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Oregon scraps goat landscaping scheme due to cost and smell –
It seemed like an environmentally good idea at the time: Set 75 rented goats loose on 9.1 acres of [Salem] city park to chomp and chew invasive plants such as Armenian blackberry and English ivy that were choking native flora out of Minto-Brown Island Park. So the city, responding to community interest, launched a pilot project last October, contracting with Yoder Goat Rentals out of Molalla to remove the invasive species. But in a report submitted this week to the Salem City Council, the public works department revealed that the six-week project cost the city almost five times what it would normally have spent had it removed the vegetation using more conventional, and less odoriferous, methods. According to the report presented Monday, the total cost to the city for using the nannies and billies, which were “universally welcomed by park users as a pleasant pastoral addition to the scenery,” was $20,719. Ruminate on that, if you will. [Statesman Journal]

Russian troops ‘lose’ field gun after holiday salute –
Russian soldiers have been left red-faced after losing a large artillery piece in the middle of the city of Volgograd, it’s reported. Surprised locals called the police after finding the weapon – a World War Two-era ZiS-3 76mm mobile field gun – blocking the pavement of a major thoroughfare near the centre on Tuesday evening, the LifeNews TV channel reports. It turns out the gun went Awol as it was being towed back to the barracks in a column of military vehicles from the city’s Volga embankment, where it had been used in a gun salute to mark the Defender of the Fatherland Day – an annual official holiday celebrating the armed forces. One eyewitness reports seeing it uncouple itself from a turning lorry and trundle backwards onto the roadside, coming to rest only 1m (3ft) from a parked car. “Only a bit more, and it would have ended up in the front passenger seat,” he says. It’s not clear whether the troops noticed the loss, as the witness says they “carried on as if nothing had happened”. A military spokesman, however, insists the servicemen did spot the gun’s departure, but were unable to stop as they were in an “organised column”. [BBC]

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Armed conflicts and attacks

• Syrian Civil War
  • A truce is in effect, as of midnight. Russian Air Force attacks on opposition positions were reported to have been intensified before the truce took effect. (BBC)
• War in Afghanistan (2015–present)
  • A suicide bomber kills at least 26 and injures nearly 50 in Afghanistan‘s eastern Kunar Province near the border with Pakistan. (AAP via News Limited) (NY Times)
• Yemeni Civil War (2015–present)
  • Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen
    • At least 30 people are killed in an airstrike on a market near the Yemeni capital Sana’a. (BBC)

Law and crime

• Three people are stabbed, including one person critically wounded, and several people are arrested after a Ku Klux Klan (KKK) rally in Anaheim, California turns violent. (Los Angeles Times)

Politics and elections

• United States presidential election, 2016
  • Voters in South Carolina go to the polls for the Democratic Party primary. Hillary Clinton won. (ABC) (AL.com) (The Guardian)
• Irish general election, 2016
  • Counting begins of the votes cast yesterday with exit polls indicating that the existing coalition will not gain enough votes to govern without reaching a deal with other parties. (BBC)
• Elections in Iran
  • Counting of votes begins in Iran after polling hours in yesterday’s election were extended by six hours due to a heavy turnout. Reports indicate that reformist candidates are doing well in the early count.(Reuters via Swiss, info), (AP)
  • Preliminary results shows that Pervasive Coalition of Reformists has won a majority in Tehran district and some other big cities, as Principlists Coalition won seats in smaller cities. (Reuters)
  • Early Assembly of Experts results show that Principlists won the majority, as Reformists won 14 out of 16 seats in Tehran, although some of them also had the support of conservatives. (Reuters via Yahoo)
• Thousands, including some from Australia, protest in London, England, against the renewal of the United Kingdom’s Trident nuclear deterrent system, the largest anti-nuclear rally since 1983. Leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn, Scottish National Party leader and First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon, the Welsh Plaid Cymru Party, and the Green Party participated in the march. A parliamentary vote on renewing Trident is expected this year. (International Business Times) (The Guardian)

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