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.
China’s military news agency yesterday warned that Japanese militarism is infiltrating society through series such as Pokemon and Detective Conan, after recent controversies involving events at sensitive sites. In recent days, anime conventions throughout China have reportedly banned participants from dressing as characters from Pokemon or Detective Conan and prohibited sales of related products. China Military Online yesterday posted an article titled “Their schemes — beware the infiltration of Japanese militarism in culture and sports.” The article referenced recent controversies around the popular anime series Pokemon, Detective Conan and My Hero Academia, saying that “the evil influence of Japanese militarism lives on in
DIPLOMATIC THAW: The Canadian prime minister’s China visit and improved Beijing-Ottawa ties raised lawyer Zhang Dongshuo’s hopes for a positive outcome in the retrial China has overturned the death sentence of Canadian Robert Schellenberg, a Canadian official said on Friday, in a possible sign of a diplomatic thaw as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney seeks to boost trade ties with Beijing. Schellenberg’s lawyer, Zhang Dongshuo (張東碩), yesterday confirmed China’s Supreme People’s Court struck down the sentence. Schellenberg was detained on drug charges in 2014 before China-Canada ties nosedived following the 2018 arrest in Vancouver of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou (孟晚舟). That arrest infuriated Beijing, which detained two Canadians — Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig — on espionage charges that Ottawa condemned as retaliatory. In January
Two medieval fortresses face each other across the Narva River separating Estonia from Russia on Europe’s eastern edge. Once a symbol of cooperation, the “Friendship Bridge” connecting the two snow-covered banks has been reinforced with rows of razor wire and “dragon’s teeth” anti-tank obstacles on the Estonian side. “The name is kind of ironic,” regional border chief Eerik Purgel said. Some fear the border town of more than 50,0000 people — a mixture of Estonians, Russians and people left stateless after the fall of the Soviet Union — could be Russian President Vladimir Putin’s next target. On the Estonian side of the bridge,
Jeremiah Kithinji had never touched a computer before he finished high school. A decade later, he is teaching robotics, and even took a team of rural Kenyans to the World Robotics Olympiad in Singapore. In a classroom in Laikipia County — a sparsely populated grasslands region of northern Kenya known for its rhinos and cheetahs — pupils are busy snapping together wheels, motors and sensors to assemble a robot. Guiding them is Kithinji, 27, who runs a string of robotics clubs in the area that have taken some of his pupils far beyond the rural landscapes outside. In November, he took a team
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