We suspect that many people, more especially city dwellers, laughed long and hard when they read in our Sunday edition about a young man who chose to turn a baby mongoose into a cuddly pet.

This is how Sam Halpern, executive officer of the CIA team charged with carrying out Operation Mongoose, described his orders from Director Helms. "And when I asked Dick, what does "Get rid of ...

A mongoose and a habu snake face down each other. There was a problem, however. Mongooses are diurnal while habu snakes are nocturnal, so there was limited contact between them. Instead ...