World in brief: Illegal logging threatens butterflies

Satellite photographs show illegal loggers have clear-cut large swathes of trees in the heart of a monarch butterfly reserve in Mexico, threatening the insects’ habitat, a researcher said Monday.

The images show loggers have chopped 1,100 acres of trees since 2004 in the core of a wooded park in Michoacan state where clouds of orange- and black-winged butterflies nest each winter, said Lincoln Brower, a professor emeritus of biology at Sweet Briar College in Virginia, who has studied the monarchs for 52 years.

“The butterfly area can’t survive if this kind of logging continues,” said Brower, who also directs the preservation group that paid for the satellite images.

A Mexican presidential decree issued in November 2000 forbids logging in the central zone of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, a 124,000-acre area that spans Michoacan and Mexico states. However, regulation has been spotty.

BATTICALOA, Sri Lanka

Militia wins vote in violent city

A pro-government militia composed of former Tamil Tiger rebels won a local election in a turbulent eastern city despite allegations that it used child soldiers, extorted businessmen and carried out killings, according to a state television report today.

The militia known as the Karuna Group took 53 percent of the final vote in Batticaloa, giving it 11 of the 19 seats on the municipal council, Rupavahini Television announced, citing the country’s elections commissioner.

The government had billed the vote, the first in 14 years, as a first step toward restoring order in a region long dominated by the insurgents. But human rights groups and opposition politicians said a climate of violence and chaos tainted the election.

Residents said they were desperate for order to be restored.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina

Tiny monkey stolen from busy zoo

Thieves stole a baby monkey from a packed Argentine zoo by creating a distraction, grabbing the animal and fleeing over a fence, officials said.

The 6-inch, three-month-old titi monkey was stolen Sunday from the La Plata zoo, which was filled with 4,000 visitors at the time. Authorities say they are searching for two young men and asking visitors to come forward with any pictures they may have taken at the time of the theft at the zoo southeast of Buenos Aires.

Titi monkeys are sometimes traded illegally as pets.

The baby was one of nearly 20 titi monkeys of the Callicebus genus in the zoo, zoo guide Nicolas Gutierrez said. The monkeys are native to South America and can be found in Colombia, Brazil, Peru and Paraguay.