NEW ZEALAND
Rabbits ‘got out of hand’
In August 2014, Auckland residents Elaine Cowlin and Dylan Lewis bought four rabbits from a pet shop. They did not desex them and the rabbits began to breed. “We just love rabbits,” Cowlin said. “The numbers were in check for maybe the first four, five years — then they got out of hand,” Lewis said. Last month, when there were about 400 rabbits and years of neighbors’ complaints, the Environment Court ruled that all but 16 of the rabbits must go “by any means necessary.” Cowlin and Lewis have until Aug. 2 to get rid of the rabbits. About 200 have so far been euthanized.
JAPAN
Stop Myanmar job: groups
Human rights groups yesterday called for the government to cancel a real-estate project involving the Burmese Ministry of Defense, saying that the project is linked to the military, which has waged a deadly crackdown since a Feb. 1 coup. Local private firms and a state entity are engaged in a multimillion-dollar hotel and office development on land owned by the defense ministry, reports said. Rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, said that the government failed to assess the risk associated with doing business in Myanmar. “We strongly condemn the fact that Japan’s public funds likely ended up in the hands of the Tatmadaw,” said Yuka Kiguchi, executive director of Mekong Watch, referring to Myanmar’s armed forces.
HONG KONG
Book fair sellers self-censor
Sellers at an annual book fair are offering a reduced selection of books deemed politically sensitive, as they try to avoid contravening the territory’s National Security Law. The book fair usually draws hundreds of thousands of people looking for everything from the latest bestsellers to works by political figures, but this year, many books critical of the government have disappeared. “Every vendor will read through the books that they are bringing to the book fair to see if there is any content that might cause trouble,” said Jimmy Pang (彭志銘), president of the publishing house Subculture, who used to sell books about the 2014 “Umbrella movement.”
GERMANY
Houses collapse in floods
Once-in-a-generation floods on Wednesday night caused the collapse of six houses in Rhineland-Palatinate state, police said yesterday. About 30 people were missing and 25 more homes at risk of collapse in the district of Schuld bei Adenau, the SWR broadcaster reported, citing police. “We have an unclear number of people on roofs who need to be rescued,” a Koblenz police spokesperson said. Two firefighters drowned and the army was deployed to help stranded residents after a slow-moving, low-pressure weather system caused the flooding.
MEXICO
Man jailed for 208 years
A court has sentenced a man to 208 years in prison for the criminal homicides of 26 people who died when a school collapsed during an earthquake that struck Mexico City in 2017, authorities said on Wednesday. The Mexico City attorney general’s office said it showed that a works director, Juan Mario Velarde Gamez, had guaranteed the structural safety of the school without conducting the required testing and despite irregularities. The court also ordered Velarde to pay 377,450 pesos (US$19,000) to each of the victims’ families. Nineteen children and seven adults died when the Enrique Rebsamen School collapsed during the magnitude 7.1 earthquake.
Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in an airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said yesterday, with local media suggesting the blaze might have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan, but caught fire in the rear section on Tuesday night, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants and staff were evacuated down inflatable slides, it said. Authorities initially reported three injuries, but revised the number
A colossal explosion in the sky, unleashing energy hundreds of times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A blinding flash nearly as bright as the sun. Shockwaves powerful enough to flatten everything for miles. It might sound apocalyptic, but a newly detected asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has a greater than 1 percent chance of colliding with Earth in about eight years. Such an impact has the potential for city-level devastation, depending on where it strikes. Scientists are not panicking yet, but they are watching closely. “At this point, it’s: ‘Let’s pay a lot of attention, let’s
‘BALD-FACED LIE’: The woman is accused of administering non-prescribed drugs to the one-year-old and filmed the toddler’s distress to solicit donations online A social media influencer accused of filming the torture of her baby to gain money allegedly manufactured symptoms causing the toddler to have brain surgery, a magistrate has heard. The 34-year-old Queensland woman is charged with torturing an infant and posting videos of the little girl online to build a social media following and solicit donations. A decision on her bail application in a Brisbane court was yesterday postponed after the magistrate opted to take more time before making a decision in an effort “not to be overwhelmed” by the nature of allegations “so offensive to right-thinking people.” The Sunshine Coast woman —
CHEER ON: Students were greeted by citizens who honked their car horns or offered them food and drinks, while taxi drivers said they would give marchers a lift home Hundreds of students protesting graft they blame for 15 deaths in a building collapse on Friday marched through Serbia to the northern city of Novi Sad, where they plan to block three Danube River bridges this weekend. They received a hero’s welcome from fellow students and thousands of local residents in Novi Said after arriving on foot in their two-day, 80km journey from Belgrade. A small red carpet was placed on one of the bridges across the Danube that the students crossed as they entered the city. The bridge blockade planned for yesterday is to mark three months since a huge concrete construction
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