UNITED STATES
Cat named world’s oldest
A 26-year-old cat named Corduroy has been named the oldest living cat by Guinness World Records. The cat is owned by a family in Sisters, Oregon. His owner, Ashley Reed Okura, has had him since he was a kitten and she was seven years old. Okura told the Oregonian that Corduroy is still active and in good health, except for some kidney problems. He still hunts on the family’s 65 hectare property. For his birthday on Aug. 1, Okura bought him a live white mouse, saying he enjoyed it “right away.”
UNITED STATES
Squirrels carry plague
A popular campground at Yosemite National Park in California is to be temporarily closed after several dead squirrels were found to be carrying the plague, officials said on Friday. The move comes about a week after a girl who visited the park tested positive for the plague. She was treated and has recovered. “As an extremely precautionary public health measure, flea treatment is to be applied to rodent burrows in Tuolumne Meadows campground because several dead animals were tested and found to be carrying plague,” park officials said in a statement. The campground is to be closed from tomorrow through Friday. The park itself is to remain open, including all the other campgrounds. Plague is carried by squirrels, chipmunks and other wild rodents and their fleas. “By eliminating the fleas, we reduce the risk of human exposure and break the cycle of plague in rodents at the sites,” California Department of Public Health director and state health officer Karen Smith said.
UNITED STATES
Judge forces marriage
A group that advocates the separation of church and state has filed a complaint about a Texas judge who ordered a man to marry his girlfriend as a condition of probation. The Freedom From Religion Foundation on Friday said it filed a complaint against Smith County Court-at-Law Judge Randall Rogers a day earlier with the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct in Austin. On July 2, Rogers gave 21-year-old Josten Bundy 30 days to marry 19-year-old Elizabeth James or face 15 days in jail for pleading guilty to misdemeanor assault. Bundy admitted punching James’ ex-boyfriend twice in the jaw for “saying disrespectful things” about her. Rogers also ordered Bundy to scrawl a Bible verse 25 times daily. Rogers did not return a message seeking comment. Bundy and James have since married.
GUATEMALA
Nine activists murdered
Nine human rights activists have been killed since the beginning of the year, mainly in indigenous communities opposed to infrastructure and mining projects, civil organizations said on Friday. The groups documented 337 attacks against human rights workers in a report that also showed intimidation against activists has increased under President Otto Perez, a retired general who came to power in 2012. The report discusses attacks mainly against human rights activists, mostly in areas where indigenous communities have rejected mining and industrial projects that they say are damaging the environment. “This makes even more urgent an effective and structured support strategy from the international community for these activists who operate in a climate of hostility and without state protection,” said Karim Lahidji, president of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), one of the groups involved in the report.
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
For two decades, researchers observed members of the Ngogo chimpanzee group of Kibale National Park in Uganda spend their days eating fruits and leaves, resting, traveling and grooming in their tropical rainforest abode, but this stable community then fractured and descended into years of deadly violence. The researchers are now describing the first clearly documented example of a group of wild chimpanzees splitting into two separate factions, with one launching a series of coordinated attacks against the other. Adult males and infants were targeted, with 28 deaths. “Biting, pounding the victim with their hands, dragging them, kicking them — mostly adult males,
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
SUPERFAN: The Japanese PM played keyboard in a Deep Purple tribute band in middle school and then switched to drums at university, she told the British rock band Legendary British rock band Deep Purple yesterday made Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s day with a brief visit to their high-profile superfan as they returned to the nation they first toured more than half a century ago. Takaichi’s reputation as an amateur drummer, and a fan of hard rock and heavy metal has been well documented, and she has referred to Deep Purple as one of her favorite bands along with the likes of Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. “You are my god,” a giddy Takaichi said in English to Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice, presenting him with a set of made-in-Japan
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