Toads take over Australia

I love seeing what's important in the news to other people in other countries. I look at CBS, which is very parochial. I also keep up with home and worldwide news on www.bbc.co.uk. Viewing the Australia Wide site on www.abc.net.au, I see a little of what's important to our antipodean cousins. It seems that the rare Tasmanian Devil is having a rough time of it at the moment. A large proportion of the dwindling population of these creatures is suffering from a disease which causes growths on their faces. Now I know that the Devil has had a bad press, partly because of the Taz cartoon which paints it as a monster which destroys everything in its path, but they're still an endangered species and something must be done as everyone says when they don't know what to do. I hope the species pulls through. There are doubtless many good people in Australia who will be able to find the cause of this disease and do something to cure it. I hope so, otherwise what on earth else could Tasmania be famous for?
It seems that wildlife is dominating the news in Oz at the moment. Queensland and Northern Territory are both having a plague of Cane Toads. The "poisonous little bastards" are breeding fit to bust at the moment. This is affecting other wildlife in all sorts of ways. Thousands of toadlets eat millions of insects, thus leaving not enough food for all the other insectivores in the area. And I don't suppose the insects are too pleased either. The locals have taken to toad hunts - gangs of them, children included (have they no shame, teaching little children to kill?), mooch around with torches after dark catching the little critters and putting them in plastic sacks. They are then frozen to death and disposed of I know not how. Talk is of keeping the balance of nature. But very often a surplus of one animal is an indication that the balance of nature has already been disturbed - usually by man. Perhaps we should leave them alone and let nature balance itself.
Viewing the BBC I came across a story about brave (or foolhardy) Muscovites celebrating Epiphany by cutting a hole in the ice on the Moscow river and, with a few priests muttering incantations, stripping off and immersing themselves in the water. Apparently the temperature is minus 30C! One woman said that she had done it three times that day to harden the body! I think that is taking it a bit too far. Meanwhile in other parts of Russia the temperature has gone as low as minus 60C - that's bloody cold - and people are dying. This is unusually cold even for that neck of the woods and it is already being referred to as Russia's mini ice age. They also showed pictures of another endangered species - the down-and-outs in Moscow. These people are existing (or not) thanks to hand-outs of cabbage soup. Like the Tasmanian Devil I hope they survive but the influence of money and capitalism seems to have gripped Moscow and the weak are going to the walls.
I am complaining of cold even though here in Bristol it is unusually warm with a daytime temperature of 10C. I don't think I could survive in Russian winters.
I haven't made one political statement in this entry.
What do you mean - thank goodness?