NEPAL
Tourist survives tiger attack
A Dutch tourist who survived a tiger attack over the weekend by climbing a tree in a jungle in the southwestern region of the nation on Monday said that he is lucky to be alive and would now have a story to tell when he returns home. Gerard van Laar said he was attacked by the tiger when he and his guide, Krishna, were hiking in Bardia National Park on Saturday. “I was super lucky to be alive. I would have been dead if it had not been for Krishna,” Van Laar said by telephone from Bardia, about 400km southwest of Kathmandu. “All of a sudden, I heard a roar and a growl, and the tiger was heading toward us at full speed,” said Van Laar, who has been traveling in the nation since last month. He was able to escape by climbing a tree, but Krishna was attacked and slightly injured as he ran away to draw the attention of the tiger. The tiger returned and circled the tree while Van Laar tried to stay as quiet as possible about 6m above the ground. About two hours later, Krishna returned with help, and they shouted and used sticks to drive away the tiger. Krishna was hospitalized for a day, but Van Laar was not hurt. Bardia, a protected national forest, is home to about 70 tigers. It is popular and receives thousands of visitors per year, but tiger attacks are rare.
UNITED STATES
New spiders identified
A tarantula named after singer Johnny Cash is among 14 new species identified by scientists, who spent a decade collecting the hairy spiders and studying nearly 3,000 of them. The tarantula is black and can be found near the California prison that is the setting of Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues. Chris Hamilton and colleagues from Auburn University and Millsaps College collected nearly 1,500 spiders from the 12 states where tarantulas live, and about 300 sent by the public. They analyzed DNA from more than 1,000 of those spiders and examined another 1,200 specimens lent by museums in New York and London. They have collapsed the number of US species from 55 to 29, including the 14 new ones.
VIETNAM
Death row inmate pregnant
Four prison guards in the north of the nation have been suspended for alleged negligence after a female inmate, on death row for drug trafficking, became pregnant, which means her death sentence is to be commuted to life in prison once her child is born, state media reported yesterday. The Thanh Nien newspaper said Nguyen Thi Hue, 42, was arrested in 2012 for drug trafficking and sentenced to death in 2014. A court rejected her appeal the same year. The paper reported that, while in prison, Hue paid US$2,300 to a male inmate to help her get pregnant. It said the 27-year-old male inmate twice put his sperm in a plastic bag with a syringe in a mutually agreed place and Hue inseminated herself. She became pregnant and is expected to give birth in about two months. In accordance with the law, Hue is to have her death sentence commuted to life imprisonment for having a child younger than three years of age.
AUSTRALIA
Trapped miner rescued
A miner, who was trapped for a week underground in Indonesia after a tunnel collapsed, has been rescued and is recovering in hospital, Newcrest Mining said yesterday. Pak Mursalim Sahman had been stuck 300m below the surface since a Feb. 9 incident at Gosowong Gold Mine in Halmahera, Indonesia, which is operated by a Newcrest subsidiary. All other workers were safely evacuated at the time.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
EUROPEAN FUTURE? Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama says only he could secure EU membership, but challenges remain in dealing with corruption and a brain drain Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama seeks to win an unprecedented fourth term, pledging to finally take the country into the EU and turn it into a hot tourist destination with some help from the Trump family. The artist-turned-politician has been pitching Albania as a trendy coastal destination, which has helped to drive up tourism arrivals to a record 11 million last year. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also joined in the rush, pledging to invest US$1.4 billion to turn a largely deserted island into a luxurious getaway. Rama is expected to win another term after yesterday’s vote. The vote would
CONFLICTING REPORTS: Beijing said it was ‘not familiar with the matter’ when asked if Chinese jets were used in the conflict, after Pakistan’s foreign minister said they were The Pakistan Army yesterday said it shot down 25 Indian drones, a day after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed rivals in two decades. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, escalating days of gunfire along their border. At least 45 deaths were reported from both sides following Wednesday’s violence, including children. Pakistan’s military said in a statement yesterday that it had “so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones” at multiple location across the country. “Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations,” Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed
RSS