UNITED STATES
Stuck bear cub rescued
Wildlife biologists in Connecticut had to rescue a bear cub that got its head stuck in a plastic container, state wildlife officials said. The misadventure happened on June 23 when a mother bear with three cubs knocked over a garbage can in the town of Harwinton in Litchfield County, and one of the cubs stuck its head in a clear plastic jar that had spilled out. “Given the warm weather and tight fit of the container, it was important to try and free the cub quickly,” the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s Fish and Wildlife Division wrote on Facebook. Wildlife biologists waited for the cub to come down from the tree it was perched in, and then tranquilized it and removed the container. The bear was unhurt and quickly found its mother waiting nearby, the wildlife officials said.
MEXICO
Four bound bodies found
The bound bodies of four people were found on Friday in the burned-out wreckage of a helicopter in Gulf coast Hustaeca region, along with signs indicating they were killed by a drug gang, authorities said. The killings were the second act of grisly violence in a month in the region, once popular among tourists. Prosecutors in the northern state of San Luis Potosi said the private helicopter was normally used to transport tourists. They said the craft did not appear to have crashed, but rather had apparently been intentionally set afire.
SYRIA
Israel hits coastal village
Israel carried out an airstrike on a coastal Syrian village near the Lebanon border yesterday morning, Syrian state media reported. Two people, including a woman, were wounded. State news agency SANA said Israeli warplanes flying over northern Lebanon fired missiles toward several chicken farms in the village of Hamidiyeh south of the coastal city of Tartus. SANA said two people were wounded in addition to material damage. The attack happened hours before Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hossein Amirabdollahian was scheduled to arrive in Damascus to meet top Syrian officials.
INDIA
‘Masterminds’ captured
Police made fresh arrests in the case of the execution of a Hindu tailor in Rajasthan, a murder that stoked unease between the Hindu majority and Muslim minority, leading to a clampdown on protests and the Internet to prevent tensions escalating. Three senior police officials yesterday said that two Muslim men based in the northwestern state were held for planning the tailor’s murder last week in his shop in Udaipur. “We have now arrested the two masterminds and previously we had arrested two men who committed the heinous crime,” Udaipur police official Prafulla Kumar said.
UNITED STATES
Three deputies killed
Three law enforcement officers were killed and five wounded in eastern Kentucky when a man with a rifle opened fire on police attempting to serve a warrant, authorities said. Police took 49-year-old Lance Storz into custody late on Thursday night after an hours-long standoff at a home in Allen, a small town in the hills of Appalachia. An emergency management official was also injured and a police dog was killed, the arrest citation said. The responding officers encountered “pure hell” when they arrived on the scene, Floyd County Sheriff John Hunt told reporters on Friday afternoon. “They had no chance,” he said.
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
CHINESE ICBM: The missile landed near the EEZ of French Polynesia, much to the surprise and concern of the president, who sent a letter of protest to Beijing Fijian President Ratu Wiliame Katonivere called for “respect for our region” and a stop to missile tests in the Pacific Ocean, after China launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). In a speech to the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday, Katonivere recalled the Pacific Ocean’s history as a nuclear weapons testing ground, and noted Wednesday’s rare launch by China of an ICBM. “There was a unilateral test firing of a ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean. We urge respect for our region and call for cessation of such action,” he said. The ICBM, carrying a dummy warhead, was launched by the
As violence between Israel and Hezbollah escalates, Iran is walking a tightrope by supporting Hezbollah without being dragged into a full-blown conflict and playing into its enemy’s hands. With a focus on easing its isolation and reviving its battered economy, Iran is aware that war could complicate efforts to secure relief from crippling sanctions. Cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah, sparked by Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7 last year, has intensified, especially after last week’s sabotage on Hezbollah’s communications that killed 39 people. Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon followed, killing hundreds. Hezbollah retaliated with rocket barrages. Despite the surge in
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