AUSTRIA
Python in toilet bites man
A man was on Monday bitten by a 1.6m python during an early-morning visit to the toilet at his home, police said. The reptile, which apparently escaped from a neighbor’s apartment and might have slithered through the drains, was cleaned and handed back to its owner. The 65-year-old man “felt a ‘nip’ in the genital area” shortly after sitting on the toilet at home in Graz just after 6am, a statement from police in Styria Province said. He then looked into the toilet and discovered the albino reticulated python. The snake had apparently escaped unnoticed from the apartment of his 24-year-old neighbor. It was not immediately clear how it escaped and got into the toilet, but police said it might have made its way through the drains. A reptile expert was called to retrieve the snake, which was returned to its owner. Police said the younger man kept 11 non-venomous constrictor snakes and a gecko in his apartment, in terrariums and drawers. He faces an investigation on suspicion of causing bodily harm by negligence. The man sustained minor injuries, police said.
MEXICO
Pemex blames lightning
State-owned Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) on Monday said that a bizarre chain of events, including a lightning storm and a simultaneous gas pipeline leak, set off a strange subaquatic fireball last week in the Gulf of Mexico. The company said an intense storm of rain and lightning on Friday forced the company to shut off pumping stations serving the offshore rig near where the fire occurred. Simultaneously, the leak in an underwater pipeline allowed natural gas to build up on the ocean floor and once it rose to the surface, it was probably ignited by a lightning bolt, the company said. Pemex sent fire control boats to pump more water over the flames. It said no one was injured in the incident in the offshore Ku-Maloob-Zaap field and that no crude oil was spilled. Pemex added that it was repairing the pumps and investigating the cause of the gas leak. Greenpeace Mexico said the fire, which took five hours to extinguish, “demonstrates the serious risks that Mexico’s fossil fuel model poses for the environment and people’s safety.”
Canada
Bed-and-bathroom in one
Being single can be tough, but should you be so despondent about your lack of a partner that you can barely make it from the bed to the bathroom, one Vancouver apartment might be the answer. An ad for a “micro studio” posted on Craigslist this month described the apartment — which includes new flooring, a window and a single bed, but does not include a kitchen — as “ideal for a single individual looking to live downtown at an affordable rate, and who does not need much space.” The 15m2 apartment’s layout means there is little differentiation between the toilet and the bedroom — they are a few steps apart, and in direct line of sight, without a door. All this for just C$680 (US$510) a month, hot water and electricity included. Pets are not allowed. Vancouver is the seventh-most expensive housing market in the world, according to a survey last year by real-estate firm CBRE, ahead of Los Angeles, Paris and New York. This year, a study by the Urban Reform Institute named Vancouver the second-most unaffordable city of 100 major metropolises, behind Hong Kong and just ahead of Sydney. The COVID-19 pandemic meant Vancouver housing prices rose by 20 to 25 percent in a year, the Vancouver Sun reported. Still, the micro apartment’s rent is more than half the city’s average of C$1,107.
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
Three sisters from Ohio who inherited a dime kept in a bank vault for more than 40 years knew it had some value, but they had no idea just how much until just a few years ago. The extraordinarily rare coin, struck by the US Mint in San Francisco in 1975, could bring more than US$500,000, said Ian Russell, president of GreatCollections, which specializes in currency and is handling an online auction that ends next month. What makes the dime depicting former US president Franklin D. Roosevelt so valuable is a missing “S” mint mark for San Francisco, one of just two
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