Czech photographer: hippos devour a crocodile

“It’s the kind of photograph you get to take once in a lifetime – if you get lucky” that’s how Czech photographer Václav Šilha describes the photo that millions of people admired on the web within hours of it being posted. On a three-day trip around Serengeti National Park in Tanzania Šilha captured a herd of hippos devouring a crocodile. The photographer says that this is something that rarely happens – usually hippos and crocodiles respect each other and seek their prey elsewhere but in this case the crocodile came too close to a mother with young and in the skirmish that ensued climbed onto a hippo’s back. He was immediately attacked and killed by the herd. There are few photos on which the feared crocodile is seen as the prey - Šilha says some of his colleague photographers had seen such a thing happen but had never been lucky enough to snap it.

Link to a photo series

Music competition for European minority languages

Leeuwarden, Netherlands (CNN) — “This is the outfit our parents wore when they used to go out to dance. It’s a traditional outfit,” jokes Riemelmeester Malde.

Malde is addressing a theater audience in Friesland in the northern Netherlands where he and his bandmates are about to perform in their native Low German dialect at Liet International, a song contest for European minority languages.

But Malde’s band is a rap trio rather than a folk troupe and their outfits are anything but traditional: boiler suits adorned with yellow and black hazard tape and garish hip hop baseball caps. Their instruments are laptops, microphones and loudhailers and, as their name suggests, De fofftig Penns owe more to 50 Cent than their Lower Saxony origins.

“We try not to have anything too middle of the road. Our contest is about new songs. The variety and originality are important,” Liet coordinator Onno Falkena told CNN ahead of Saturday night’s final in Leeuwarden, the Frisian capital.

read more at liet.nl

Swiss to vote on constitutional ban on building minarets

Are soaring towers on mosques a threat to Swiss culture or a sign of tolerance and democracy? Currently there are only four minarets in the whole country.

This election poster has been banned in several cities because it was deemed to be racist.

On November 29, the Swiss will decide on whether to ban the construction of minarets. As the debate heats up, swissinfo.ch explores the issues behind the vote.

Kim Kelly and Kim Nelson are modeling the handknit scarves from Switzerland. Eurobureau host Simon received the scarves from his cousins who knit and knit and knit some more. Last year it was socks for the pledge drive, this year it's two scarves. They're over 6 feet long and about 10 inches wide, and were knit during the first part of 2009.

A sustaining membership of $120 or more will make one of these scarves yours. Call (707) 923-3911 if you're interested.

Merci!