Every day for the past 14 years, 72-year-old Masaoki Tsuchiya has set out before sunrise to search for a bird rescued from extinction in Japan.. "Over just 40 years, the toki basically disappeared," said Tsuchiya on an observation deck where visitors now try to spot the bird.
Indian police have arrested three men accused of murdering hip-hop star Sidhu Moose Wala, seizing a cache of weaponry including a grenade launcher from the suspects.. Police recovered high-explosive grenades, a grenade launcher, an assault rifle, electric detonators and pistols from the suspects.
A fisherman on the Mekong river in Cambodia has hooked the biggest freshwater fish ever recorded, scientists said -- a 300-kilogram stingray.. The monstrous bottom-dweller beat the previous record for biggest recorded freshwater fish, held by a 293-kilo (646-pound) Mekong giant catfish caught in Thailand in 2005, the US-funded Wonders of the Mekong research project said.
Dmitry Muratov, the Russian editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, on Monday auctioned off his Nobel Peace Prize gold medal for a whopping $103.5 million to benefit children displaced by the war in Ukraine.. Muratov's medal was available to bidders both in person and online, with all proceeds going to UNICEF's Humanitarian Response for Ukrainian Children Displaced by War.
At least 26 more people have died in monsoon flooding and lightning strikes in India, as millions remained marooned in the country and neighbouring Bangladesh, authorities said Monday.. Floods are a regular menace in India and Bangladesh, but experts say climate change is increasing their frequency, ferocity and unpredictability for the two countries' 1.6 billion people.
Pope Francis has fuelled the rumour mill with a postponed Africa trip and the curious timing of an upcoming meeting of cardinals -- but experts caution against assuming a resignation is nigh.. He then joins the world's cardinals -- many of them meeting their peers for the first time -- in two days of discussions over the reform of the Roman Curia, which Francis announced in March with the unveiling of a new constitution.
It's a dispute that plays out in towns the world over: a new property owner wants to alter a much-loved landmark against the wishes of locals.. His exact plans for the property are not known, and his Los Angeles-based lawyer did not respond to AFP requests for comment, but locals fear he wants to take a wrecking ball to the place.
Japan is the home of judo but a brutal win-at-all-costs mentality, corporal punishment and pressure to lose weight are driving large numbers of children to quit, raising fears for the sport's future in its traditional powerhouse.. "The parents end up having the same win-at-all-costs mentality as the judo club and they contribute to it."
Hazmat-suited workers poke plastic swabs down millions of throats in China each day, leaving bins bursting with medical waste that has become the environmental and economic levy of a zero-Covid strategy.. From Beijing to Shanghai, Shenzhen to Tianjin, cities are now home to an archipelago of temporary testing kiosks, while authorities order hundreds of millions of people to get swabbed every two or three days.
Prince William's 40th birthday this week marks a significant milestone for the future king, who is rapidly stamping his authority on the British royal family by plotting a course between tradition and modernity. . "It's a very important milestone for him because, with his father Prince Charles, he's stepping up to support the queen, and also to continue to create an identity as the future king," royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told AFP. Such is William's popularity that many even want him to leapfrog his father and become king when his grandmother dies.
