new Zealand
Hoiho is bird of the year
The yellow-eyed penguin, or hoiho, has been crowned Bird of the Year, securing 6,328 votes for its second win in the popular annual competition. The hoiho, considered the world’s rarest penguin species by competition organizers Forest and Bird, surpassed the runner-up Chatham Island black robin and the kakapo, earning significant public support in the final week of the contest. The hoiho has an estimated population of between 4,000 and 5,000. Despite its Maori name meaning “noise shouter,” the species is known for its elusive behavior and strong odor. It previously won the title in 2019. Forest and Bird CEO Nicola Toki said the species was in a critical condition. “We’ve lost 78 percent of their mainland population in just 15 years due to predators and climate change,” Toki said.
IRAN
Austrian man released
Authorities have released an Austrian who was jailed in the country’s northeast, the judiciary said yesterday. Austria in October 2022 confirmed that one of its citizens had been arrested on charges “unrelated” to a wave of protests that rocked the nation at the time. “Austrian citizen Christian Weber, imprisoned in West Azerbaijan province, was released from prison in accordance with Islamic mercy,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online Web site said. Weber had been convicted after “committing crimes” in Iran, it said, but did not specify what those crimes were. “After his release, the convict was handed over to the Austrian ambassador for his departure,” it added. Months-long protests shook the nation following the September 2022 death in custody of 22-year-old Iranian-Kurd Mahsa Amini. Amini had been arrested for allegedly violating the nation’s strict dress code for women.
ECUADOR
Droughts bring blackouts
The government yesterday said it is to implement nationwide nighttime blackouts and teleworking in the public sector as the worst drought in decades threatens the nation’s hydroelectric plants. The measures are due “to the worst drought in the last 61 years and aim to responsibly manage the control of our electrical system,” a presidential statement said. A nightly eight-hour power cut from 10pm are to be imposed from Monday to Thursday next week. “The established cut-off time has been chosen with the aim of generating the least possible impact on productive activities and the working day,” the presidency said. Teleworking would also be implemented in the public sector on Thursday and Friday and next week, it added. The government had already announced a general blackout lasting eight hours from 10pm today for “preventive maintenance” on the energy transmission system.
PERU
Illegal shark fins seized
Authorities on Monday said they had seized about 1.2 tonnes of illegally harvested shark fins. The discovery was made at the warehouse of an export company from where they were to have been shipped, without the necessary license, to Asia, the Sunat customs agency said on X. A report published in the journal Science in January said global shark populations were plummeting, despite efforts to curb mass killings for their fins, eaten in soups in some cultures and considered a delicacy. It is also believed in some countries, including China and Japan, to slow aging, improve appetite, aid memory and stimulate sexual desire. The Pew Environment Group said that between 63 million and 273 million sharks are killed every year, mainly for their fins and other parts.
AFGHAN CHILD: A court battle is ongoing over if the toddler can stay with Joshua Mast and his wife, who wanted ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ for her Major Joshua Mast, a US Marine whose adoption of an Afghan war orphan has spurred a years-long legal battle, is to remain on active duty after a three-member panel of Marines on Tuesday found that while he acted in a way unbecoming of an officer to bring home the baby girl, it did not warrant his separation from the military. Lawyers for the Marine Corps argued that Mast abused his position, disregarded orders of his superiors, mishandled classified information and improperly used a government computer in his fight over the child who was found orphaned on the battlefield in rural Afghanistan
EYEING THE US ELECTION: Analysts say that Pyongyang would likely leverage its enlarged nuclear arsenal for concessions after a new US administration is inaugurated North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warned again that he could use nuclear weapons in potential conflicts with South Korea and the US, as he accused them of provoking North Korea and raising animosities on the Korean Peninsula, state media reported yesterday. Kim has issued threats to use nuclear weapons pre-emptively numerous times, but his latest warning came as experts said that North Korea could ramp up hostilities ahead of next month’s US presidential election. In a Monday speech at a university named after him, the Kim Jong-un National Defense University, he said that North Korea “will without hesitation use all its attack
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is in “excellent health” and fit for the presidency, according to a medical report published by the White House on Saturday as she challenged her rival, former US president Donald Trump, to publish his own health records. “Vice President Harris remains in excellent health,” her physician Joshua Simmons said in the report, adding that she “possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.” Speaking to reporters ahead of a trip to North Carolina, Harris called Trump’s unwillingness to publish his records “a further example
RUSSIAN INPUT: Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov called Washington’s actions in Asia ‘destructive,’ accusing it of being the reason for the ‘militarization’ of Japan The US is concerned about China’s “increasingly dangerous and unlawful” activities in the disputed South China Sea, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ASEAN leaders yesterday during an annual summit, and pledged that Washington would continue to uphold freedom of navigation in the region. The 10-member ASEAN meeting with Blinken followed a series of confrontations at sea between China and ASEAN members Philippines and Vietnam. “We are very concerned about China’s increasingly dangerous and unlawful activities in the South China Sea which have injured people, harm vessels from ASEAN nations and contradict commitments to peaceful resolutions of disputes,” said Blinken, who
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