Japan rescuers expand forest search for missing boy

TOKYO (AFP): Japanese rescuers scoured thick forest Monday in search of a seven-year-old boy whose parents left him in mountain woods inhabited by bears as a punishment, in a case that has infuriated the public. The parents originally told police the boy got lost on Saturday while they were hiking to gather wild vegetables - but later admitted they had left him in the forest to punish him. The boy, Yamato Tanooka, went missing in mountains on Japan’s main northern island of Hokkaido, which is inhabited by wild bears. Yamato, his older sister, mother and father came to a park near the forest on Saturday, but the parents became angry when the boy threw stones at cars and people, Japanese police said.

On the way back home, they made Yamato get out of the car and left him alone in the forest, driving the car about 500 metres (some 550 yards) away, TV Asahi and other reports said. “They said they went back to the site immediately, but the boy was no longer there,” a local police spokesman earlier told AFP.

About 180 rescuers and police officers widened the search area on Monday, mobilising sniffer dogs and horses to go deeper into the woodlands, according to broadcaster NTV.

Footage showed scores of officers clawing through overgrown forest and tall bushes as a helicopter hovered overhead.

Police searched in the dark Sunday night with torches in hand and calling out for the boy, who was wearing a black jacket, navy blue pants and red sneakers when he disappeared, according Kyodo news agency. “I feel very sorry for my child,” the father told an NTV reporter. “I am so sorry for causing trouble for many people.”

Police said they will look into filing neglect charges against the boy’s parents, according to Kyodo. Japanese reacted with outrage on social media, condemning the actions of the parents. “This is not punishment but abuse!” one Twitter post read. Another added: “The parents are so stupid that I am speechless.”

Many also worried about the fate of the child in the forest, alone and reportedly with no food or water as heavy rain fell overnight. Mitsuru Wakayama, a spokesman for the nearby town of Nanae, said local residents only occasionally pass through the mountainous area as a short cut. “Not many people or cars pass by, and it gets totally dark as there are no lights,” Wakayama said. “It’s not surprising to encounter bears anywhere in the area.”

 

 

 

Big cats removed from Thailand’s infamous Tiger Temple

KANCHANABURI (Reuters): Wildlife authorities in Thailand on Monday raided a Buddhist temple where tigers are kept, taking away three of the animals and vowing to confiscate scores more in response to global pressure over wildlife trafficking. The Buddhist temple in Kanchanaburi province west of Bangkok has more than 100 tigers and has become a tourist destination where visitors take selfies with tigers and bottle-feed their cubs. The temple promotes itself as a wildlife sanctuary, but in recent years it has been investigated for suspected links to wildlife trafficking and animal abuse.

Wildlife activists have accused the temple’s monks of illegally breeding tigers, while some visitors have said the animals can appear drugged. The temple denies the accusations.

Monday’s raid was the latest move by authorities in a tug-of-war since 2001 to bring the tigers under state control.

Adisorn Nuchdamrong, deputy director-general of the Department of National Parks, said the team had been able to confiscate the tigers thanks to a warrant obtained a few hours before the operation. “We have a court warrant this time, unlike previous times, when we only asked for the temple’s cooperation, which did not work,” Adisorn told Reuters. “International pressure concerning illegal wildlife trafficking is also part of why we’re acting now.”

Officials from the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation said they planned to confiscate and remove more tigers from the temple on Tuesday and send them to a state-owned sanctuary.

Previous attempts to inspect the tigers have largely been blocked by the temple’s abbots but in January and February wildlife officials removed 10 of the tigers.

Thailand has long been a hub for the illicit trafficking of wildlife and forest products, including ivory. Exotic birds, mammals and reptiles, some of them endangered species, can often be found on sale in markets.

The government introduced new animal welfare laws in 2015 aimed at curbing animal abuse, but activists accuse authorities of not enforcing the legislation properly.

 

 

 

Everest rescuers abandon recovery of Indian climbers’ bodies

KATHMANDU (AFP): Nepali rescuers abandoned plans to retrieve the bodies of two Indian climbers missing on Mount Everest on Monday, hoping instead to bring them down next year, an expedition operator said. The two men - identified as Paresh Nath and Goutam Ghosh - were near the summit of the 8,848-metre (29,029-foot) mountain on 21 May when they lost contact with the rest of their team. Rescuers found Nath’s body last Friday near the South Col, located at an altitude of 8,000 metres and marking the beginning of the “death zone”.

Ghosh’s body was also spotted the same day on the Balcony - a mid-way stop between the South Col and the summit, before strong winds forced back rescuers, Wangchu Sherpa of Trekking Camp Nepal told AFP.

With the short window for climbing on the mountain now closing and bad weather setting in, rescuers said they could not recover the corpses.

“Rescue workers have called off their operations to bring back the dead bodies of Indian climbers Goutam Ghosh and Paresh Nath because of bad weather,” Sherpa said. “We hope to recover (them)... next season.”

The cause of their deaths has not been established. But the “death zone” is notorious for its difficult terrain and thin air, as low levels of oxygen raise the risk of altitude sickness.

The missing climbers were part of a team of four, one of whom - Subhash Pal - died after falling ill on Sunday while the fourth member, a woman, was rescued and taken to hospital.

Subhash Pal was the third mountaineer to die on Everest this season after an Australian and a Dutch climber succumbed to altitude sickness. All three bodies were transported to Kathmandu last week.

Some 400 people, including more than 150 foreigners, have summited Everest this season after two consecutive years of deadly disasters that led to almost all attempts being abandoned. Hundreds fled Everest last year after an earthquake-triggered avalanche at base camp killed 18 people.

Only one climber reached the top in 2014 after an avalanche killed 16 Nepali guides that year.

Despite the risks and recent disasters, Everest’s allure remains undimmed, with Nepal issuing 289 permits to foreigners for this year’s spring climbing season.

Mountaineering is a major revenue-earner for the impoverished Himalayan nation. The successful summits this season is expected to boost the industry, which was left reeling after an earthquake last year killed almost 9,000 people nationwide.

 

 

 

China bans students tearing up textbooks

BEIJING (BBC): A Chinese city has banned high school students from tearing up textbooks or yelling in hallways to relieve exam pressure, state media said. The ban, issued by the Xiamen Education Bureau, comes 10 days before the National College Entrance Examination. Almost ten million students across China sit for the notoriously difficult, two-day exam every year. High schools should instead provide psychological guidance, the China Youth Daily report said.

An “unconventional measure of blowing off steam before the exam has prevailed in recent years, with students tearing their textbooks into pieces and throwing them off the school building. Some choose to yell in the school buildings to cheer themselves up as well,” CCTV said in an online post.

Xiamen officials also encouraged schools to let students relieve stress in a more “healthy way”, the post said, without giving specifics. The exam, called the Gaokao, determines if and where students will go to university.

Young Chinese people see the Gaokao as a make-or-break moment with a result that could see them hurtle down one of life’s paths or another: poor farmer or doctor; factory worker or scientist.

The exams have been criticised for leading to a culture of cramming and rote learning. When you’re competing with millions of students fighting for limited places the temptation to cheat is high and you can hear Chinese people speaking openly about doing this.

At its most extreme the stress from the Gaokou is thought to lead to clinical depression and even suicide.

 

 

 

WHO says Zika response plan only 13pc funded

GENEVA (AFP): The World Health Organization’s Zika response programme is only 13 percent funded, “severely” compromising efforts to combat the virus that is increasingly becoming a global threat, the UN agency said Monday. But the significant funding gaps in the $17.7-million (15.9-million-euro) plan are not having a major impact on Brazil’s efforts to keep the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro safe, WHO spokeswoman Nyka Alexander told AFP. The UN agency last week rejected a call from 150 international doctors to change the timing or location of the Rio Games, with Brazil the country hardest hit by the Zika outbreak. WHO said that shifting the Games would not substantially alter the risks of Zika spreading globally, but has urged athletes and visitors heading to Rio to take extra precaution against the mosquito-borne virus.

 

 

 

Mumbai police ask YouTube, Facebook to block video

MUMBAI (AFP): Indian police said Monday they had asked YouTube and Facebook to block a video poking fun at cricket great Sachin Tendulkar, sparking the country’s latest row over freedom of expression. Comedian Tanmay Bhat posted the clip, which also mocked famous Indian movie singer Lata Mangeshkar, on his Facebook page last week, angering right-wing politicians in Mumbai who complained to police. Police in the western Indian city received two complaints - one from a local politician belonging to Narendra Modi’s ruling Bhartiya Janata Party who said the clip was defamatory. The other was from Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, a fringe pro-Marathi party in Mumbai, which is the capital of Maharashtra state, force spokesman Sangramsingh Nishandar said.

“We have sought a legal opinion. In the meantime we have written to YouTube and Facebook to block the above-mentioned video,” Nishandar told AFP.

In the two-minute clip Bhat, a member of online comedy group AIB, mimics a conversation between Tendulkar and Mangeshkar. He said Mangeshkar, who is 86, looked like she’d been kept in water for eight days and suggested she should die.

Bhat posted a comment with the video describing it as “nonsense”. “Also I obviously love Lata and Sachin, just having some fun,” he wrote.