AUSTRALIA
Wedged woman freed
A woman was wedged between boulders for seven hours after she slipped headfirst into a 3m crevice while trying to retrieve her phone in New South Wales (NSW). Matilda Campbell’s friends initially spent an hour attempting to free her while she was hanging upside down before they called for help, NSW Ambulance said this week. The operation to free her from the “unlikely predicament” in the Hunter Valley on Saturday involved a team of “multidisciplinary” emergency workers. They removed several heavy boulders to create a safe access point. Then, “with both feet now accessible,” the workers navigated Campbell, in her early 20s, feet first up through a “tight S bend,” which took an hour. A specialist winch was used to move one 500kg boulder. A hardwood frame was also constructed to “ensure stability” during the rescue. “In my 10 years as a rescue paramedic I had never encountered a job quite like this,” Peter Watts, a specialist rescue paramedic, said on Monday. “It was challenging, but incredibly rewarding.” Campbell was freed with only minor scratches and bruises.
UNITED KINGDOM
Paddington gets a passport
He has been one of the the kingdom’s favorite and most prominent refugees for two-thirds of a century. Now Paddington Bear — official name Paddington Brown — has been granted a British passport. The coproducer of the latest Paddington film said the Home Office had issued the document to the fictional Peruvian-born character — listing for completeness the official observation that he is, in fact, a bear. “We wrote to the Home Office asking if we could get a replica, and they actually issued Paddington with an official passport — there’s only one of these,” Rob Silva told the Radio Times. He produced the document, complete with Paddington’s photograph inside, adding: “You wouldn’t think the Home Office would have a sense of humor, but under official observations, they’ve just listed him as ‘Bear.’” In the latest film Paddington in Peru the bear travels to the nation of his birth to visit his Aunt Lucy, but discovers from the guitar-playing nun who runs the home for retired bears that his aunt went missing during a scientific mission.
CHILE
Dog vaccine launched
The University of Chile has launched a vaccine described as the first of its kind that sterilizes dogs for a year and is expected to be sold in several dozen nations. The injection prevents sexual behavior and reproduction, offering an alternative to irreversible surgical castration, its creators say. “This is the first vaccine of this type in the world for dogs,” said Leonardo Saenz, from the university’s veterinary sciences faculty. The researcher and his team have been working since 2009 to develop the vaccine, which began to be distributed this month. It stimulates antibodies and stops the production of sex hormones for a year in both male and female dogs. “Everything is blocked: sexual activity and fertility,” Saenz said. The Egalitte vaccine has been patented in 40 nations, including the US, Argentina and Brazil, as well as in the EU. In Chile, it costs US$50 a shot. Ivan Gutierrez, a 27-year-old student, took his dog Franchesco to a veterinary clinic in Santiago to be given the injection. “I didn’t really want him to have the operation,” he said. He is not alone in having concerns about surgical castration. “Most owners are afraid of surgery,” said Mariela del Saz, the clinic’s veterinarian, noting the risk of cardiorespiratory arrest.
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
‘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 —
BORDER SERVICES: With the US-funded International Rescue Committee telling clinics to shut by tomorrow, Burmese refugees face sudden discharge from Thai hospitals Healthcare centers serving tens of thousands of refugees on the Thai-Myanmar border have been ordered shut after US President Donald Trump froze most foreign aid last week, forcing Thai officials to transport the sickest patients to other facilities. The International Rescue Committee (IRC), which funds the clinics with US support, told the facilities to shut by tomorrow, a local official and two camp committee members said. The IRC did not respond to a request for comment. Trump last week paused development assistance from the US Agency for International Development for 90 days to assess compatibility with his “America First” policy. The freeze has thrown
TESTING BAN: Satellite photos show a facility in the Chinese city of Mianyang that could aid nuclear weapons design and power generation, a US researcher said China appears to be building a large laser-ignited fusion research center in the southwestern city of Mianyang, experts at two analytical organizations said, a development that could aid nuclear weapons design and work exploring power generation. Satellite photos show four outlying “arms” that would house laser bays, and a central experiment bay that would hold a target chamber containing hydrogen isotopes the powerful lasers would fuse together, producing energy, said Decker Eveleth, a researcher at US-based independent research organization CNA Corp. It is a similar layout to the US$3.5 billion US National Ignition Facility (NIF) in northern California, which in 2022 generated
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