TikTokers told to stay away from site of Kuala Lumpur sinkhole tragedy

Authorities in Malaysia have warned people against making TikTok videos near a sinkhole in Kuala Lumpur that swallowed an Indian tourist last month.

Vijaya Lakshmi Gali, 48, fell into the 8m-deep sinkhole on 23 August as she was walking to a temple in the city’s Masjid India district. A search and rescue operation to find her was officially called off over the weekend.

Kuala Lumpur police chief Rusdi Mohd Isa said officers have been deployed at the site where the ground opened up last month in the popular tourist shopping area.

“We don’t want the public visiting the sinkhole site to make TikTok content. Please stay away from the area,” he was quoted by Bernama news agency as saying.

A second sinkhole appeared on Wednesday just 50 metres from where the woman disappeared, sparking public safety concerns.

“The site is under police surveillance and we urge people not to endanger themselves,” the police chief said.

A search launched that same day for Gali was called off nine days later after the government reviewed the reports of the agencies involved in the rescue operation.

The search team used high-pressure jets of water to cut through debris to find the victim. While the Kuala Lumpur City Hall had placed over 100 sandbags around the exposed sewer lines to protect them from the disruptive flow of rainwater, the existing issues were dangerous enough already for the divers.

Police said Gali came to Malaysia with her husband and friends two months ago for a vacation. The accident occurred just a day before they were due to return home.

Kuala Lumpur’s mayor Maimunah Mohd Sharif has reassured the public of the city’s safety, stating that daily routines should continue unless evidence suggests otherwise. A task force has been established to assess the safety of structures around the sinkhole area.

“Throughout the incident, we did not direct any of the stalls to close, we only closed part of the area. People can still come and visit along the footpath,” she said.

Plane bound for UK forced to make emergency landing in Russia

An Air India flight en route from Delhi to Birmingham made a precautionary landing in Moscow after facing “technical problems” on Wednesday night.

The Air India Boeing 787-800 passenger plane to Britain made a safe emergency landing at the Russian capital’s Sheremetyevo airport, with all 258 passengers and 17 crew members unharmed. The incident occurred at around 9.35pm Moscow time.

“The aircraft’s crew requested an unscheduled landing at Sheremetyevo Airport due to technical problems,” the airport said in a statement. “Airport services promptly responded to the crew’s request and prepared to receive the aircraft according to the applicable emergency plan. The foreign crew received full assistance from the Russian airport and specialists under the applicable international convention.”

The scheduled departure time of the flight was set for 21.35 Moscow time (18.35GMT).

This was the third Air India flight in recent months to make an emergency landing due to technical problems.

A flight from Delhi to San Francisco in July carrying 225 passengers and 19 crew was forced to land in Siberia after a potential issue was found in the cargo hold area. In a statement, Air India said a team, including crew and security personnel, were on board a ferry flight sent to pick up stranded US-bound passengers from Russia. It had also set up a dedicated hotline for anyone wanting to reach out to the passengers.

Since Air India didn’t have a dedicated presence at the Krasnoyarsk airport, it had to rely on third-party services to assist the stranded passengers, leading to logistical problems, the Hindustan Times reported, quoting airline officials.

The airport had put the flight’s crew in hotels but the passengers were left in the international departure area, which angered some of those stranded, Reuters reported, citing social media posts of some of the passengers.

Another Air India aircraft flying the same route last year was grounded for a day due to a technical issue, requiring a replacement aircraft to be sent to retrieve the stranded passengers.

The pilots had received an indication of low oil pressure in one of the engines, forcing them to land at the remote Magadan airport in Russia. The 216 passengers and 16 flight crew had to be housed in makeshift accommodation at the airport until the replacement plane arrived.

Asteroid detected heading for Earth burns up in ‘spectacular fireball’

A tiny asteroid headed for the Earth has burned up in a “spectacular fireball” over the Philippines, the European Space Agency (ESA) said.

The space rock, measuring only about a metre (3ft) in size, had eluded discovery and was spotted by research technologist Jacqueline Fazekas at Arizona’s Catalina Sky Survey only on Wednesday morning.

Labelled as 2024 RW1, the asteroid was predicted to burn up in the atmosphere, posing no risk to people on the ground.

Several agencies and amateur space observers, including Nasa’s Planetary Defense coordination office, confirmed that the harmless asteroid burned up over the Philippines around midnight local time (4.40pm UTC Wednesday).

Such small sized asteroids strike Earth frequently but are rarely noticed before impact.

“Nearby tropical storm Yagi/Enteng will make fireball observations difficult,” ESA had said.

But clearer weather ensured people near the Luzon Island in the Philippines could spot the burning space rock, with many sharing photos and videos of the spectacular event on social media.

“This is just the ninth asteroid that humankind has ever spotted before impact,” the ESA posted on X. Planetary defence systems to detect and track near-Earth asteroids posing potential risk to the planet have become a priority in recent times.

Space agencies, including Nasa, are testing methods to tackle such life-threatening asteroids.

Nasa’s 2022 Dart mission crashed a rocket travelling at about 6.6kmps into the football stadium-sized asteroid Dimorphous to test the feasibility of deflecting such space rocks from their future Earth-bound trajectories.

China is also planning a mission to deflect an asteroid by 2030.

While large space rocks on trajectory towards Earth pose a serious threat to the planet, even smaller ones that elude detection can cause significant damage to life and property.

Over a decade ago, a 20m-meteor travelling at over 18kmps exploded over Russia’s Chelyabinsk city, causing a massive explosion with the energy of more than 30 atomic bombs.

The meteor’s airburst injured more than 1,500 people from shattered glass, leaving buildings damaged.

While scientists worldwide work to catalogue all asteroids over 1km in size, there is a chance a smaller one may slip through the net once in a while.

Nasa is planning to launch a new infrared telescope called the NEO Surveyor to look for such space rocks near Earth.

Maori chiefs crown queen for only second time in history

New Zealand’s Maori chiefs have anointed Nga Wai hono i te po as their new queen and eighth monarch, to succeed her father King Tuheitia Potatau Te Wherowhero VII who passed away at 69 after a heart surgery.

Ms Nga Wai, 27, is only the second Maori queen after her grandmother Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu.

She was chosen as Kuini by a council of Maori chiefs at Turangawaewae Marae on North Island on Thursday, and hailed as a “new dawn”.

King Tuheitia was laid to rest at Mount Taupiri after lying in state for six days.

Ms Nga Wai, a University of Waikato graduate groomed to succeed her father, is set for a potentially lengthy reign.

“This is more than a generational shift,” New Zealand First MP Shane Jones said.

“She’ll be the face of renewal. Given the extent of Maori youth, I suspect she will personify their aspirations.”

The Maori crown is not automatically passed down. The late king leaves two sons behind, Te Ariki Tamaaroa Whatumoana Paki and Te Ariki Turuki Korotangi Paki, but neither was chosen as the successor.

Maori leaders and politicians agreed that Ms Nga Wai’s appointment was essential for the Kiingitanga – or Maori king movement – with her influence expected to be profound across New Zealand for many years to come.

The Kiingitanga was launched in 1858 to unite New Zealand’s indigenous tribes under one leader in a bid to strengthen their resistance against colonialism. The role of the Maori monarch, although largely ceremonial and without legal authority, holds significant influence as they are regarded as the paramount chief of several tribes.

Annette Sykes, a lawyer and Maori rights advocate, said the queen embodied the future she had been striving for. “She’s inspiring, the revitalisation and reclamation of our language has been a 40-year journey for most of us and she epitomises that, it is her first language, she speaks it with ease,” she said.

“Political, economic and social wellbeing for our people is at the heart of what she wants and in many ways she is like her grandmother, who was adored by the nation,” Ms Sykes was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

“We have all watched her grow up, she’s very humble, I have watched her mature into this woman who has this thirst for authentic knowledge and brings this into the modern world. She’s someone who wears Gucci and she wears moko kauae,” Ms Sykes added, referring to a traditional Maori chin tattoo.

“She is leading us into uncharted and turbulent waters, and she will do it with aplomb.”

Ms Nga Wai was enthroned at a ceremony on Thursday morning in the small town of Ngaruawahia. She was escorted to the throne by the Kiingitanga advisory council of 12 elders from various tribes who chose her as the queen.

“The Maori world has been yearning for younger leadership to guide us in the new world of AI, genetic modification, global warming and in a time of other social changes that question and threaten us and Indigenous Peoples of New Zealand,” Maori cultural advisor Karaitiana Taiuru told AFP news agency.

“It is certainly a break from traditional Maori leadership appointments which tend to succeed to the eldest child, usually a male.”

Ms Nga Wai, draped in a wreath of leaves, a cloak and a whalebone necklace, sat next to her father’s coffin as ceremonial rites were performed.

Since the new conservative government led by the National Party took over last October, the Kiingitanga has become more active in uniting the Maori against proposed policies seen as a setback for their rights.

The Maori are about 17 per cent of New Zealand’s population.

Ms Nga Wai, who has a Master’s degree in Maori cultural practices and traditions, began teaching kapa haka during her second and third years at the University of Waikato, New Zealand Herald reported. Kapa haka is a ceremonial dance of the Maori tribe.

In a university interview, she said kapa haka was a central part of her life. “I go home to my parents’ house and my little nephew is there and he’s trying to do the haka. So it is just everywhere. I’ve been brought up in it, I am it. A lot of people are kapa haka. It’s the embodiment of Maoritanga,” she said.

Police bust baby trafficking ring that sold newborns to foreigners

Police in Indonesia busted a baby-trafficking ring that bought newborns on Facebook and sold them to foreigners in Bali.

Police said the “well-organised” syndicate operated in Depok city of West Java, about 27km from capital Jakarta.

The infants were bought from parents for less than £800 on Facebook and sold to foreigners in Bali at four times the price, police said, adding the traffickers also worked on “pre-orders”.

Eight people have been arrested so far and are facing charges of human trafficking and child protection violations, police said. They include two sets of parents, two people who acted as scouts and buyers, an intermediary and a broker who managed the transactions.

Depok police chief Arya Perdana said the children were advertised on Facebook with prices ranging from 10m to 15m rupiah (£493 to £740). The traffickers then transported the babies to the tourist hub of Bali where they were sold to foreigners for as much as 45m rupiah (£2,220).

The trafficking ring was uncovered after authorities acted on a public tip-off.

Mr Perdana said they were able to halt the sale of two infants, a girl and a boy, who were intended for sale in Bali. The syndicate had already completed five such orders in Bali, he added.

“They made arrangements with expectant parents before the babies were born, ensuring immediate transport to Bali right after birth,” the police chief told news outlet Kompas.

“So if a foreigner needed a baby, they would sell to them.” Police said that a woman sold her baby for 10m rupiah after her husband refused to raise the child.

Police suspect that the syndicate’s illegal activities extended far beyond Bali and have expanded their investigation into other areas.

“What we have discovered so far is limited to Bali, but organised international crime can occur anywhere, and the perpetrators could be from anywhere,” Mr Perdana said.

According to an UN estimate, around 56 per cent of the world’s human trafficking victims are in the Asia Pacific region, with Southeast Asia and South Asia the key hubs for supplying victims.

In Indonesia, a person convicted of human trafficking can be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison and fined 600m rupiah.

Violations of the child protection law carry the same maximum prison sentence, along with a fine of 300m rupiah.

Thai woman rescued after falling into 2m-deep manhole

A harrowing ordeal unfolded in Thailand after a 54-year-old woman fell into a drainage manhole.

The incident occurred on 2 September in Samut Sakhon’s city centre when Wiparat Yonnawa stepped on a seemingly secure concrete cover, only to see it collapse under her feet, sending her two metres below ground into waist-deep water.

Trapped for nearly half an hour, Ms Wiparat’s desperate situation only came to an end when a passerby spotted her and alerted her daughter and authorities.

The incident came just days after a similar tragedy in Malaysia, where an Indian tourist, Vijaya Lakshmi Gali, 48, vanished into an 8m-deep sinkhole on 23 August while walking to a temple in Kuala Lumpur. Despite a nine-day search and rescue operation, authorities were unable to locate her.

Ms Wiparat’s daughter told Thaiger that she was unaware of the accident till a good Samaritan rang her doorbell to alert her. She rushed to the scene and sought assistance from a hospital rescue team.

Recounting her traumatic experience, Ms Wiparat told English daily The Nation that she was out shopping and had walked over the manhole cover, which is near her home, without incident only moments before it gave way beneath her feet.

Ms Wiparat reported feeling pain, helplessness, and fear of drowning. She said that if the water level had been higher, her situation could have been worse.

Arriving at the scene, the rescuers found Ms Wiparat submerged in the wastewater, sitting in a manhole about one metre in diameter and two metres deep.

She was unable to stand or climb out on her own due to extreme fatigue and shock, reported Thaiger. One rescuer entered the manhole and positioned a chair for Wiparat to sit on. A rope was secured to the chair, allowing the rescue team to safely pull Ms Wiparat out of the pit.

Ms Wiparat was taken to a local hospital for treatment of bruises and scratches. Her bruises were severe but did not result in internal bleeding, reports said.

Ms Wiparat, who was visited in hospital by the deputy mayor of Samut Sakhon, called on the city’s authorities to take measures to prevent similar accidents in the future.

In an interview with The Nation, she emphasised the potential severity of such incidents. “If a child had fallen in, they may not have survived. Proper signs or barriers should be put in place if there is any work being done that may pose a danger to the public.”

Sakchai Nimitpanya, the deputy mayor, suspected that municipal officials failed to secure the manhole cover properly after inspection or left it open for garbage removal. Municipal staff had been tasked with inspecting drainage manholes in preparation for high tide in the province, located along the Gulf of Thailand coast.

Bangladesh students ousted Sheikh Hasina a month ago – what we know

A month ago, a student-led movement ousted Bangladesh’s prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, after weeks of protests and clashes that killed over 600 people and pushed the country to the brink of chaos.

What began as student protests over government jobs became a large-scale revolt against the country’s longest-serving prime minister.

Hasina, 76, fled to India on August 5 as anger against her government swelled. But the ouster triggered more violence. Police went on strike and mobs rampaged across the country until a new interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus was sworn in.

Here is where things stand now, a month after the country was roiled by its worst bloodshed in decades:

What is the interim government focused on?

Since he was sworn in, Yunus declared that his key tasks would be to restore peace and law and order, fight corruption, and prepare for new elections.

His Cabinet, which includes two student leaders who spearheaded the protests, has fixed its sights on overhauling and reforming Bangladesh’s institutions, from its courts and police to the Election Commission. To do this, it’s also seeking support from the United Nations Development Program.

Reforms have been a key priority as demonstrations against Hasina quickly escalated into anger against her increasingly autocratic rule. Her government had jailed opposition members, curbed independent media and curtailed civil society.

Protesters also accused Hasina’s Awami League of corruption and said that public institutions, including the Election Commission, had been eroded under her 15-year rule.

What Yunus needs is time.

The 2006 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who pioneered microcredit to help impoverished people, especially women, asked for patience in an address to the nation. He said his Cabinet has worked hard to curb the violence and lawlessness that set in after Hasina was ousted.

“I request everyone to be patient,” he said. “It is one of our objectives that public institutions regain public trust.”

What is the mood in Bangladesh?

Unrest persists. Garment workers demanding better wages have forced about 100 factories to shut down and tensions are simmering, with lingering but widespread anger against Hasina and her Awami League.

Hasina, now in self-imposed exile, is facing murder charges in more than 100 cases. Key officials perceived as close to her resigned after mass protests.

Many cases have also been registered against those associated with Hasina, her party or her government — from former ministers and judges to journalists and even a prominent cricket player. They’ve been attacked, stopped from leaving the country and even jailed. Rights groups have also condemned these lump charges.

Most of the cases are legally weak and politically driven, said Zillur Rahman, executive director of the Center for Governance Studies, a Dhaka-based think tank.

This form of “vigilante justice” has sparked fears that “the system that Hasina perpetuated is still alive, just the victims have changed,” Rahman said.

What about the students?

Within a week of unseating Hasina, the students who drove her out were directing traffic in the capital, Dhaka.

Some schools and universities have since reopened, including Dhaka University, which became the epicenter for the protests against Hasina. But things are not back to normal yet.

Many heads of educational institutions have been forced to resign and in some cases, even though classes have formally restarted, few students are attending them.

Still, many students remain optimistic about the interim government’s potential to bring about real change.

Sneha Akter, a student at Dhaka University, believes the removal of those who were previously in power is the first step.

“By replacing them, we are correcting past mistakes,” she said. “It is not possible to change the entire country in one month. … We need to give the government some time.”

There are those who say the Yunus-led temporary government should remain in power until meaningful reforms are enacted, “whether that takes three months, three years or even six years,” said Hafizur Rahman, another Dhaka University student.

What’s next?

There is a sense that normalcy is slowly returning — Dhaka’s streets are no longer a battleground between security forces and students. Internet is back on and a nationwide curfew with a shoot-on-sight order has been lifted.

With much of the violence eased, there is hope for a new chapter. Shops, banks, hotels and restaurants are open, and police — who went on strike over fears for their own safety — are back at work.

However, their morale is low. Officers are less visible on the streets and seemingly unwilling to tackle disturbances as their crackdown against the students remains fresh in the minds of many Bangladeshis.

Dozens of police were killed during the uprising, their stations torched and looted.

Another challenge is restoring the economy, which was disrupted by the weekslong shutdown during the uprising, sending prices of food and commodities soaring.

The biggest question is: When will the new elections be held?

Some experts say the interim government doesn’t have the mandate to enact major reforms and that it should focus on building consensus among political parties on reforms — and schedule the polls.

Hasina’s Awami League has remained under the radar so far.

Yunus is banking on the support he enjoys among the country’s youth, but Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Center’s South Asia Institute, says that support may have an expiration date.

“If security continues to be a problem and economic relief is slow to come … young people could grow impatient and anxious,” Kugelman said.

Hasina’s chief opposition — the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, or BNP — is seen as having the greatest chance of winning the polls and has been pushing for the elections to happen soon.

“That raises an unsettling question: What happens if the BNP, which has no formal role in the interim government, doesn’t get the elections it wants to see soon?” Kugelman said. “Will it launch a movement? Will it trigger unrest?”

“That could pose new risks to law and order and deepen political uncertainty and volatility,” he said.

Why are wolves wreaking havoc in India? Experts are blaming sugarcane

A pack of wolves has unleashed terror among villagers in northern India as the animals emerge from tall sugarcane grasses at night and pull away children sleeping out in the open during the humid monsoon season.

At least 10 children have been killed by a single pack in Bahraich in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, marking the latest human-animal conflict that experts say has its roots in factors including loss of habitat and the climate crisis.

Forestry officials told The Independent that a sense of nightly terror is palpable in around 100 villages where the pack has been roaming, as children are picked off and their mutilated bodies are found hours later.

More than 35 villages, mired in rural poverty, offer little to no protection for these children who sleep in doorless, thatched-roof houses in the monsoon heat of above 30C.

Stumped by the fast-escalating problem, authorities are struggling to come up with solutions. Their main advice to scared locals has been for parents to keep their children indoors, especially during the night when the pack is most likely to be out hunting.

“We first heard of a child being reported missing on 18 March, but we did not find any pugmarks. In March, we saw a couple of mysterious ‘abductions’ but it was quiet for the next three months. On 17 July, the horror repeated with another child being attacked,” Ajeet Singh, the district forest official of Bahraich, said.

“We realised that these wolves have developed a taste for human flesh and that we are in deep trouble,” he sys.

The attacks are led by a pack of six wolves, including males who are actively seen hunting and prowling through the fields, Mr Singh says. Four of the animals have been captured, while two are still being tracked.

“Thermal drones, cameras, nets and dozens of men are on foot every night and day, combing sugarcane fields, tracking the wolves and capturing them. We’re using the best available technology to take them away from the village,” he says.

The dense thickets of sugarcane in Bahraich allow wolves to rest and hide completely and makes it difficult for officials to dart them with precision. “Around 80 per cent of the fields in Bahraich are of sugarcane,” he adds.

Additionally, climate related factors such as flooding of the nearby Ghaghra River have pushed the wolves deeper inside the villages, leaving them hungry for prey, which is not easy to locate in these places, he says.

Local government official Monika Rani and forest department rangers have started patrolling the area on foot and asking villagers to sleep indoors at all costs, despite the heat.

“People should not sleep in the open, they should sleep inside their homes or on the roofs, and should be careful for a few days. The pack of wolves is attacking new villages,” she told the villagers last week when an infant was attacked.

“We have deployed a significant force against the wolves in the villages where incidents occurred or people were injured but our challenge is that the wolves are very clever and keep changing their locations,” she said on Monday, just hours before another child was killed by the pack.

Villagers are taking their own set of precautions. “We walk in groups whenever we leave the house, we avoid going anywhere alone at night because many such incidents of wolf attacks have taken place recently,” one unnamed villager told Reuters.

Akash Deep Badhawan, a senior forest official who led the search and capture of one of the bigger wolves from the pack, says he is going by the animal’s primal instinct in order to locate them. Loudspeakers, flood lights, elephant dung and urine are being used to deter the wolves from coming near villagers.

“We used elephant dung and urine to keep the pack of wolves at bay from residential areas. The burning of the dung cake would create an illusion of elephant presence in the area. They’re by nature shy animals and avoid confrontations, so we are using that to our advantage, but the sugarcane fields are very dense, interfering with the thermal readings,” he says.

This is not a common event. There are only three other documented cases where people had to take such protective measures against wolves – all three between 1997 and 1999, and all in Uttar Pradesh.

Bilal Habib, a senior scientist at the Wildlife Institute of India who has studied wolves for 24 years, says the animals are merely reacting to circumstances.

“The [long grass] cover around their houses gives an opportunity to the wolves to be as close as possible, which gives rise to these types of circumstances or events. Once a wolf realises that it’s very easy to take your children, they can become habitual after that,” Mr Habib says.

“It is not like she has decided to kill humans. No, it’s the circumstances which have come together, giving them this opportunity to exploit the young ones,” he says.

Once the wolves are captured, and only after authorities establish that they were behind the deaths, the animals should be released far away from human habitation, Mr Habib warns.

“More than 90 per cent of Indian wolves live with humans. But if the human-animal conflict rises, villages will likely poison carcasses and kill all the nearby wolves in their villages. We must prevent that from happening.”