Tourist killed by wild elephant in Thailand park

A visitor was killed by a wild elephant at a national park in Thailand on Tuesday.

The 49-year-old Thai woman, identified only as Jeeranan from Chachoengsao, was reportedly walking along a trail to the Phen Phop Mai waterfall inside the Phu Kradueng National Park in the Loei province when she was attacked by the elephant.

Fellow visitors notified park rangers of the attack at around 9.45am local time.

When the rangers arrived to investigate, they found the woman’s lifeless body.

Attapol Charoenchansa, head of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, said this was the first time anybody had been attacked by elephants walking on that trail, according to The Bangkok Post.

The trail, known for its red maple leaves, is popular with visitors.

In the wake of the attack, park officials temporarily closed the trail and others frequently used by wild animals to ensure visitor safety.

Mr Attapol said an investigation into the death was underway.

The Phu Kradueng National Park has a cooler climate than much of Thailand due to its high elevation which makes it a popular tourist destination from late October to December. The park opened for seasonal tourism on 1 October and was scheduled to allow visitors until 31 May next year.

Nation Thailand reported that the attack took place in an area frequently visited by wild elephants in search of food. Multiple warning signs are posted around the area, advising visitors to stay away.

Park chief Adisorn Hemthanon said a patrol team was sent to track the wild elephant following the incident and they found its footprints near the trail behind the staff accommodation, leading towards a forest area closed to tourists.

The Independent has reached out to the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation for further comment.

Trump calls North Korean troops in Russia a ‘complicating factor’

Incoming US president Donald Trump has addressed the presence of North Korean troops on Russia’s frontline with Ukraine, but stopped short of denouncing Pyongyang.

Instead, he pointed to his friendship with Kim Jong Un – even though the North Korean government recently rebuked him publicly for flaunting their supposedly close relationship during the US presidential campaign.

Mr Trump said North Korean soldiers getting involved in the Ukraine war was a “very complicating factor”.

“When North Korea gets involved, that is another element that is a very complicating factor,” he said on Thursday while speaking about the geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East and eastern Europe.

He made the comments during an interview with Time after the American magazine picked him as its “Person of the Year” for the second time.

The US, South Korea and Ukraine have accused North Korea of sending more than 10,000 troops to aid Russia’s war effort. The Pentagon says the troops have largely been deployed to Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukraine launched a ground offensive of its own earlier this year.

Ukraine and its allies have also accused North Korea of shipping artillery systems, missiles and other conventional weapons to replenish Russia’s inventory.

Russia and North Korea have neither confirmed nor denied these claims, though Moscow and Pyongyong have spoken of their deepening military cooperation and Mr Kim has vowed to “invariably support Russia in its war” while calling out Nato’s “reckless” eastward advance.

Russia and North Korea signed a mutual defence treaty in June which requires each to provide immediate military assistance if the other is attacked.

In his interview, Mr Trump said that he and Mr Kim “get along very well” and the Republican said he was probably the only Western leader to have such a relationship with Pyongyang.

“I know Kim Jong Un, I get along very well with Kim Jong Un. I am probably the only one he’s ever really dealt with. When you think about it, I am the only one he’s ever dealt with.”

Mr Trump was called out during his previous term as president for heaping praise on autocrats, including Mr Putin. He also cultivated a friendship with Viktor Orbán, the right-wing leader of Hungary accused of overseeing a democratic backslide in the country.

Mr Trump is the only American leader to have held three summits with Mr Kim, in 2018 and 2019, for denuclearisation talks. The diplomatic effort collapsed over disagreements about the timing of lifting US economic sanctions and Pyongyang’s own measures to wind down its nuclear programme.

“He wrote me beautiful letters and they’re great letters,” Mr Trump said of Mr Kim in 2018. “We fell in love.”

The chances of Mr Trump quickly resuming diplomacy and dialogue with Pyongyang when he enters the White House are slim, experts said, as ties between the two countries have only deteriorated further under Joe Biden.

Pyongyang’s ties with Russia and the weakening sanctions enforcement against Pyongyang would present further challenges in the diplomatic push to resolve the nuclear standoff with Mr Kim, they said.

Child among 6 dead after fire breaks out at private hospital in India

Six people have died, including a six-year-old girl, after a fire broke out at a private hospital in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

The incident took place at about 9pm local time on Thursday night at the City Hospital on Trichy Road in Dindigul.

Most of the victims, including a couple and a mother and son, died from asphyxiation due to smoke inhalation, The Indian Express reported.

The victims were found unconscious in a lift and taken to another hospital nearby where they were declared dead.

Some people also suffered burn injuries, police told local media.

Emergency services personnel found the victims after saving around 30 patients who were admitted to the district’s government hospital.

“A fire broke out at a private hospital about two hours ago. The patients here have been rescued and admitted to nearby government and private hospitals,” MN Poongodi, a senior local administration official in Dindigul, told news agency ANI.

The firefighters reportedly worked over two hours to put out the fire, suspected to have been caused by an electrical short circuit, The Hindustan Times reported.

Nearly 50 ambulances were deployed to assist with the evacuation.

Photos and videos showed smoke and flames billowing from the hospital, with fire trucks and emergency services workers trying to control the blaze.

The victims were identified as Suruli, 50, and his wife Subbulakshmi, 45, from Theni; Mariammal, 50, and her son, Mani Murugan, 28, from Dindigul; Rajasekar, 35; and a six-year-old girl also from Dindigul.

The bodies were sent to the Dindigul Medical College Hospital for postmortem.

Tamil Nadu’s chief minister, MK Stalin, conveyed his condolences to the families of the victims and announced monetary relief to each of them as well as financial assistance to the injured.

The Independent has reached out to the local administration in Dindigul for comment.

Air pollution likely killed millions of Indians over a decade

Prolonged exposure to pollution contributed to millions of deaths across India over a decade, according to a new study that called for stricter air quality regulations.

The study, published in The Lancet Planetary Health, assessed the link between tiny air pollution particles and mortality between 2009 and 2019 across hundreds of districts. It warned that there could be high rates of death across the country even at pollution levels below the current national air quality standards.

Researchers from Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet looked especially into the role played by PM2.5, pollution particles less than 2.5 micrometres in diameter that are known to enter the lungs and bloodstream and pose major health risks.

“We found that every 10 micrograms per cubic meter increase in PM2.5 concentration led to an 8.6 per cent increase in mortality,” study lead author Petter Ljungman said.

The researchers statistically analysed the relationship between changes in air pollution levels and death rates across 655 districts.

They found that around 3.8 million deaths from 2009 to 2019 could be linked to air pollution levels staying above India’s air quality guidelines of 40 micrograms per cubic metre.

A maximum PM2.5 exposure of 119 micrograms per cubic metre was measured in Ghaziabad in northern Uttar Pradesh state and the national capital of New Delhi in 2016.

If WHO’s recommended air quality guidelines of 5 micrograms per cubic meter were applied, the mortality figure across India rose to 16.6 million, researchers said.

The study warned that India’s entire population lived in areas where PM2.5 levels exceeded WHO guidelines, meaning that about 1.4 billion people were exposed throughout the year to air pollution that negatively affected their health.

“The results show that current guidelines in India are not sufficient to protect health. Stricter regulations and measures to reduce emissions are of the utmost importance,” Dr Ljungman said.

“Our study provides evidence that can be used to create better air quality policies, both in India and globally.”

The Indian government launched a national air pollution control programme in 2017, the study noted, but PM2.5 concentrations continued to rise in many parts of the country.

“Our results indicated previous data of disease burden from ambient PM2.5 exposure in India are considerably underestimated,” the researchers said.

The study provided the most accurate assessment of the health impact of air pollution in India to date based on state-of-the-art comprehensive exposure assessment and nationwide mortality data, they added.

Why New Zealand’s Maori are fighting to save the Treaty of Waitangi

An umbrella group comprising at least 80 Maori tribes has sent an open letter to King Charles III demanding that he intervene in New Zealand politics and ensure the government honours its obligations to the Treaty of Waitangi.

Since taking office last year, New Zealand’s right-wing coalition government has faced unprecedented protests over its Maori policies, prompting large gatherings of Maori leaders and sharp criticism from the Waitangi Tribunal, which investigates breaches of the treaty.

The treaty, signed in 1840 by over 500 Maori chiefs and the British Crown, is seen as the cornerstone of Maori rights legislation in New Zealand.

The letter, drafted by the National Iwi Chairs Forum, was signed by more than 500 leaders and representatives and highlights growing tensions between Maori and the ruling right-wing coalition, which has introduced policies seen as undermining their rights – such as rollbacks on Maori language use in government and changes to treaty interpretations.

The open letter urged the King to use his role as a constitutional monarch and descendant of Queen Victoria to remind the government of its obligations, emphasising that Maori families and the treaty relationship were at risk.

The letter acknowledges King Charles III’s ties to the late Maori king, Tuheitia, and expresses hope for a strong relationship with the new Maori queen, Nga Wai Hono i te Po.

It talks about Queen Victoria’s role in establishing the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi and criticises the Crown’s historical breaches of its promises, noting that while Maori-Crown relations had recently improved, they have deteriorated under the current government.

“As a constitutional monarch of the crown and a descendant of Queen Victoria, we seek your intervention to ensure that the government does not diminish the crown’s honour,” it says, and adds that the leaders and representatives of the Maori tribes have “grave concerns about what these actions will do to our whānau [families]”.

“Please remind them [the New Zealand government] to respect their responsibility to act as an honourable partner on your behalf,” the letter says.

The leaders also remind the King of his 2022 Commonwealth heads of government meeting, during which he expressed deep personal sorrow for the suffering caused in the past and highlighted the need to confront and learn from this history to build a better future.

“It seems to me that there are lessons in this for our Commonwealth family. For while we strive together for peace, prosperity and democracy, I want to acknowledge that the roots of our contemporary association run deep into the most painful period of our history. I cannot describe the depths of my personal sorrow at the suffering of so many. If we are to forge a common future that benefits all our citizens, we, too, must find new ways to acknowledge our past. Quite simply, this is a conversation whose time has come,” the letter quotes the King as saying.

New Zealand’s Act Party’s flagship bill – the Treaty Principles Bill – aims to replace the well-established Treaty of Waitangi with its own redefined version, arguing that current principles have created unequal political and legal rights for Maori.

The proposal has sparked widespread backlash, with critics accusing it of undermining Maori rights and fostering anti-Maori rhetoric in the country. The Waitangi Tribunal has called the bill a severe breach of the treaty, warning it would limit Maori rights, reduce social cohesion and damage the Maori-Crown relationship.

Act party has frequently called for an end to what it terms “division by race”.

Party leader David Seymour has criticised co-governance – shared decision-making between Maori and the Crown – and quotas addressing Maori under-representation in public institutions as inconsistent with the principle of equal rights.

David Seymour asserts that the bill “provides an opportunity for parliament, rather than the courts, to define the principles of the treaty, including establishing that every person is equal before the law”.

The party argues that the current principles have misrepresented the original intent of the treaty, creating a two-tier system where Maori have distinct political and legal rights compared to non-Maori.

The bill sparked huge protests. Tens of thousands of New Zealanders gathered outside the parliament in one of the country’s largest demonstrations to oppose the Treaty Principles Bill on 19 November. While the bill lacks sufficient support to pass, opponents see it as an attempt to reverse decades of progress in empowering the Maori, who face significant social disadvantages despite making up 20 per cent of the population.

The protest followed a nine-day march that mobilised thousands of people nationwide, culminating in Wellington, where demonstrators, including many in traditional Maori attire, chanted “kill the bill”.

New Zealand’s parliament was also temporarily halted by Maori politicians performing a haka in protest in early November, in scenes that were seen around the world.

A Waitangi Tribunal report warned that if the bill was passed, it would represent the worst breach of the treaty in modern times, potentially leading to the end of the treaty itself.

The report argued that the bill would limit Maori rights, undermine Crown obligations, hinder Maori access to justice, erode social cohesion and diminish the constitutional status of the treaty.

It also criticised the bill for being based on flawed policy, offering novel interpretations and promoting a misleading historical narrative.

The Treaty of Waitangi established a nation state and covered issues such as land and cultural rights, as well as Maori relations with authorities. Though not a legal document, some principles of the treaty have been incorporated into legislation.

The English and Maori versions of the treaty contain key differences, complicating its application and interpretation, some observers say. To address this, over the last 50 years, lawmakers, courts and the Waitangi Tribunal in New Zealand have referred to the treaty’s broader intent or spirit to define its principles. These principles are flexible and not fixed.

Carwyn Jones, an expert in Maori law, was quoted as saying by The Guardian that the principles have been a tool for fulfilling the Crown’s obligations to Maori, citing their role in revitalising the Maori language and establishing the Maori Health Authority (which the coalition government dismantled this year) to address health disparities.

“If those principles are redefined – and significantly weakened – [there] will be fewer legal mechanisms for Maori to have their rights recognised,” Mr Jones said. The redefinition of those treaty principles, Mr Jones added, will leave Maori with fewer legal mechanisms to have their rights recognised, leading to potential social disruption.

New Zealand’s Act Party secured the inclusion of the bill in its coalition agreement with the centre-right National Party, though the latter committed only to supporting it through its first reading and select committee process.

The third coalition partner, New Zealand First, also ruled out backing the bill beyond these stages. This makes it highly likely the bill will fail.

In a joint statement earlier, opposition parties Labour, Green and Te Pati Maori (the Maori Party) urged prime minister Christopher Luxon to block what they described as a “divisive” bill catering to a “dangerous, reactionary fringe”.

While Indigenous people in many Commonwealth nations have expressed a wish to sever ties with the monarchy due to its colonial history, some Maori leaders prefer to maintain the connection, fearing that abandoning the monarchy could undermine their Treaty of Waitangi rights. Maori fear that New Zealand becoming a republic could undermine the protections and rights guaranteed to Maori by the treaty.

Thai masseuse opens up after singer’s death blamed on neck massage

A masseuse in Thailand has come forward to tell her side of the story after a young singer’s death was linked to her “neck-twisting massage” sessions.

Chayada Prao-hom, 20, also known as Ping Chayada, died in a hospital in northeastern Udon Thani city on Sunday after her health reportedly deteriorated following three massage sessions since October.

The masseuse, identified by her surname Aoy, told the Bangkok Post she was shocked to know she had serviced the singer because something like this had never happened in the career of the licensed practitioner.

Ms Aoy demanded “fairness” and said she was ready to prove the truth.

An autopsy revealed that the singer had died from sepsis, fungal infection and a swollen spinal cord, Udon Thani public health officer Dr Somchaichot Piyawatwela said.

She had gone to the massage parlour in early October to relieve pain from stiffness in her neck. However, her health condition continued to deteriorate even after she took two more sessions.

Reporting her condition on Facebook, Chayada appeared to blame the massages and said she was left bedridden with numbness spreading through her body.

She had received two sessions of a “neck-twist” therapy and another massage with a “heavy hand” during her three visits to the parlour.

She was admitted to ICU on 18 November and died about two weeks later.

Ms Aoy said she initially didn’t remember attending Chyada since it had been a few months. “I was so shocked when I heard that I was that masseuse,” she told the Bangkok Post. “I have been a masseuse for years and I have never faced such a situation before.”

“I am asking for fairness and am ready to prove the truth.”

Her massage parlour had the necessary licence and she employed seven licensed therapists, each of whom had done 150 hours of training as required by the law, Ms Aoy said.

Thai public health minister Somsak Thepsutin said Chayada’s test results and autopsy confirmed that her death was not linked to the massages.

“We must ensure fairness for all parties involved,” he said.

Chayada’s mother continued to blame the messages for her daughter’s death but opted against a second autopsy after consulting her family members.

Her death caused shock from the public and warning from doctors.

Chayada’s death was still in the news when a Singaporean tourist died in a Phuket parlour following a 45-minute oil massage on 7 December.

Lee Mun Tuk, 52, was holidaying in Thailand and was at Patong beach that day. He died shortly after developing distress symptoms.

Boy stuck in 150ft well for three days is declared dead

A five-year-old boy was declared dead after being pulled out of a 150ft-borewell in western India following a 56-hour rescue operation.

Aryan Meena, who lived in the Dausa district of Rajasthan state, was trapped in the narrow well for three days after falling into it while playing on Monday afternoon.

The boy, wearing pants and a t-shirt, had to endure plummeting winter temperatures inside the well as well as hunger and thirst.

Children and even adult people dying from falling into open borewells is not uncommon in rural India where they are dug to pump water for irrigation and drinking and left abandoned after they run dry.

The boy fell inside the uncovered well at around 3pm on 9 December and villagers reported hearing his screams.

The rescue team that brought him out said he was trapped between old pipes.

Rescue workers sent an oxygen pipe down to help him breathe as well as a CCTV camera to monitor his condition.

They started digging a vertical tunnel parallel to the well on Tuesday night after initial efforts to pull him out with a rope and other methods failed.

The boy was declared to be in an unconscious state on Tuesday night after no movement was noticed.

National and state disaster response teams engaged in the rescue said they encountered multiple challenges during the operation, including a technical fault in a drilling machine.

The child was pulled out after an almost 56-hour rescue operation that ended at around 11pm on Wednesday.

He was unconscious and a road was cleared to take him to hospital in an ambulance for timely treatment. However, he was declared dead after a series of tests.

“The child was rushed to the district hospital in an ambulance that had an advanced life support system but he was already dead,” police said.

“The child was brought here so that we could try and revive him if possible. However, we declared him dead after conducting the ECG test twice on him,” Deepak Sharma, chief medical officer of Government District Hospital Dausa said.

“From our initial examination, it appears he might have hit a hard object or sustained some kind of injury when he fell.”

He said the cause of death would be confirmed by the autopsy.

In recent years, cases of children falling into wells have been reported from across the country.

In April this year, a six-year-old was pulled dead from a borewell after a 40-hour rescue mission in central Madhya Pradesh state. The death prompted chief minister Mohan Yadav to suspend two senior district officials for alleged negligence.

According to data from the National Disaster Response Force, at least 40 children fell into borewells over a decade until 2019, and nearly 70 per cent of the rescue operations to save them failed.

Myanmar soldiers ‘forced to take meth’ to stay sharp

The ruling junta in Myanmar made conscripts take drugs to stay sharp on the battlefield and reduce their sensitivity to violence, soldiers captured by rebel forces alleged.

Five captured soldiers, identified in a video released by the rebel Karenni Nationalities Defense Force, alleged that the junta supplied army stations with methamphetamines.

They were forcibly recruited by the military after clashes broke out between the junta and ethnic rebels following the February 2021 coup that wrested power from Aung San Suu Kyi’s government, the soldiers claimed.

The civil war intensified late last year after the Three Brotherhood Alliance, comprising the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, the Arakan Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, launched offensives against the army and quickly captured towns and military bases in border areas.

One of the soldiers, identified in the video as Private Poe Htoo, claimed they were given methamphetamines and told to torch “suspicious houses” in the eastern Kayah state.

“We had to torch houses that obstructed our field of vision as well as houses where uniforms were found,” another soldier said in the video, referring to the uniforms of rebel groups, The Irrawaddy reported.

Last year Amnesty International accused the military of perpetrating indiscriminate attacks on civilians and using banned cluster munitions in its fight against ethnic minority insurgents, calling for an investigation of suspected war crimes.

The soldiers alleged that they were given meth tablets, locally known as Ya ba, to combat sleepiness on sentry days.

“The major also sometimes uses drugs,” one of the soldiers said.

The Myanmar military has long been accused of involvement in the production and trade of drugs including methamphetamine and heroin.

The rebel forces reportedly seized 1,300 soap boxes filled with heroin during their takeover of Pinlebu town in Sagaing.

Instability and violence in the country has enabled the production of cheap Ya ba, and escalated the drug crisis in Southeast Asia.

Southeast Asia and East Asia are awash in methamphetamine and other synthetic drugs, the UN office on drugs and crime said in a report earlier this year. It traced their source largely to the border region known as the Golden Triangle where Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos meet.

Shan state in northern Myanmar in particular is reported to have a growing number of methamphetamine labs.

The UN report said the amount of methamphetamines seized across East and Southeast Asia reached a record 190 tonnes in 2023. Nearly 89 per cent of the drugs came from Southeast Asia and mainly the Golden Triangle.

The Independent has reached out to Myanmar’s defence ministry and the Kayah State administration for comment.