AUSTRALIA
Koala vaccine approved
A vaccine to protect koalas against chlamydia has been approved for the first time, a development that scientists believe could stop the spread of the deadly disease that has ravaged populations of the beloved endangered animal. Chlamydia, which also affects humans, accounts for up to half of all koala deaths in the wild. “Some individual colonies are edging closer to local extinction every day,” University of the Sunshine Coast microbiology professor Peter Timms said in a statement yesterday. His team spent more than a decade developing the single-dose vaccine. Transmitted through direct contact such as mating and sometimes to offspring during birth, chlamydia can cause infertility and blindness in koalas as well as severe urinary tract infections where the marsupials end up so dehydrated that they cannot climb trees to get their food.
Photo: AFP
JAPAN
JAL warned over drunk pilots
Japan Airlines (JAL) yesterday publicly apologized after a drunk pilot caused the delay of three flights, prompting its second reprimand from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in under a year. JAL president Mitsuko Tottori held a news conference to apologize for the Aug. 28 incident, in which a pilot had too many drinks in Hawaii and could not operate his flight to Nagoya the following day. One of the flights was delayed up to 18 hours. The transport ministry summoned JAL chief safety officer Yukio Nakagawa, who bowed deeply in front of journalists as he received a fresh written warning from a senior official. In December, JAL banned all alcohol use among flight crew during overnight work stays, after two pilots had too much booze before their flight from Melbourne to Narita. That caused a three-hour delay as they tried to lie about their alcohol use, and the airline was given a warning.
GREENLAND
Birth control report released
More than 350 indigenous women and girls, including some 12 years old and younger, reported that they were forcibly given contraception by Danish health authorities in cases that date to the 1960s, an independent investigation released on Tuesday showed. The Inuit victims, many of them teenagers at the time, were either fitted with contraceptive devices, known as intrauterine devices or coils, or given a hormonal birth control injection. They were not told details about the procedure, or did not give their consent. The victims described traumatic experiences that left some with feelings of shame as well as physical side effects, ranging from pain and bleeding to serious infections. The governments of Denmark and Greenland officially apologized in a statement last month for their roles in the historic mistreatment in an apparent attempt to get ahead of the highly anticipated report.
UNITED STATES
Corpse found in Tesla
A festering corpse has been found in the trunk of an impounded Tesla registered to rising US rap star D4vd, police and media reported on Tuesday. Neighbors of a tow yard called police about a foul smell coming from the site in Hollywood on Monday. When officers arrived, they said they found a rotting body wrapped in a plastic sheet in the luggage compartment, which is found at the front in this kind of electric vehicle. The vehicle is registered in Texas, to David Anthony Burke, whose stage name is D4vd, ABC7 news channel reported. The 20-year-old star shot to Internet fame in 2022 when his Romantic Homicide became a breakout hit on TikTok.
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
VENEZUELAN ACTION: Marco Rubio said that previous US interdiction efforts have not stemmed the flow of illicit drugs into the US and that ‘blowing them up’ would US President Donald Trump on Wednesday justified a lethal military strike that his administration said was carried out a day earlier against a Venezuelan gang as a necessary effort by the US to send a message to Latin American cartels. Asked why the military did not instead interdict the vessel and capture those on board, Trump said that the operation would cause drug smugglers to think twice about trying to move drugs into the US. “There was massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people and everybody fully understands that,” Trump said while hosting Polish President
Japan yesterday heralded the coming-of-age of Japanese Prince Hisahito with an elaborate ceremony at the Imperial Palace, where a succession crisis is brewing. The nephew of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Hisahito received a black silk-and-lacquer crown at the ceremony, which marks the beginning of his royal adult life. “Thank you very much for bestowing the crown today at the coming-of-age ceremony,” Hisahito said. “I will fulfill my duties, being aware of my responsibilities as an adult member of the imperial family.” Although the emperor has a daughter — Princess Aiko — the 23-year-old has been sidelined by the royal family’s male-only
A French couple kept Louise, a playful black panther, in an apartment in northern France, triggering panic when she was spotted roaming nearby rooftops. The pair were were handed suspended jail sentences on Thursday for illegally keeping a wild animal, despite protesting that they saw Louise as their baby. The ruling follows a September 2019 incident when the months-old feline was seen roaming a rooftop in Armentieres after slipping out of the couple’s window. Authorities captured the panther by sedating her with anesthetic darts after she entered a home. No injuries were reported during the animal’s time on the loose. The court in the
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