There are believed to be about 3,200 tigers left in the wild and more than 13,000 in captivity — half of which are in China. Assessing populations in the wild is notoriously difficult, given the remoteness of their habitats and the animals’ tendency to avoid human contact. It is believed numbers have fallen by 97 percent over the past century and the trend remains downwards, but several revisions have taken place in recent years.
In March, India unveiled a new census that put the total number of wild tigers in the country close to 1,550 — 10 percent more than the figure in 2008.
In Indonesia, camera traps have recently caught images of 12 Sumatran tigers, including a mother playing with cubs. The WWF estimates that there are only 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild. A recent study conducted by the Wildlife Conservation Society said the population could be much larger than previously believed.
About 350 adult Siberian or Amur tigers — physically, the largest subspecies — are left in the wild, with 95 percent of them inhabiting the far eastern regions of Russia.
Thailand is thought to be home to 250 to 300 wild tigers, though camera traps have revealed that Thap Lan National Park has more of the animals than previously believed.
Bangladesh has between 400 and 450 wild tigers, mostly in the Sunderbans mangrove forests which overlap with India. Last year, they killed 44 people.
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under