Wild boar crashes into ATM as man withdraws money
A man in India’s southern state of Kerala escaped unhurt after a wild boar crashed into an ATM he was withdrawing money at, breaking the glass door.
Gopalan, identified only by his first name, was taking money from a State Bank of India ATM in Erumeli village when the animal came running towards the booth. It broke through the front glass door and charged inside, prompting the man to escape.
Surveillance footage from inside the ATM showed the boar exiting the booth after a few seconds. The man later sought medical attention for injuries to his leg caused by the glass shards, Mathrubhumi reported.
Kerala’s state government and farmers have been reportedly struggling to tackle a rising wild boar population that is attacking livestock and damaging crops.
Kerala asked the federal government in February to declare wild boars as “vermin” and amend the wildlife protection laws that restrict their hunting.
The state had culled over 4,110 wild boars between May 2020 and December 2023 to prevent them from destroying crops and attacking humans, the forest department said in May this year.
Last month, farmer groups said they were struggling with the boar menace due to a lack of experienced shooters and adequate funds.
Kerala Independent Farmers Association chair Alex Ozhukayil told the New Indian Express that wild boar attacks have become frequent, resulting in the death of at least two people. “The state should take steps to declare wild boar a vermin so that farmers can take the call,” Mr Alex said.
The government has also been urged to adopt more efficient methods such as using trap cages to capture and eliminate the wild boars.
Thai drama accused of animal cruelty after sedating cat for scene
A popular Thai period drama is under investigation for suspected animal cruelty after a cat was sedated to show it had “died” on the show.
Mae Yua, or The Empress of Ayodhaya, follows Jinda as she competes with the king’s three foreign concubines to become queen consort, according to the show’s synopsis.
In the fifth episode, a black cat called Samli is made to drink a female character’s tea to see if it was spiked. A few moments later, the cat suffers convulsions and “dies”.
The scene sparked instant backlash from animal rights groups and viewers who asked to know what was done to the cat and demanded that the show be put on hold until an investigation was conducted and the cat’s safety and health was guaranteed.
Television channel One31 said in a statement that the cat was sedated for the scene and that its owner was present. The sedation was done under the care of experts from an animal modelling agency, according to The Bangkok Post.
The show’s director Sant Srikaenlaw released a statement on Facebook apologising for the scene. “I am deeply sorry for causing such an incident that has affected the feelings of all viewers, animal lovers, organisations, and individuals. I would like to humbly accept and thank you for all the comments that have helped me learn, review and reflect on the welfare of using animals in filming,” he said.
“This incident has taught me a lesson to be aware of my responsibilities and the possible impacts of my work. I will be careful not to let something like this happen again. From now on, I am happy to cooperate in every investigation that will take place in order to ensure clarity, transparency, and accuracy in every process in a straightforward manner. I would like to sincerely apologise here.”
In an earlier post, the director had shared pictures of the cat to show it was safe and conscious. He said he would take it for a health check himself, according to The Bangkok Post.
None of this has helped to pacify the viewers or the animal rights organisations.
“It’s like stabbing a real human for a series and then saying we rushed them to emergency and they are fine,” said one viewer on X, according to South China Morning Post.
Another demanded that the show not air and the channel shut down until the investigation concluded.
Bunyakrit Pinprasong, deputy director of the Livestock Department, said on Monday he had asked the channel for a clarification as well as for the names of the experts that supervised the scene.
The channel was also asked to bring the cat in this week so that the department can conduct a thorough checkup.
The Veterinary Council of Thailand, which warned that sedation for unnecessary reasons could harm the animal’s life, said it would take relevant action.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, in a statement on social media, condemned the scene and called for the director to be banned from working with animals in the future.
“Anaesthetising a cat when it is medically necessary always comes with a risk, so to do it for a scene in a TV show is reckless, dangerous, and cruel. Sant Srikaewlaw should be barred from ever working with animals again,” the statement said.
“The public is rightly outraged, especially knowing that today, anything is possible with CGI, AI, and animatronics. Cruelty has no place in entertainment. If you can’t make a TV show without risking the lives of animals, you’re in the wrong business.”
Taiwan does not rule out US taking island’s old missiles for Ukraine
The US can do what it wants with Taiwan’s decommissioned HAWK anti-aircraft missiles, the island’s defence minister has said without ruling out their transfer to Ukraine.
HAWK is a medium-range surface-to-air missile system used for air defence, which is one of Ukraine’s top security needs right now.
“If the US side requests that we transfer them back to them, we will do so in accordance with the relevant regulations and return them to the US, and then the US will decide what to do with them,” Wellington Koo said while answering a reporter’s question on whether the old American weapons system could be given to Kyiv.
Taiwan no longer needs the weapon, the minister said.
His remarks come as the US and its allies prepare to supply Ukraine military aid before Joe Biden leaves as president in January and Donald Trump, who is seen as being less favourable to Kyiv, takes over.
The US and its western allies have already given Ukraine some phased-out weapons like F-16 fighter jets from the Netherlands.
Taiwan, which sees itself facing a territorial threat from China, has offered Kyiv moral support since Russia invaded in February 2022.
China considers Taiwan an integral part of its territory and hasn’t ruled out the use of force to bring the island under its control. Taiwan’s leaders, however, reject Chinese sovereignty over the self-governed island.
Taiwan’s president Lai Ching-te, who is viewed as a separatist by China, has warned that an invasion of Taiwan would be worse than the Covid pandemic or the Ukraine invasion.
“Any conflict in the Taiwan Strait will have a more profound economic impact on the world than the Russia-Ukraine war and Covid,” he told a gathering of international lawmakers in Taipei in July.
“The war in Ukraine offers many important lessons for the defence of Taiwan against possible aggression by the People’s Republic of China,” according to the Institute for the Study of War.
The American think tank says China is “studying the war and drawing its own conclusions about how to prepare for future conflict in the western Pacific, and it behooves the United States, Taiwan, and our allies and partners to do the same”.
Taiwan has not made any public announcement about directly sending weapons to Ukraine.
The island is in the process of upgrading its own missile defences, announcing a deal last month to purchase the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System from the US.
The deal for the medium-range air defence system, said to have been battle tested in Ukraine, is worth upto $2bn.
China releases new map to firm up claim over South China Sea area
China has released an updated map for a southern city, established to reinforce its claims in the South China Sea, showing new labels for Paracel and Spratly districts, which were formally created in 2020 but had not appeared on maps until now.
Sansha, China’s southernmost city in Hainan established in 2012, oversees disputed South China Sea territories also claimed by neighbouring countries like Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, and Malaysia.
The natural resources ministry released the updated map of the city on Sunday featuring new labels for the districts of Paracel, called Xisha in Chinese, and Spratly, locally known as Nansha, the South China Morning Post reported.
The civil affairs ministry, meanwhile, issued region codes for the two districts. The identifiers, used for census and administrative purposes, typically appear as the first six digits on the identity cards of residents born and registered in these areas.
Sansha, rich in resources and strategic significance, has seen extensive development in recent years, with facilities like banks and schools coming up.
The city’s jurisdiction reportedly covers more than 280 islands, shoals, reefs and related maritime features, along with the waters surrounding them, totalling around 800,000 square miles of sea and land. This area includes much of China’s nine-dash line claims, encompassing the Paracel, Spratly and Zhongsha Islands and commonly understood to cover Scarborough Shoal and Macclesfield Bank.
According to the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, the establishment of Paracel and Spratly districts in Sansha was meant to solidify Beijing’s governance over the South China Sea.
China started administering this area back in 1959, when it set up a party committee and government office on Woody Island. The committee and the office were replaced by new municipal bodies in 2012 when Sansha city was founded, leading to the creation of further local governance structures.
The marking of the new districts continued this expansion, reinforcing China’s administrative presence over its claimed territories in the region.
The updated maps came after China reasserted its claim over the disputed Scarborough Shoal following new Philippine legislation formalising its own territorial claims. Beijing released geographic coordinates for 16 base points around the shoal, marking its first official baseline announcement for this area.
A statement by the Chinese foreign ministry said delimiting the Scarborough Shoal was a “natural step by the Chinese government to lawfully strengthen marine management and is consistent with international law and common practices”.
The previous day, the Philippines had signed two laws defining the country’s maritime zones and right to resources, including in the South China Sea, codifying claims that overlap significantly with China’s.
Ancient ‘migration route’ followed by several human species unravelled
A newly unearthed archaeological site in Tajikistan dating to as far as 150,000 years ago played a key role in the migration and development of early humans and their ancestors to Central Asia, researchers say.
Several human species, including modern Homo sapiens, Neanderthals, or Denisovans may have coexisted in this part of Tajikistan’s Zeravshan Valley, which likely served as a migration route to Asia, according to the study published in the journal Antiquity.
“It turns out that the Zeravshan Valley, known primarily as a Silk Road route in the Middle Ages, was a key route for human expansion long before that,” study co-author Yossi Zaidner said.
In a recent dig at the archaeological site known as Soii Havzak, scientists uncovered an array of stone tools, animal bones, and ancient vegetation.
The excavations at three different areas of the site unearthed layers of human activity dating back to various periods between 20,000 and 150,000 years ago.
These remains, according to researchers, offer clues to the ancient climate and environment, as well as the potential for discovering different human species that inhabited the region.
Well-preserved remains of organic materials like burnt wood and bones make the site “remarkable” for understanding the area’s ancient environment, scientists say.
“This allows us to reconstruct the region’s ancient climate and provides hope that further excavations might reveal clues about human biology in the region,” Dr Zaidner said.
“This is crucial for understanding the development of human populations and behaviour in Central Asia,” he said.
Archaeologists believe further excavations in the area may reveal how populations of ancient human species likely interacted with each other.
This mountainous corridor of Central Asia, they say, could have served as a key transition point for prehistoric human populations to spread across vast regions.
“We hope that ongoing research at this site will reveal new insights into how different human groups – like modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans – may have interacted in this region,” Dr Zaidner said.
Scientists hope ongoing studies to continue over the coming years can deepen our understanding of human migration and interaction in this critical region.
Bali flights cancelled after volcanic eruption near holiday spot
Several flights to and from Bali have been cancelled after the Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki volcano began spewing ash as high as 9km in the sky.
Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia grounded more than a dozen flights on Tuesday and Wednesday scheduled to arrive or depart from the Denpasar Airport, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded, after the volcanic eruption near the popular tourist destination in Indonesia.
At least 10 people died and several others sustained injuries last week in the volcanic eruption on the Indonesian island of Flores, located about 500km east of Bali.
The volcano has been spewing smoldering rocks, lava and hot, thumb-size fragments of gravel and ash from the crater since last week, affecting more than 10,000 people in 10 villages. Nearly 6,000 villagers moved into makeshift emergency shelters after the eruption, which destroyed seven schools, nearly two dozen houses and a convent on the majority-Catholic island.
Jetstar said all flights to and from Denpasar Airport have been cancelled until at least 2pm (local time) on Wednesday. “Impacted customers have been notified directly and provided a range of options,” the airline said in a statement.
It added that the options included “rebooking their travel for no charge or cancelling their bookings and obtaining a voucher to the value of their untravelled”.
The airline said it intended to operate at least two additional return services between Australia and Bali on Wednesday to clear the backlog of passengers stranded at the airport.
Virgin Airlines said it cancelled at least 10 flights in and out of Indonesia for Wednesday due to “adverse weather”.
“The safety of our guests and crew is our highest priority. Adverse weather due to the volcano in Indonesia has resulted in Virgin Australia cancelling all flights in and out of Denpasar today,” it added.
Two Qantas return flights scheduled to go from Australia to Denpasar has been delayed so far. The airline will reportedly resume operations from Sydney International Airport at about 4.30pm (local time) on Wednesday.
Garuda Indonesia flights were delayed in both directions, 9News reported
People have taken to social media to share their ordeal, complaints of not receiving food or accommodation support.
Mark Wilson, who was en route to Bali to celebrate his 50th wedding anniversary, said the flight sat on the tarmac for about an hour on Tuesday before the passengers were informed to deboard.
“I’d like to think we’ll make it over there … But I’ve got a bad feeling,” the holidaymaker from travelling from Gippsland told Sydney Morning Herald.
The 1,584m volcano on the remote island of Flores has shot billowing columns of ash dozens of times since last Thursday, said Hadi Wijaya, the head of the Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation.
While visiting the devastated areas, officials found craters where rocks fell during eruptions, up to 13m wide and 5m deep, in several places including a destroyed school.
The country’s volcano monitoring agency increased Lewotobi Laki Laki’s alert status to the highest level and more than doubled the exclusion zone to a 7km radius last week, prohibiting any activity in that area.
Lewotobi Laki Laki is one of a pair of stratovolcanoes in the East Nusa Tenggara province, known locally as the husband-and-wife mountains. “Laki laki” means man, while its mate is Lewotobi Perempuan, or woman.
Lewotobi Laki Laki is one of the 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, an archipelago of 280 million people. The country is prone to earthquakes, landslides and volcanic activity because it sits along the “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean.
Newlywed couple among 14 dead as bus plunges into Indus river
At least 14 people were killed, including a newlywed couple, and 12 went missing after a bus carrying a wedding party plunged into the Indus river in northern Pakistan’s mountainous Gilgit-Baltistan region.
One passenger survived with injuries. The missing were all presumed dead given the rapid current and freezing temperature of the river, local media reported.
The bus carrying 27 passengers was on its way to Chakwal, a city in the Punjab province, and met with the accident at around 1pm local time on Tuesday, government spokesman Faizullah Faraq said.
The bus fell into the river from the Telchi bridge in the Diamer district after the driver lost control reportedly due to overspeeding.
Rescue workers recovered 13 bodies from the river.
The bride was rescued with serious injuries but succumbed in hospital later. The groom from Chakwal was among those presumed dead.
Pakistan’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, offered his condolences and urged the rescue workers to find the missing passengers.
The wreckage of the bus was fished out of the river with the help of boats and divers.
The search for the missing would be expanded along the banks of the river on Wednesday, the Dawn newspaper reported.
In August, two bus accidents in northeast and southwest Pakistan killed at least 34 people on the same day.
The first tragedy occurred in the Lasbela district of Balochistan province where a bus carrying Shia Muslim pilgrims returning from Iraq plunged into a ravine.
A few hours later, a bus travelling from Kahuta in Punjab province to Rawalpindi veered off the Azad Pattan Road and plunged into a ravine. The cause of the crash, as with the first accident, was attributed to brake failure.
Sara Sharif’s father ‘takes full responsibility’ for her death
Sara Sharif’s father has told jurors he “takes full responsibility” for the death of his 10-year-old daughter.
In a dramatic appearance at the Old Bailey on Wednesday, the taxi driver said “I accept every single thing” while his wife, Beinash Batool, sobbed in the dock.
During the early hours of 10 August last year, Mr Sharif had called Surrey Police after fleeing to Pakistan to say he had beaten his daughter “too much” for being “naughty”, and that she had died.
Despite this, he continues to deny her murder, telling the jurors: “She died because of me. I didn’t want to kill her.”
In a series of shocking admissions, jurors heard:
Previously, Mr Sharif had sought to blame Batool for killing his daughter, who was found dead in a bunkbed at the family home in Woking, Surrey, with a catalogue of injuries.
The schoolgirl suffered dozens of serious wounds including human bite marks and iron burns, as well as multiple fractures and a traumatic brain injury, jurors have heard.
Mr Sharif, Ms Batool, and Sara’s uncle Faisal Malik, 29, formerly of Hammond Road, Woking, deny Sara’s murder and causing or allowing her death.
Cross-examining for Batool, Caroline Carberry KC had asked Mr Sharif about a note he left beside the body of his daughter before taking a flight from Gatwick to Islamabad.
In it he wrote “love you Sara” on the first page followed by the words: “Whoever see this note it’s me Urfan Sharif who killed my daughter by beating.”
Ms Carberry asked if he did indeed kill his daughter by beating and Mr Sharif replied: “Yes, she died because of me.”
The barrister said: “In the weeks before she died she suffered multiple fractures to her body, didn’t she, and it was you who inflicted those injuries?”
The defendant replied: “Yes.”
Mr Sharif accepted causing the injuries, bar burn and bite marks, and added: “I take responsibility. I take full responsibility.”
He admitted causing fractures to Sara by hitting her with a cricket bat or pole. Asked if he broke Sara’s hyoid neck bone, he repeated: “I can take full responsibility. I accept every single thing.”
Ms Carberry went on: “I suggest on the night of the 6th August you badly beat Sara.” Speaking barely above a whisper in the witness box, Mr Sharif replied: “I accept everything.”
Mr Justice Cavanagh called for a short break before Ms Carberry continued to question the defendant in detail about what exactly he was admitting to.
She said: “Do you accept that you killed her by beating her? Do you accept you had been beating Sara severely over a number of weeks?
“Do you accept using the cricket bat to beat her. Do you accept using the cricket bat as a weapon on her on a number of occasions? Do you accept that you used that cricket bat on her with force?”
The defendant replied: “Yes ma’am.”
Mr Carberry went on: “Do you accept the post-mortem evidence that those fractures – at least 25 in number – were caused by you during assaults with a weapon?”
She asked what Sara had done, in his mind, to deserve such treatment, saying: “Were you angry with her because in the summer of last year she had started soiling herself? And she had started vomiting, hadn’t she?
“And when you hit her severely and repeatedly with the cricket bat you intended to hurt her, didn’t you? And you knew that by hitting her in the way that you did you weren’t just going to cause a little bruise to her body. You hit her intending to cause her really serious harm.”
The defendant agreed.
Mr Carberry said: “You have pleaded not guilty to the offence of murder. Would you like that charge to be put to you again?”
Mr Sharif replied: “Yeah.”
However, once the trial resumed in the afternoon, Mr Sharif maintained that he did not murder his daughter and that he “did not intend to kill her”.
When asked what his intentions were, the defendant became tearful as he said: “I did wrong. I didn’t think anything. I wasn’t thinking.”
He admitted he had repeatedly hit Sara with a mobile phone, using it by banging it against her head.
During Tuesday’s proceedings, Mr Sharif denied being attracted to his younger wife, who he met when she was aged 20, due to her being a vulnerable victim of “honour-based abuse”.
Messages read to jurors from Batool to her sister referred to him abusing Sara repeatedly, and said: “I’m so dumb. I don’t want to live in an abusive relationship … seriously I’m so done with this.”
Mr Sharif has a previous history of alleged domestic violence, which he denies, which includes being ordered to undertake a perpetrator programme in 2016 and being accused of abusing three of his former partners.
Despite the concerns of social services about the risks he posed, he had successfully fought for custody of Sara in 2019 after the relationship with her mother Olga had deteriorated.