STAMFORD, Conn. – A Connecticut in-line skater faces assault and other charges after a confrontation over whether a 4-year-old on a tricycle had the right to be on a bike path. Stamford police charged 43-year-old Chris Karamon with third-degree assault, risk of injury to a minor and other crimes.
Police said Karamon shouted and cursed at the boy's parents on the path in Cove Island Park. Police said he later skated into the boy's father, who was shielding his children, and threw a helmet and water bottle at him.
Police Lt. Sean Cooney said the path is for use by everyone, not just skaters.
Karamon declined to comment Tuesday morning.
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Information from: The Advocate, http://www.stamfordadvocate.com

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CUDLEE CREEK, Australia – The koala, Australia's star symbol, is dying of stress.
Koalas live in the rolling hills and flat plains where eucalyptus trees grow, because they need the leaves for both food and water. But as people move in, koalas are finding themselves with fewer trees, researchers say. The stress is bringing out a latent disease that infects 50 to 90 percent of the animals.
"Koalas are in diabolical trouble," says researcher Frank Carrick, who heads the Koala Study Program at the University of Queensland. "Numbers show that even in their stronghold, koala numbers are declining alarmingly."
The problem came to national attention in August, when the well-known Sam the Koala died during surgery to treat the disease, called chlamydia. Sam captured the world's attention during major wildfires in February, when she was photographed drinking from the water bottle of a firefighter in a smoldering forest.
Sam was in such obvious pain from chlamydia that veterinarian John Butler decided to operate. But her organs were too scarred to complete the surgery, and Sam was euthanized.
Chlamydiosis is a virus that breaks out in koalas in times of stress — like cold sores in humans — and leads to infections in the eyes and urinary, reproductive and respiratory tracts. It can cause blindness, infertility and death.
Deborah Tabart, chief executive of the Australian Koala Foundation, urged the government to follow up on Sam's case by classifying koalas as a threatened species and implementing policies to preserve their habitat. Her organization named September "Save the Koala" month, with the theme "No Tree, No Me."
The United States already considers the koala a threatened species. And the Australian Koala Foundation estimates there are fewer than 100,000 koalas left in Australia, down from the millions at the time European settlement started in the late 1700s.
Carrick and other scientists think the numbers are slightly higher, but in any case, regional counts by scientists and state governments show a huge drop. There's clear evidence that some local populations have gone extinct because of chlamydial disease, Carrick said.
The majority of koalas hug a stretch of eastern coastline in the states of Queensland and New South Wales. They are most abundant on the so-called Koala Coast, a 155 square-mile (375 square-kilometer) swath of semi-rural coast in southeastern Queensland.
A 2008 survey of the Koala Coast by the Queensland government shows the population dropped 64 percent, from more than 6,200 in 1999 to about 2,800. While car accidents and dog attacks killed many koalas, the report blamed about 60 percent of the deaths on disease.
"We need to learn to live with our native species but instead we keep encroaching on them," said Tracy Goodman, an Adelaide resident who recently visited Gorge Wildlife Park with her husband and 4-year-old son, Matthew. Ten koalas live at the park. "Protection of koalas absolutely should be legislated."
Wide-eyed children waited in line to hold and pet Violet, a tame koala patiently munching on moist eucalyptus leaves. "They are quite cuddly and soft, aren't they?" 7-year-old Emily Marshall grinned after her grandparents took her photo with Violet.
Wildlife keeper Loren Ellis said all of Gorge's koalas are healthy, though she's not sure about the wild ones who visit occasionally, searching for food.
"There aren't always enough leaves to go around in the wild," Ellis said.
Australia, known for its unique flora and fauna, already counts more than 55 extinct mammals, birds and reptiles.
In 2006, the government's Threatened Species Committee said local population declines did not necessarily mean koalas were declining across the whole country and that they were "resilient" enough to live in small or fragmented habitats. But Environment Minister Peter Garrett has since ordered a review of the government's conservation strategy.
"I have agreed that the situation probably has changed; it looks like the figures for koalas aren't as good as I would like," Garrett said in a television interview last month.

The two states with the densest koala habitat have taken measures to protect the animal. New South Wales has classified them as a vulnerable species under the state conservation act, and endangered in two areas. Queensland lists the animal as vulnerable in some parts of the state.

While applauding the state efforts, Carrick urged the federal government to get involved.

"If koalas are not of national significance, I don't know what on earth would be," he said. "Koalas are right up there as an international wildlife icon with China's pandas."

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On the Web:

Australian Koala Foundation: http://www.savethekoala.com

Australian threatened species: http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/species.html

CONAKRY, Guinea – Soldiers reeking of alcohol menaced Guinea's capital Tuesday, a day after the military's presidential guard shot at pro-democracy demonstrators in the West African country, leaving at least 157 people dead, a human rights group said.
The soldiers fired into the air as they roamed the deserted streets of the normally bustling capital. Guinea's military leader, who rose to power in a December coup, said Monday's violence was beyond his control.
Dr. Chierno Maadjou with the Guinean Organization for Defense of Human Rights said 157 people had been killed and more than 1,200 wounded on Monday.
An Associated Press reporter said he saw halls full of wounded patients at the city's large Donka Hospital, some with bullet wounds, others who appeared to have been beaten.
Opposition politician Mutarr Diallo said he witnessed soldiers raping women with rifle butts during Monday's protests. He was arrested during the protest but released Tuesday morning.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said eyewitnesses also told them that security forces had stripped female protesters Monday and raped them in the streets. Other eyewitnesses said soldiers had stabbed protesters with knives and bayonets.
Tensions have risen in Guinea amid rumors that military leader Capt. Moussa "Dadis" Camara may run in presidential elections set for Jan. 31. Camara said that the shootings by members of his presidential guard were beyond his control.
"Those people who committed those atrocities were uncontrollable elements in the military," he told Radio France International on Monday night. "Even I, as head of state in this very tense situation, cannot claim to be able to control those elements in the military."
Corinne Dufka, senior West Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the killing of dozens of unarmed protesters is "shocking even by the abusive standards of Guinea's coup government."
"Guinea's leaders should order an immediate end to attacks on demonstrators and bring to justice those responsible for the bloodshed," she said.
The African Union, the European Union and the government of neighboring Senegal all quickly denounced Monday's violence. The AU had suspended Guinea's membership after Camara seized power in a December coup.
The African Union Commission condemned the "indiscriminate firing on unarmed civilians," and urged Guinean officials to respect the freedom of expression and assembly.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana called for the immediate release of arrested political leaders.
Opposition leader Sidya Toure, a former prime minister, was arrested during the protests and released Tuesday. When he returned home, he said he found it had been ransacked.
"I have come back to a broken home," he said. "What upsets me most is that they destroyed my library. All my books and souvenirs are gone."
Camara came to power in a coup hours after longtime dictator Lansana Conte died. Camara initially said he would not run in a presidential election set for Jan. 31 but recently said he has the right to run.
The opposition-led protest in the capital's main football stadium Monday drew some 50,000 people, with demonstrators chanting "We want true democracy."
On Aug. 27, police fired tear gas to break up a demonstration in the capital, and last Thursday tens of thousands of residents in a town north of Conakry took to the streets with no serious incidents.

Hardly anyone had heard of Camara, an army captain in his 40s, until Dec. 23, when his men broke down the glass doors of the state TV station. He announced that the constitution had been dissolved and that the country was now under the rule of a military junta.

In the days after the coup, Camara was initially embraced by Guineans, thousands of whom lined the streets to applaud his arrival on the back of a flatbed military truck.

But many began to question his tactics when he authorized raids on the homes of well-known members of Conte's inner circle. Camara claimed the raids were intended to recoup money and property stolen from the state, but some residents complained officials were using heavy-handed tactics.

Since winning independence half a century ago from France, Guinea has been pillaged by its ruling elite. Its 10 million people are among the world's poorest, even though its soil has diamonds, gold, iron and half the world's reserves of the raw material used to make aluminum.