DINOSAUR ‘THIEF’ ARRESTED IN FLORIDA
NEW YORK: A US man accused of smuggling 70 million year old dinosaur skeletons into the United States, including a toothy relative of the bigger Tyrannosaurus rex, was arrested on Wednesday in Florida, officials said.

Eric Prokopi, 38, was charged with conspiracy to smuggle illegal goods, smuggling into the United States, and selling stolen goods, which carry possible sentences of five, 20 and 10 years in prison respectively. Prokopi tried to sell the Tyrannosaurus bataar at auction in New York in May this year, but Mongolia’s government claimed that the bones were illegally removed from the Central Asian country and could not be sold. US authorities impounded the remains shortly after.

TOXIC GAS LEAK FROM OIL WELL SPARKS KUWAIT ALERT
KUWAIT CITY: Health officials warned Kuwaitis to stay inside and seal doors and windows tightly after toxic gas leaked from an oil well north of Kuwait City. Residents in areas as far as 100 kilometers away reported smelling the rotten-egg odor of potentially poisonous hydrogen sulphide gas. Kuwait Oil Co. (KOC) said it had set fire to the well in the huge Rawdatin oilfield close to the border with Iraq, which had sharply reduced the leak. Sami al-Rasheed, KOC chairman told state television monitoring stations across Kuwait that they had found hydrogen sulphide concentrations far below danger levels. The oil and gas leak happened in the afternoon due to a very high pressure of crude but the incident caused no casualties, KOC said earlier.

ACCLAIMED JAPANESE DIRECTOR KOJI WAKAMATSU DIES
TOKYO: Award-winning Japanese director Koji Wakamatsu has died at the age of 76 after being hit by a taxi, leaving a legacy of a career that began in pornography and ended in acclaimed independent productions. Wakamatsu was hospitalized on Friday after being knocked over as he crossed the road in the busy commercial district of Shinjuku in Tokyo. Two weeks ago, he was named Asian Filmmaker of the Year at the region’s biggest film festival in South Korea, for his contribution to independent cinema. Wakamatsu first came to international attention when Secrets Behind The Wall was featured at the 1965 Berlin International Film Festival. In a career that spanned more than 100 movies, he was as noted for his work exploring strong social themes as he was for his contribution to adult films. He was prominent in Japan’s “pink” or soft-porn genre with “Go, Go Second Time Virgin” (1968) and entered the mainstream through his involvement in the likes of the acclaimed 1976 erotic drama “In the Realm of the Senses.” AFP