| Places to visit: A fenland refuge
WICKEN Fen is a great place to visit for everyone. Families will enjoy strolling around the 3/4 mile boardwalk, designed for all weathers and wheelchair and pushchair accessible. Bird lovers, nature lovers and walkers can select a host of routes that will take them into the tranquil beauty of this last piece of original fenland. Visitors can experience the fens as they were, full of dragonflies and the hum of insects, birds such as marsh and sedge warblers, wild flowers like yellow flag, ragged robin and rare marsh pea. There are nine bird hides with views over the different habitats. Look out for the konik ponies and highland cattle that have recently been introduced.The children's events at Wicken Fen are excellent, but book early to avoid disappointment, there are also boat trips and evening wildlife safaris on offer.
Kentridge's `Magic Flute' Arrives in USA
Viewing William Kentridge's production of "The Magic Flute" is like contemplating a great painting: You watch and think, and then hours later you still dwell on the experience and ponder it some more. And no wonder: The director is a famous artist from South Africa, known for his charcoal drawings and animated films. His 2005 staging of the Mozart masterpiece at Brussels' Theatre Royal de la Monnaie, given its North American premiere Monday night at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Gilman Opera House, is the antithesis of many productions of "Die Zauberfloete." There are no animals roaming the stage. Instead of wearing a bright bird costume, Papageno looks like a colonial tourist. The Queen of the Night hasn't morphed into a Disney-like villain. Kentridge creates his own brand of theatrical magic by turning the stage into an oversized Etch A Sketch, with white lines projected onto flat scenery, forming geometrical shapes, animals, galactic star bursts — even a guillotine and gallows, which appears in stages, as if in a hangman game.
Couple hurt after elephant fall
A WEALTHY British couple have been seriously injured falling off an elephant, hours after starting a dream holiday in South Africa. Retired Michael Denyard, 56, and wife Lorna, also in her fifties, were in hospital last night. They were thrown to the ground when the elephant knelt to let them dismount at the end of a safari at an animal sanctuary near Johannesburg. A witness said: She fell forward and dragged her husband down. The couple, from Four Oaks, near Sutton Coldfield, West Mids, suffered multiple fractures. .
Mum and girl killed by elephant
A BRITISH mum and daughter were killed by a rampaging elephant on safari in Zimbabwe, it emerged last night. The tourists were charged by a bull while walking with an armed guide in 10,000-square mile Hwange National Park on Saturday. The guide, 38-year-old local Andy Trevillia, fired at the massive beast but was knocked over by it and seriously injured. The father of the British family is thought to have escaped injury but was too distraught to speak last night. Officials in the countrys second city Bulawayo said the elephant was unusually aggressive because it was sexually active. They were also looking into whether the party had been too close to it for safety. Assistant police chief Edmore Veterai said: We are investigating to see if there was an act of negligence. Barry Wolhuter, who runs the safari company The Hide, which hosted the tourists, called the attack horrendous.
Bungle delays return of gorillas
PETALING JAYA: A bureaucratic bungle has again disrupted the repatriation of the infamous Taiping Four gorillas from South Africa to their homeland Cameroon. It looks like the planned departure on April 10 will be postponed as Malaysian authorities have yet to issue the go-ahead to their South African counterparts, after the first relocation plan was called off last December. That plan was aborted at the eleventh hour after Malaysia sought an assurance from the South African government that it would not be billed for expenses incurred at the Pretoria Zoo, where the primates had been held since April 2004. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) is financing the return of the African apes. Its communications manager Christina Pretorius expressed dismay over the Malaysian Governments failure to facilitate a smooth repatriation. .
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