MEANWHILE...

Neglected bestial news items from the past week.

Billy's magic milk

The milk of a billy goat is selling for $50 a glass in Jerusalem. Mufid Abdul Ghafer, a West Bank Palestinian who owns the goat, has orders for the next three weeks. Producing only from a single teat, the goat, named Abu Musaed, provides enough to fill three glasses a day. Villagers believe the milk has magical powers and can cure infertility in men.

Mammoth sale

A giraffe's shinbone, crocodile teeth, lion whiskers, orangutan hair, a parrot cage, a goat and a mule are among items to be auctioned by Budapest zoo to raise the money to buy a replacement for Khali, a female elephant who died of pneumonia last month, aged 19.

Monkey business

A gang of six monkeys has created havoc in Singapore, breaking into homes through ventilation slats and windows and stealing toothpaste, soap, fruit and even a set of playing cards. "They left paw prints in my bathroom," complained H S Goh, a teacher.

Yangyang nose scan

A CAT (Computed Axial Tomography) scan, the first performed on a giant panda, revealed cataracts and a nasal tumour in Yangyang, a 24-year-old male at the Hangzhou zoo in China. The panda had been suffering from nosebleeds.

Two legs good

An Ostrich Research Institute has been set up in Guangdong province in China with an imported breeding population of 4,000 ostriches. Ostrich meat is much healthier to eat than beef and will become the favoured protein in the next century, according to the provincial vice-governor. There is a saying in northern China: "People from Guangdong will eat anything that flies, except aeroplanes, and anything with four legs, except tables and chairs."

Giant leap for frogs

According to reports from Washington, space shuttle experiments have shown that frogs can reproduce in space. The same is probably true of humans, but a Nasa scientist advised caution before attempting it.