Briefs, October 26, 2012

Curfew imposed after clashes during festival

LUCKNOW - Police imposed a curfew after Hindu-Muslim clashes during the Indian festival season in the state of Uttar Pradesh, near where deadly religious riots flared 20 years ago. The curfew was clamped on parts of Faizabad city following communal violence over the immersion of Hindu idols in a river to mark the festival of Durga Puja. Officers used tear gas and fired live rounds in the air to control the fighting. At least nine people including one policeman were injured as vehicles were set alight and shops damaged. Faizabad is next to Ayodhya, home to the Babri mosque that was razed in 1992 by Hindu zealots. Subsequent riots killed more than 2,000 people, mostly Muslims. AFP

Orangutan lives after being shot 100 times

JAKARTA - An endangered orangutan on Borneo island has survived after being shot more than 100 times with an air rifle, Indonesian officials said. The female ape, whom conservationists have named Aan, has gone blind in one eye and sustained serious wounds across her body after she was repeatedly hit with pellets. Conservationists had feared the orangutan, found on an oil palm plantation with 37 pellets lodged in her head and 67 elsewhere in her body, would not survive. AFP

Workers unearth ancient Hindu temple

DENPASAR - Construction workers in Bali have discovered what is likely the biggest ancient Hindu temple on the Indonesian island, archaeologists said. The workers were digging a drain at a Hindu study centre in the capital Denpasar when they came across the remains of the stone temple. They reported the discovery to the Bali archaeology office, which then unearthed substantial foundations of a structure that the excavation team believes dates from around the 13th to 15th centuries. AFP