KUALA LUMPUR. Huge python makes a meal of 11 guard dogs. Guard dogs protecting a fruit orchard in Malaysia have met their match ? a 7.1-metre-long python that swallowed at least 11 hounds before it was finally discovered by villagers. ?I was shocked to see such a huge python,? orchard-keeper Ali Yusof told the New Straits Times in an article published beneath a picture of the captured snake, which was almost long enough to span the width of a tennis court and as thick as a tree trunk. Villagers did not harm the snake, which was tied to a tree then handed to wildlife officials, the paper said.

SRINAGAR. Flower power aims to heal Kashmir?s wounds. Officials in Indian Kashmir have a new idea they hope will breathe life into a region drained by nearly three decades of fighting-flower power. The world?s largest tulip garden will soon bloom, they say, in the hope the promise of petals set against snow-capped mountains will lure tourists back to a land torn by years of separatist violence. Siraj Bagh is being planted on the banks of famous Dal lake in the heart of Kashmir?s summer capital, Srinagar, home to 2,000 ornately-carved pinewood houseboats popular with tourists. ?Over 350,000 tulip bulbs have already been planted in the garden,? said K.K. Sharma, whose go-vernment department is in charge of the project. ?We are sure over a million tulips will bloom next year.? Officials say more than 400,000 tourists visited Indian Kashmir last year despite a series of attacks on visitors which killed at least 15 Indian tourists. But that?s a fraction of the number who used to visit when Kashmir was a top Asian destination, popular among honeymooners, skiers, trekkers and anglers. In 1989, simmering anger against New Delhi?s rule burst into a violent rebellion which left tens of thousands dead. Most western countries still caution citizens against travel to Kashmir, but authorities say violence has steadily decreased in Kashmir since India and Pakistan, who claim the region in full but rule in parts, began a peace process in 2004.

LOS ANGELES. Actress Nicole Kidman and seven others hurt on movie set. Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman and seven other people suffered minor injuries on a Los Angeles movie set on Thursday when her car crashed into a light pole during filming, police said. Kidman, who was behind the wheel of a Jaguar rigged for filming when it struck the pole, was examined at a local hospital after the incident, Los Angeles Police spokeswoman Karen Smith said. She added that seven other people on the set of the alien thriller ?The Invasion? went to local hospitals complaining of injuries after the 1 a.m. (0900 GMT) crash but that none was seriously hurt. Warner Bros. Pictures, the studio behind ?The Invasion,? confirmed that Kidman was taken to the hospital after the crash but said she was quickly released and would be back on set when filming resumed later on Thursday. ?No other actors were involved in the scene at the time of the incident,? Warner Bros. said in a written statement. ?Two additional crew members sustained minor injuries as a result of the collision,? Warner Bros. said. ?The production took the appropriate steps following the incident to ensure the safety of cast and crew.? There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy in the number of injured listed by the police and the studio. Smith said the Los Angeles Police Department would likely conduct a routine traffic accident investigation and that a state workplace safety agency might also respond. She could not confirm a report by US Weekly Magazine that Kidman?s car was being towed by a rig at about 45 miles per hour, with zombie-like characters hanging off the hood, at the time of the crash. Kidman, who was raised in Australia, won the Academy Award for best actress for her role as writer Virginia Woolf in ?The Hours.? The 39-year-old film star, who split from actor Tom Cruise in 2001, last year married country singer Keith Urban in Sydney, Australia. She stars opposite Daniel Craig in ?The Invasion,? playing a Washington, D.C., psychiatrist working to solve a mysterious epidemic.