos convicted of drug trafficking despite a flurry of public appeals for clemency in the Philippines, and days after Amnesty International slammed Beijing's sweeping use of the death penalty.

The three, two women and a man, were caught smuggling several kilograms of heroin each into China in 2008. Under Chinese law, the trafficking of at least 50 grammes of any illicit drug is punishableby death. "It is a sad day for us, up to the last minute we were doing everything we can to postpone the execution," Vice President Jejomar Binay said in a radio interview from Qatar.

He said he sent an appeal on Tuesday asking to keep the Filipinos alive while Manila investigated new evidence that could have proved the innocence of at least one or two of the three.

"The sad part is China did not grant our request and proceeded with the execution of the three Filipinos," said Binay, who flew to Beijing in February and gained a brief delay of the death sentences.

Elizabeth Batain, 38, was executed by lethal injection at a prison in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. Sally Ordinario-Villanueva, 32, and Ramon Credo, 42, were executed in the port city of Xiamen.

The three were told on Wednesday morning that their sentences would be carried out later in the day, Philippine officials said, and they were allowed visits by family members.

In the Philippines, prayer vigils and Masses were held, while a rally of overseas foreign workers was planned later on Wednesday. Millions of Filipinos work overseas, including thousands employed as maids in Hong Kong.

Serious offense

The three are the first Filipinos to be executed in China for drug trafficking, said Philippines officials.

The families of two of the prisoners had sent open letters appealing for clemency, arguing they had been set up.

"We believe our loved ones are victims of larger drug syndicates who take advantage of the unawareness, vulnerability and desperation of our people," the families wrote. "We are pained that they are meted the death penalty while the big true drug operators and syndicates go on wild abandon."

China's foreign ministry said that drug trafficking was a serious offense and that justice had been served.

"This is an isolated criminal case. I do not want it to affect bilateral relations," said spokeswoman Jiang Yu at a regular briefing on Tuesday.

Despite competing claims over the resource-rich Spratly Islands in the South China Sea and criticism last year over the botched police handling of a hostage crisis in Manila that led to the deaths of Hong Kong tourists, bilateral relations between China and the Philippines have been relatively stable.

The executions come after Amnesty International again slammed China's human rights record and widespread use of the death sentence in its latest annual report on the issue.

China is now believed to execute far more people than the rest of the world combined, even though the nation does not release official statistics.

China has executed several other foreigners for drug offenses, including Japanese, Nigerians and a Briton in 2009.

While China maintains an iron grip on crime with 55 offenses still punishable by death, far more than many other nations, it has scrapped the death penalty for nearly a dozen non-violent crimes including smuggling cultural relics and tax fraud.

Houston day care owner, faces charges in fatal fire that killed four toddlers

Jessica Rene Tata, 22, left seven youngsters alone in her home day care while she went shopping, police said.

A Houston day care owner was back in a Texas jail cell Tuesday after her weekend arrest in Nigeria, facing charges of leaving alone four toddlers who later died in a fire.

Jessica Rene Tata, 22, completed the 6,500-mile round trip in the custody of officers from the the Harris County sheriff's department and was quickly ordered held without bond.

She was handcuffed and wearing a body armor vest as officers hustled her into the jail. Authorities said Tata left seven youngsters alone in her home day care while she went shopping at Target on Feb. 24.

She also left a pan of oil burning on a stove, and authorities determined that caused the deadly fire inside Jackie's Child Care in west Houston.

The eldest of the four dead children was just 3 years old, while the youngest was only 16 months. Three other children were seriously injured in the blaze.

Tata, after initially rebuffing law enforcement efforts to interview her, bolted Houston for Nigeria two days after the fire.

Although a native of Texas, Tata had relatives in the African nation. She was arrested Saturday after an international search that landed her on the U.S. Marshals service list of most wanted fugitives.

Tata was charged with four counts of manslaughter, six counts of reckless injury to a child, three counts of abandoning a child under 15 and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

The top count of manslaughter comes with a maximum term of 20 years behind bars.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/03/22/2011-03-22_jessica_rene_tata_houston_day_care_owner_faces_charges_in_fatal_fire_that_killed.html#ixzz1HUC9yGoF

14 years and nine tiny corpses later, authorities finally took action on murderous mother

Marybeth Tinning (née Roe, born on September 11, 1942) is an American serial killer currently serving a 20 years to life sentence after being convicted of the murder of (ONLY)one of her children(although she murdered 9). Her case is held to be one of the most extreme cases of Münchausen syndrome.

Marybeth Tinning had a peculiar way of coping with the nagging sense of inadequacy felt by so many new mothers.

She murdered her babies.

Unthinkable it may be, but even more jaw dropping was that it took 14 years and nine tiny corpses for authorities to take action.

In the opinion of doctors, the string of tragedies that befell this Schenectady, N.Y., housewife and her husband, Joe, was a matter of bad luck or bad genes, even though her sixth child, Michael, was not a blood relation. The Tinnings adopted him in 1978 but he died in 1981, at the age of 2.

The last of the couple's doomed babies was Tami Lynne, a 31/2-month-old bundle of smiles and black curls, to all appearances, a healthy baby. But sometime during the night of Dec. 19, 1985, her mother said, she just stopped breathing.

An autopsy found nothing physically wrong, and it seemed as if Sudden Infant Death Syndrome had struck again.

Tami Lynne was the ninth Tinning child who would not make it to kindergarten.

The Tinnings' third-born, Jennifer, was the first to die. She entered the world on Dec. 26, 1971, and exited one week later, a victim of spinal meningitis. Jennifer's was the only death where doctors could easily pinpoint a cause. For all the others, the reasons were vague - SIDS, pneumonia, or a hidden genetic flaw.

Smothering, however, could have similar effects on the body of an infant, but for years no one considered the possibility.

Maybe the strain of losing Jennifer was too much for Tinning, a blue-collar girl who grew up in nearby Duanesburg, the daughter of a press operator for General Electric.

Or, some experts hypothesized, this drab housewife became addicted to being the star of the show, the bereaved mother at the funeral of her child. Mourners at these somber events would recall that Tinning seemed detached, sometimes even happy, as she bid farewell to all her children, wrote Joyce Egginton in her book on the case, "From Cradle to Grave."

Whatever it was that unhinged her mind, after this first loss, Tinning children began to drop one after another. Next to go, within the same month, was Jennifer's big brother, Joseph Jr., 2. His mother brought him to the emergency room, complaining that he'd had a seizure. Doctors observed him in the hospital for two days and sent him home. A few hours later, his mother brought him back to the hospital, dead, apparently of SIDS.

Tragedy struck again on March 2, when Tinning's firstborn, Barbara, 4, died under mysterious circumstances. Reye's Syndrome, another mysterious killer, was thought to be the likely culprit.

Undaunted by three deaths in as many months, the Tinnings continued to try to build a family, with little success. A son, Timothy, born a few days before Thanksgiving, 1973, didn't make it to Christmas. Another boy, Nathan, was born in the spring of 1975 and died before the first autumn leaves. A daughter, Mary Frances, died in February 1978, at 4 months old, followed by a son, Jonathan, who died in March 1980, at around the same age.

To medical professionals in town, the scene had become a familiar one. Marybeth, in hysterics, would rush to the emergency room with a blue-tinged child in her arms and an improbable story on her lips.

IN NATHAN'S case, she said she was driving with him, and he just stopped breathing, and with Mary Frances, it was spontaneous seizures. Michael, the adopted boy, also just stopped breathing,

Neighbors, friends and family grew more suspicious with each death. When they saw Marybeth with a belly, they'd wonder, "How long will this one last?"

Investigators had an eye on the situation for years. After Tami Lynne's death, they decided it was time to ask the grieving mother some tough questions. After a long interrogation, she admitted to killing three: Timothy, Nathan and Tami Lynne.

"I smothered them each with a pillow because I'm not a good mother," she said.

The bodies of three of Tinning's children were exhumed, but little was learned from them, so advanced was the decomposition.

Tinning was charged with the murder of only one child, Tami Lynne.

Her husband, Joe, had been questioned, but it was quickly determined that he had no hand in the killings. Marybeth was alone with the babies at the time. Oddly, he stood by her, even when it was revealed that he had almost become one of her victims. In 1974, a high-stress period for the couple, a near-fatal dose of barbiturates somehow got into his grape juice. His wife later admitted to mixing up the cocktail with pills she had picked up for a friend's epileptic child.

At her trial, which opened on June 22, 1987, her attorneys tried to inject a dose of reasonable doubt with scientific experts. They said it was possible that a rare genetic brain disorder had afflicted at least two of the children, and perhaps all of them.

But the prosecution easily poked holes in the theory. On July 17, after three days of deliberation, the jury found Tinning guilty of murder in the second degree. She was sentenced to 20 years to life.

"I will never stop fighting to prove my innocence," she told the court. "One day the whole world will know that I am innocent."

This past January, Tinning, now 68, stood for the third time before the parole board. The Albany Times-Union reported that she tried to explain her actions by saying the deaths of her other children had turned her into "a damaged worthless piece of person and when my daughter was young, in my state of mind at that time, I just believed that she was going to die also. So I just did it."

Her excuse didn't evoke much sympathy, and she was turned down. She becomes eligible for parole again in 2013.

New Photos after Japan tsunami Earthquake

Girl wolf gets into the Guinness book

11-year-old Supatra Sasupfan from a suburb of Bangkok got into Guinness Book of Records as the most Haired Girl in the world. All of the face, ears, hands, legs and back are covered with thick baby “fur”, which makes herlook like a wolf. Interestingly, the girl herself is already accustomed to its features and even proud to have become so popular.Supatra is proud to be considered as “most hairy girl in the world.” Otherkids teased Supatra, calling the girl “girl-wolf”, but now that Supatra hit the Guinness Book of Records, kids at school began to treat her very differently.She suffers from a congenital syndrome Taika Ambras hypertrichosis, or better known as Werewolf Syndrome, associated with changes in the chromosomes. Supatra – one of 50 people in the world who suffers from this rare genetic disorder. Her face, ears, hands, legs and back are covered in hair that resist even laser removal, on the contrary, becoming thicker and thicker, so the girl’s mother just regular trims the hair on the face.Now that school tormentors are no longer worried about the girl Supatra finally joined the team of class and even became popular. “There were a few people who teased me that I am a monkey, but they no longer do. ” – Says the girl.“I’m used to this state, I do not feel the hair on my face, though becauseof it I do not always see what is happening around me. I hope that someday they will be able to cut it off,” – she says.
Energetic little Taika does not give the disease a chance to deprive her a normal life. “I like math, so I can then teach other children. I want to become a doctor and help others solve their health problems” – recognized Supatra.Her father, 38-year-old Sammrueng said that at birth Supatra nostrils were wide only 1 millimeter, so the girl could not breathe normally and the first threemonths she spent her life in an incubator. Later had to go on the surgery in order to expand the nostrils. Then Supatra spent in hospital for about ten months. At the age oftwo girl did another surgery, after which she was able to breathe normally.Later, when her parents took her home from the hospital, they encountered several problems. “When our neighbors first saw our daughter, they asked me what a terrible sin I committed. – Admits Sammrueng.Parents are worried that other children tease her, but now she has many friends.Supatra with friends in the school library.Like many children her age, Supatra likes to swim, dance to her favorite music and play with friends. Unfortunately apart from hypertrichosis she has another problem – she does not have teeth.Supatra with her parents on their way to the night market Suan Lum Bangkok.Supatra poses a photographer with her school friends.Supatra in gym class.

New monkey found in Myanmar near China dam project

A new type of snub-nosed monkey has been found in a remote forested region of northern Myanmar which is under threat from logging and a Chinese dam project, scientists said on Wednesday.

They said hunters in Myanmar's Kachin state said the long-tailed black monkey, with white-tufted ears and a white beard, could often be tracked in the rain because its upturned nostrils made it prone to sneezing when water dripped in.

"It's new to science. It's unusual to travel to a remote area and discover a monkey that looks unlike any other in the world," Thomas Geissmann, lead author of the study at the University of Zurich-Irchel, told Reuters.

Studies of a carcass and four skulls showed the monkey differed from snub-nosed monkeys in China and Vietnam. The experts had no photos of a live Myanmar monkey.

The scientists estimated there were between 260 and 330 of the monkeys living in an area of about 270 sq km (100 sq miles) and believed the species to be critically endangered.

"The hunting pressure is likely to increase considerably in the next few years as new dam construction and logging roads invade" the monkeys' habitat, they wrote in the American Journal of Primatology.

IN CHINESE HANDS

"The future of the snub-nosed monkey lies in Chinese hands," said Frank Momberg, of Fauna and Flora International and a co-author of the study. Monkeys were hunted for meat or fur and their body parts were used in traditional medicines in China.

He said China Power Investment Corp., leading the dam project further down the valley on a tributary of the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar, had an economic interest in preserving the forested region where the monkeys live.

More roads and logging would cause erosion around the watershed that could clog up the new reservoir with silt, reducing power generation, he said. He praised China for carrying out a study of the dam's possible effect on the environment.

The discovery of the snub-nosed monkey contrasts with a rising trend of extinctions, caused by factors such as land clearance, expansion of cities, pollution and climate change.

A U.N. conference in Nagoya, Japan, this week is looking at ways to safeguard biological diversity after the world failed in a goal set in 2002 of a "significant reduction" in the pace of extinctions of animals and plants by 2010.

A separate study in the journal Science showed growing numbers of the world's birds, mammals and amphibians had moved closer to extinction in recent decades. A fifth were classified as threatened.