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- Batyr, a 10-year-old Indian elephant at the Karaganda Zoo in soviet Kazakhstan, can say phrases like "Batyr is good" and verbs like "drink" and "give", a Moscow newspaper reported yesterday. It's said that a recording of its voice was heard recently on Kazakh state radio. "He just pushes his trunk into his mouth and starts talking," said the deputy director of the zoo, Mr Boris Kosinsky. He told a correspondent from the Young Communist League newspaper that it all began three years ago when a startled night watchman reported that he had heard the elephant talking to itself. (en)