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Egyptian Inmate Hides Cellphone in Stomach for 6 Months

The cellphone removed from the stomach of the inmate
The cellphone removed from the stomach of the inmate
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Egyptian Inmate Hides Cellphone in Stomach for 6 Months

The cellphone removed from the stomach of the inmate
The cellphone removed from the stomach of the inmate

An Egyptian medical team at the Aswan University Hospitals in southern Egypt removed a cellphone from the stomach of an inmate who swallowed it six months ago.

The doctors noted the patient (M.A.) was in pain when he was hospitalized. Tests and scans showed he was suffering from severe inflammation in the stomach and gut caused by a cellphone. An immediate surgery was carried out to save his life.

According to Dr. Ashraf Maabad, executive director of the Aswan University Hospitals, "the patient swallowed the phone six months ago. The device prevented his body from accepting food before the doctors saved his life.”

The patient told the team that he used to swallow cellphones and then defecate them in prison. However, this time, he couldn't get rid of it because it was wrapped in a plastic bag, which prevented the digestion of the device and affected his health. The medical team said they handed the cellphone to the police.

This unfamiliar incident is not the first in Egypt. In September, 2020, doctors at the Benha University Hospital, in the Egyptian Delta, removed a phone from the stomach of a young Egyptian who had swallowed it seven months ago.

Last year, doctors at Al Kasr Al Einy Hospital removed 6,500 Egyptian pounds from the stomach of a patient in a four-hour surgery. According to the surgeons, the banknotes were divided into four rolls.

In September 2019, surgeons at Al Mansoura Hospital removed spoons and forks, in addition to chains and rings, from the gut of a 20-year-old man who has cerebral atrophy.

In early 2019, an Egyptian doctor in the Dahkaliya Province removed 20 pounds worth of coins from the stomach of a 10-year-old boy after he suffered from non-stop vomiting.

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Orangutan’s Use of Medicinal Plant to Treat Wound Intrigues Scientists

This photo provided by the Suaq foundation shows Rakus, a wild male Sumatran orangutan in Gunung Leuser National Park, Indonesia, on Aug. 25, 2022, after his facial wound was barely visible. (Safruddin/Suaq foundation via AP)
This photo provided by the Suaq foundation shows Rakus, a wild male Sumatran orangutan in Gunung Leuser National Park, Indonesia, on Aug. 25, 2022, after his facial wound was barely visible. (Safruddin/Suaq foundation via AP)
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Orangutan’s Use of Medicinal Plant to Treat Wound Intrigues Scientists

This photo provided by the Suaq foundation shows Rakus, a wild male Sumatran orangutan in Gunung Leuser National Park, Indonesia, on Aug. 25, 2022, after his facial wound was barely visible. (Safruddin/Suaq foundation via AP)
This photo provided by the Suaq foundation shows Rakus, a wild male Sumatran orangutan in Gunung Leuser National Park, Indonesia, on Aug. 25, 2022, after his facial wound was barely visible. (Safruddin/Suaq foundation via AP)

In June 2022, a male Sumatran orangutan named Rakus sustained a facial wound below the right eye, apparently during a fight with another male orangutan at the Suaq Balimbing research site, a protected rainforest area in Indonesia. What Rakus did three days later really caught the attention of scientists.

Researchers on Thursday described observing how Rakus appeared to treat the wound using a plant known for its pain-relieving properties and for supporting wound healing due to its antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal and antioxidant qualities.

The orangutan chewed the plant's leaves to produce a liquid that Rakus repeatedly smeared on the wound and then applied the chewed-up plant material directly to the injury, much like a wound plaster administered by doctors, according to primatologist and cognitive biologist Isabelle Laumer of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany.

Rakus also ate the plant, an evergreen vine commonly called Akar Kuning - scientific name Fibraurea tinctoria, added Laumer, lead author of the study published in the journal Scientific Reports. This plant is rarely eaten by orangutans in this peat swamp forest area, home to about 150 critically endangered Sumatran orangutans.

"To our knowledge, this is the first documented case of active wound treatment with a plant species with medical properties by a wild animal," said study senior author Caroline Schuppli, an evolutionary biologist at the institute.

Rakus, believed to have been born in 1989, is a flanged male, with large cheek pads on both sides of the face - secondary male sexual characteristics. Rakus was one of the area's dominant males.

The researchers said the orangutan's wound self-treatment did not appear to be happenstance.

"His behavior appeared to be intentional. He selectively treated his facial wound on his right flange with the plant juice, and no other body parts. The behavior was repeated several times, not only plant juice but later also more-solid plant material was applied until the wound was fully covered. The entire process took a considerable amount of time," Laumer said.

The wound never showed signs of infection and closed within five days, the researchers said.

"The observation suggests that the cognitive capacities that are needed for the behavior - active wound treatment with plants - may be as old as the last common ancestor of orangutans and humans," Schuppli said. "However, what these cognitive capacities exactly are remains to be investigated. Whereas this observation shows that orangutans are capable of treating their wounds with plants, we don't know to what extent they understand the process."

Orangutans are one of the world's great apes alongside chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas.

"It is possible that wound treatment with Fibraurea tinctoria emerges through accidental individual innovation. Individuals may accidentally touch their wounds while feeding on Fibraurea tinctoria and thus unintentionally apply the plant's juice to their wounds," Laumer said.

"But it may also be," Laumer added, "that Rakus has learned this behavior from other orangutans in his birth area."

This plant, widely distributed across China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and other parts of Southeast Asia, is used in traditional medicine to treat conditions such as malaria.

Orangutan means "person of the forest" in the Indonesian and Malay languages, and these apes are the world's biggest arboreal mammal. Orangutans, adapted to living in trees, live more solitary lives than other great apes, sleeping and eating fruit in the forest canopy and swinging from branch to branch.

"Orangutans have high cognitive abilities, in particular in the area of physical cognition," Schuppli said. "They are known to be excellent problem-solvers. Wild orangutans acquire their skill sets via observational social learning, and skills get passed on from generation to generation. The population where this observation was made is known for its rich cultural repertoire, including tool use in different contexts."

Varieties

Greek Summer Wildfire Threat Nears, Outpacing Plans to Contain it 

A firefighter sprays water on smoke grenades during a disaster risk training exercise to effectively deal with wildfires, in Athens, Greece, April 4, 2024. (Reuters)
A firefighter sprays water on smoke grenades during a disaster risk training exercise to effectively deal with wildfires, in Athens, Greece, April 4, 2024. (Reuters)
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Greek Summer Wildfire Threat Nears, Outpacing Plans to Contain it 

A firefighter sprays water on smoke grenades during a disaster risk training exercise to effectively deal with wildfires, in Athens, Greece, April 4, 2024. (Reuters)
A firefighter sprays water on smoke grenades during a disaster risk training exercise to effectively deal with wildfires, in Athens, Greece, April 4, 2024. (Reuters)

When firefighters arrived at a blaze in a pine forest on the Greek island of Rhodes last July, flames were already leaping above the trees into the night sky. The volunteers needed to act fast, but dense vegetation on the forest floor blocked access.

With crews unable to get close, the fire spread and within days had engulfed the Mediterranean island, forcing 19,000 people to flee - one of the biggest disaster evacuations in Greece's history.

"Have you ever tried walking through a forest that has not been cleared for more than 10 years? It's so difficult," said firefighter Nikos Karpathakis, who was at the scene.

As another summer approaches, and as climate change makes wildfires ever more deadly across southern Europe, Greece has developed a new doctrine to contain the damage, including deploying an extra fire truck to each new blaze, speeding up air support and clearing forests.

But five firefighters and three experts said the initiative doesn't address shortfalls in planning and prevention and more devastation awaits.

"We are clinging to a doctrine which insists on fire suppression instead of adopting an integrated fire management strategy," said Theodore Giannaros, a fire meteorologist at the National Observatory of Athens.

Heat waves triggered wildfires across swathes of Portugal, France, Spain and Italy last year and caused dozens of deaths.

The situation is especially dire in Greece, which has just recorded its warmest winter on record, creating ideal conditions for fires that threaten crops, homes and the booming tourism industry.

Last August, a fire in the northern Evros region destroyed an area larger than New York City and killed at least 20 people - the deadliest European blaze of 2023. Fires this year have begun earlier than expected, including one in March in a mountainous area normally blanketed by snow.

"It will be a very tough wildfire season. Climate change is here," Vassilis Kikilias, Minister for Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, told Reuters.

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Greece has made strides to combat fires, including building firebreaks around power poles in forested areas and stepping up training.

Some 700 additional forest rangers were hired this year. Crews have cleared 12,000 hectares of forest since 2022 and another 7,000 hectares will be completed by the end of May, the environment ministry said.

"For the first time in 50 years, we're stepping into forests and building firebreak zones," Kikilias said. "Certainly, it won't be done at once throughout Greece but it's a good start."

Under a 2.1 billion euro ($2.25 billion) plan, Greece has concluded tenders for more than 1,000 fire engines and seven DHC-515 aircraft, and plans to install sensors to detect smoke.

Experts worry it won't be enough.

The cleared forests make up only a tiny fraction of the nearly 7.5 million hectares of Greek woodland. Some of the tendered trucks and aircraft will not be delivered for years.

They said more money should be spent creating a corps of wildfire specialists who can draft risk maps and analyze how fires are likely to spread. They recommended embracing firefighting methods used in other parts of the world, such as "backfiring", where firefighters light new fires in the path of existing ones to starve them of fuel.

Volunteer firefighter Karpathakis is haunted by last summer. He said crews laid down 2 km of hoses to get closer to the Rhodes fire. It was too late. Gale force winds blew the blaze beyond their reach.

"I worked non-stop for so many days but the situation didn't get any better."

Varieties

Unique Venues Heat Up Sauna Scene in Sweden and Finland

In Sweden and Finland, some unusual saunas have been built in recent years. Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP
In Sweden and Finland, some unusual saunas have been built in recent years. Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP
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Unique Venues Heat Up Sauna Scene in Sweden and Finland

In Sweden and Finland, some unusual saunas have been built in recent years. Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP
In Sweden and Finland, some unusual saunas have been built in recent years. Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP

Deep underground in a disused iron mine and under the bluish glow of a flashlight, a small crowd emerges from a sauna, steam rising off their bodies as they plunge into a crystal clear turquoise lake.
In Sweden and Finland, some unusual saunas have been built in recent years, offering truly singular experiences.
Nestled in the snowy forests of Bergslagen in central Sweden, hidden 90 meters (almost 300 feet) below ground in this region known for its mines, lies this very special sauna, AFP reported.
The old iron mine in the town of Borlange closed in 1968 before reopening in 2022, redesigned to welcome visitors looking for a unique -- and sweaty -- experience, Daniel Karlsson, the head of Adventure Mine, told AFP.
"If you look at saunas today, it's more like a luxury experience," he said.
But "down here it's not just a sauna. It's also the experience that you get with nature," he said, clad in a thick red parka to protect from the cold and a helmet with a headlamp.
The space offers visitors a moment of respite from the busy, connected world above.
"Because the sauna is down in the mine, there is nothing that disturbs you from enjoying the sauna."
"You don't have mobile phones, you don't have the sun, you don't have the wind," he said.
Heat on a high
Saunas are enjoyed around the world as a method of relaxation, claimed by some to provide health benefits.
They originated in Finland and Estonia, typically built as small wooden cabins where dry heat up to 100 degrees Celsius (212 F) with very low humidity is produced from a stove or hot rocks.
Having a sauna has been a social and hygiene tradition for more than 2,000 years.
Now, sauna enthusiasts who want to expand their horizons can reach new heights in Helsinki.
In the Finnish capital, a giant ferris wheel overlooking the city offers a sauna in one of its specially-built pods.
The sweat session could easily burn a hole in your wallet though, costing between 240 and 350 euros ($255 to $375).
"You can get a pretty good steam and heat here if you really want to," said shift manager Viivi Makelainen.
"Although it's pretty small, you can fit quite a few people in here, four or five. Also the views are more fun when you're in the sauna."
Saunas are an integral part of daily life for most Finns.
The country of 5.5 million inhabitants is home to 3.3 million saunas.
Traditionally considered a sacred space in Finland, 'a church of nature', the Finnish sauna culture was named a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2020.
'Intimacy with the surroundings'
Saunas in the Nordic countries are typically small wooden cabins located near the shore (for a quick dip), deep in the forest (for a quick roll in the snow) or in a home (with a quick shower to refresh).
But one special sauna in the Stockholm archipelago is making waves -- sailing on the waters of the capital city.
The "Big Branzino", a luxury floating sauna measuring 30 square meters (322 square feet), was designed and built in 2022 at the request of a private person.
The structure resembles a square wooden cabin, featuring floor-to-ceiling glass windows and an open-air wheelhouse on the deck.
Inside, a custom-made wood stove with hot rocks is surrounded by wooden benches and chairs, while outside, a rooftop terrace features a large table and seating area to take in the view.
"A client came to the firm and he wanted a truly extraordinary sauna that he hadn't seen before," architect Johan Strandlund told AFP.
"So we came up with this shape in order to really maximize the intimacy with its surroundings, and we also wanted a truly breathtaking presence on the horizon," he said.
Strandlund said the floating sauna appealed to nature- and sauna-loving Swedes.
"I think it's the way that we really like to enjoy the beautiful nature that we have around here in Stockholm."
And "even when you're not using the sauna, the fire is a great source of heat, for example for cold summer nights."

Varieties

Over 500 Baby Sea Turtles Washed Ashore in a Big Storm off South Africa

A 102-pound, female loggerhead sea turtle that was caught off the Galveston Fishing Pier earlier in the summer makes her way into the Gulf of Mexico after being rehabilitated at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's sea turtle facility in Galveston, Texas, Sept. 16, 2015. (AP)
A 102-pound, female loggerhead sea turtle that was caught off the Galveston Fishing Pier earlier in the summer makes her way into the Gulf of Mexico after being rehabilitated at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's sea turtle facility in Galveston, Texas, Sept. 16, 2015. (AP)
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Over 500 Baby Sea Turtles Washed Ashore in a Big Storm off South Africa

A 102-pound, female loggerhead sea turtle that was caught off the Galveston Fishing Pier earlier in the summer makes her way into the Gulf of Mexico after being rehabilitated at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's sea turtle facility in Galveston, Texas, Sept. 16, 2015. (AP)
A 102-pound, female loggerhead sea turtle that was caught off the Galveston Fishing Pier earlier in the summer makes her way into the Gulf of Mexico after being rehabilitated at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's sea turtle facility in Galveston, Texas, Sept. 16, 2015. (AP)

An aquarium in South Africa is stretched beyond capacity after more than 500 baby sea turtles were washed up on beaches by a rare and powerful storm and rescued by members of the public.

The little turtles are mostly endangered loggerheads and should be cruising the ocean. Most of them instead will spend the first few months of their lives in newly built plastic tanks at the Turtle Conservation Center at the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town. The aquarium is rehabilitating around 400 of the roughly 530 sick and injured turtles that were brought in, while sending the rest to two other aquariums to spread the load.

Baby turtles have to fend for themselves from the moment they hatch on beaches and make their way to the ocean.

In South Africa, loggerheads hatch on the northeast coast on the far side of the country from Cape Town. These turtles were likely sucked in by the warm Indian Ocean Agulhas Current, carried around the tip of South Africa and spat out in the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Town.

That's fairly common, said Talitha Noble-Trull, the head of the Turtle Conservation Center. She's in charge of treating the new arrivals.

What isn't normal is the powerful storm that recently hit the Cape Town area, leaving hundreds of baby turtles needing help.

The conservation center usually receives a few to maybe 100 stranded young turtles in the three to four months after hatching season. It has a normal capacity of 150 turtles.

"What we haven’t seen before is over 500 turtles in two weeks, which is what the last little bit of time has brought us," Noble-Trull said. "My budgeting plans for the year have really gone out the window."

She estimated that each turtle will cost $500 to get back to full strength before being released into the warmer Indian Ocean in a few months. The Turtle Conservation Center has brought in a small army of volunteers to help the aquarium's full-time staff care for them.

The turtles are ranked according to how sick they are, with some needing intensive care due to injuries, malnutrition or infection. A number is written on each shell to identify them.

While the storm was a major shock to the turtles, who are vulnerable to extreme weather and climate change, it has given Noble-Trull and other conservationists a valuable insight into another increasingly common danger.

Many of the turtles had ingested small pieces of plastic, which exited their systems after they arrived at the aquarium. Noble-Trull has a tray of plastic pieces collected in just one day, some as big as a fingernail.

The conservation team normally wouldn't see that amount of evidence of plastic pollution in the ocean.

Turtles spend almost all their lives in the ocean, apart from when they're born and when females return to shore to lay eggs. Because of that, they're "ocean indicators," Noble-Trull said.

"Little bits of soft plastic, little bits of hard plastic are floating all along the oceans and turtles are eating them. So, for us it’s very important to be collecting and capturing this data. Because these turtles are coming at us with a message. They’re not telling us. They’re shouting it at us. That our oceans are not a safe place for turtles."

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Utah Cat with a Fondness for Cardboard Takes Surprise Trip to California in an Amazon Box

In this photo provided by Carrie Clark of Lehi, Utah, is Galena, a 6-year-old house cat. Clark says Galena went missing after jumping into a box being returned to Amazon without its owners noticing. (Carrie Clark via AP Photo)
In this photo provided by Carrie Clark of Lehi, Utah, is Galena, a 6-year-old house cat. Clark says Galena went missing after jumping into a box being returned to Amazon without its owners noticing. (Carrie Clark via AP Photo)
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Utah Cat with a Fondness for Cardboard Takes Surprise Trip to California in an Amazon Box

In this photo provided by Carrie Clark of Lehi, Utah, is Galena, a 6-year-old house cat. Clark says Galena went missing after jumping into a box being returned to Amazon without its owners noticing. (Carrie Clark via AP Photo)
In this photo provided by Carrie Clark of Lehi, Utah, is Galena, a 6-year-old house cat. Clark says Galena went missing after jumping into a box being returned to Amazon without its owners noticing. (Carrie Clark via AP Photo)

Galena, a 6-year-old house cat from Utah, likes hiding and playing with cardboard.

Earlier this month, the combination of the two made for a stressful trip in an Amazon package, a feverish search, a California rescue and a tearful reunion.

Her family is still waiting to "reintroduce cardboard to her again," owner Carrie Clark said Tuesday, because they don't want to stress her out.

Clark got Galena as a kitten after her aunt rescued a pregnant feral cat. The American short hair with calico and Siamese coloring has been a constant companion and source of emotional support.

"I’ve been through a bunch of health things and she and I have gone through all of that together. And she’s she just has this extra great part about her personality that’s very loving. And she can tell when you don’t feel well," Clark said. "And she's just really, really special to me."

So when Galena disappeared on April 10, Clark was beside herself.

They searched the neighborhood, put up flyers and posted notices on Facebook lost pet pages in Lehi, Utah.

"Not knowing what had happened to her was pretty excruciating," Clark said, "I cried my eyes out for seven days trying to figure out what had happened." Clark also ran through all the worst-case scenarios, wondering if the cat could have gotten out of the house and been nabbed by a predator or run over by a vehicle.

Clark said she received a "text that changed my life" on April 17, saying that Galena's microchip had been scanned, so Clark knew she had been found somewhere. Soon after, she got a call saying her cat was near Riverside, California, after being found in a box along with steel-toed boots that had been returned to an Amazon warehouse.

Clark's husband had ordered several pairs of boots, kept one and returned the rest in a large box on April 10.

"We realized that that our sweet kitty must have jumped into that box without us knowing," she said.

Amazon employees knew just who to call when they found the feline — co-worker Brandy Hunter, who rescues cats, Clark said.

Hunter took the cat home and to the vet the next day, where the microchip was scanned.

Clark spoke with Hunter who "calmed me down and told me that my kitty was OK," despite having spent six days in a cardboard box without food or water.

"I wanted desperately to be with her," Clark said. She and her husband flew to California the next day, reunited with Galena at the veterinarian's office and rented a car to drive home.

"We did what we needed to do because I just adore her," Clark said.

It was an intensely emotional week.

"I went from hysterically laughing that she was stuck like that — we mailed our cat — you know ... just the humor part of that, to hysterically crying all within like five seconds," Clark said.

The family was lucky to get Galena back, Clark said, in part because the weather was not harsh during the time the cat was missing, the box was torn at a seam, allowing her to get more air, and because Hunter who took her to a vet and had her scanned for a microchip.

Since word got out, Clark has been sharing her cat's story, with advice to microchip your pets and to double-check your Amazon boxes before returning them.

Galena is a quiet cat, Clark said.

"She didn’t meow," Clark said. "We would have loved for her to meow so we knew that she was," in the box.

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April Temperatures in Bangladesh Hottest on Record

A vehicle of the Dhaka North City Corporation sprays water along a busy road to lower the temperature amidst a heatwave. MUNIR UZ ZAMAN / AFP
A vehicle of the Dhaka North City Corporation sprays water along a busy road to lower the temperature amidst a heatwave. MUNIR UZ ZAMAN / AFP
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April Temperatures in Bangladesh Hottest on Record

A vehicle of the Dhaka North City Corporation sprays water along a busy road to lower the temperature amidst a heatwave. MUNIR UZ ZAMAN / AFP
A vehicle of the Dhaka North City Corporation sprays water along a busy road to lower the temperature amidst a heatwave. MUNIR UZ ZAMAN / AFP

Bangladesh's weather bureau said Wednesday that last month was the hottest April on record, with the South Asian nation and much of the region still enduring a suffocating heatwave.
Extensive scientific research has found climate change is causing heatwaves to become longer, more frequent and more intense.
Punishing heat last month prompted Bangladesh's government to close schools across the country, keeping an estimated 32 million students at home.
"This year the heatwave covered around 80 percent of the country. We've not seen such unbroken and expansive heatwaves before," Bangladesh Meteorological Department senior forecaster Muhammad Abul Kalam Mallik told AFP.
He said last month was the hottest April in Bangladesh since records began in 1948 "in terms of hot days and area coverage in the country".
Weather stations around Bangladesh had recorded temperatures between two and eight degrees higher than the 33.2 degrees Celsius (91.8 degrees Fahrenheit) average daily temperature for April between 1981 and 2010, he added.
Health department spokesman Selim Raihan told AFP the government had confirmed at least 11 heat stroke-related deaths in the past 10 days.
Rains are expected to bring some relief to Bangladesh from Thursday after a week of sweltering temperatures, with the capital Dhaka recording several days over 40C (104F).
Mallik said the severity of the heat had been worsened by the absence of the usual pre-monsoon April thunderstorms which normally cool the South Asian nation ahead of summer.
"Bangladesh gets an average of 130.2 millimeters of rain in April. But this April we got an average of one millimeter of rain," he said.
Mallik said the bureau was checking data to confirm whether this year marked record low rainfalls for April.
Schools in Bangladesh will remain closed until Sunday.
The government ordered classrooms reopened last weekend, but a top Bangladeshi court directed them to be shut them again on Monday after taking into consideration reports that several teachers had died in the heatwave.
'Life has become unbearable'
Thousands gathered at mosques and in open fields around the Muslim-majority nation last week to pray for rain.
"Life has become unbearable due to lack of rains," Muhammad Abu Yusuf, an Islamic cleric who led one such service, told AFP last week.
"Poor people are suffering immensely."
Large swaths of South and Southeast Asia are sweltering through a heatwave that has topped temperature records from Myanmar to the Philippines, with the El Nino phenomenon also driving this year's exceptionally warm weather.
Weather bureaus in Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam and India have also all forecast temperatures above 40C (104F).
The months preceding the region's monsoon, or rainy season, are usually hot but temperatures this year are well above average in many countries.
Asia is also warming faster than the global average, according to the World Meteorological Organization, a UN agency.

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King Charles III Returns to Public Duties with Trip to a Cancer Charity

File photo: Britain's King Charles leaves the London Clinic after receiving treatment for an enlarged prostate, in London, Britain January 29, 2024. (Reuters)
File photo: Britain's King Charles leaves the London Clinic after receiving treatment for an enlarged prostate, in London, Britain January 29, 2024. (Reuters)
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King Charles III Returns to Public Duties with Trip to a Cancer Charity

File photo: Britain's King Charles leaves the London Clinic after receiving treatment for an enlarged prostate, in London, Britain January 29, 2024. (Reuters)
File photo: Britain's King Charles leaves the London Clinic after receiving treatment for an enlarged prostate, in London, Britain January 29, 2024. (Reuters)

King Charles III returned to public duties on Tuesday, visiting a cancer treatment charity and beginning his carefully managed comeback after the monarch’s own cancer diagnosis sidelined him for three months.

The event marks the king’s first formal public engagement since Feb. 6, when Buckingham Palace announced that he would be taking a break from public duties to focus on his treatment for an undisclosed type of cancer.

It will be the first of several public appearances Charles will make in the coming weeks as he prepares to host a state visit by the emperor and empress of Japan in June.

It is unclear how many of the summer’s traditional royal events, including the king’s formal birthday parade and the horse racing at Royal Ascot, Charles will attend as his treatment continues. The palace said last week that doctors were “very encouraged” by the king’s progress, but his schedule would be adjusted as needed to protect his recovery, The AP reported.

For now, Tuesday’s appearance gives Charles another opportunity to raise awareness of the benefits of early diagnosis and treatment of cancer and other health problems as he has done throughout his illness.

Unlike most royals before him, Charles chose to publicly disclose details about his health when he first underwent treatment for an enlarged prostate and later when he was diagnosed with cancer. The decision raised awareness of these issues.

The National Health Service in England said the number of people seeking advice about prostate problems increased 11-fold in the weeks after Charles’ announced he was undergoing treatment.

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Forest Fires Raze Parts of India amid Heat, Dry Weather

File Photo: Firefighters work at the scene of forest fire near Kyuyorelyakh village at Gorny Ulus area, west of Yakutsk, in Russia Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021. (AP)
File Photo: Firefighters work at the scene of forest fire near Kyuyorelyakh village at Gorny Ulus area, west of Yakutsk, in Russia Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021. (AP)
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Forest Fires Raze Parts of India amid Heat, Dry Weather

File Photo: Firefighters work at the scene of forest fire near Kyuyorelyakh village at Gorny Ulus area, west of Yakutsk, in Russia Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021. (AP)
File Photo: Firefighters work at the scene of forest fire near Kyuyorelyakh village at Gorny Ulus area, west of Yakutsk, in Russia Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021. (AP)

Frequent fires are razing forests in India's Uttarakhand state in the north and Odisha in the east amid high temperatures and long dry spells, and the blazes have been worsened by people burning the forest to collect a flower used to brew alcohol.

Data from the state-run Forest Survey of India shows that as of 2021, 54.4% of forests in India experienced occasional fires, most of them due to man-made factors.

"Agriculture stubble burning, misconceptions and burning of shrubs to shoo away wildlife are major reasons behind the forest fires," Swapnil Aniruddh, a forest official in Uttarakhand, told Reuters.

After a brief respite during the previous season from November to April, forest fires have picked up again this year, with 653 incidents in Uttarakhand alone, government data shows.

Odisha's fires have been exacerbated by people setting parts of the forest ablaze to collect Mahua flowers, which are highly sought after as they are used to brew a popular liquor.

During the current season, 10,163 fire points in Uttarakhand have been detected using the government's imaging radiometer.

Overall, loss of significant forest cover is a big worry for India as it tries to dramatically reduce its climate-changing emissions.

Among the organizations helping to curb the fires is the Indian Air Force, which has used the aerial firefighting 'Bambi Bucket' technique of collecting water from a nearby lake to spray over the region.

The situation may get worse, with India's weather department predicting more heat-wave days than normal between April and June this year, along with a longer dry spell for Uttarakhand.

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Indonesia Volcano Erupts, More Than 12,000 People Evacuated

An eruption from Mount Ruang volcano is seen from Tagulandang island in Sitaro, North Sulawesi, on April 30, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
An eruption from Mount Ruang volcano is seen from Tagulandang island in Sitaro, North Sulawesi, on April 30, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
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Indonesia Volcano Erupts, More Than 12,000 People Evacuated

An eruption from Mount Ruang volcano is seen from Tagulandang island in Sitaro, North Sulawesi, on April 30, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
An eruption from Mount Ruang volcano is seen from Tagulandang island in Sitaro, North Sulawesi, on April 30, 2024. (Photo by AFP)

Indonesia's Ruang volcano erupted on Tuesday, spewing lava as lightning flashes lit up its crater, prompting authorities to raise the alert status and evacuate more than 12,000 people living on a nearby island, Reuters reported.
The Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG) had warned the residents of Tagulandang island that a tsunami could be triggered by volcanic material collapsing into the ocean.
The warning, issued on Tuesday morning, remained in placed as of the afternoon.
The agency raised the alert status of Ruang to the highest level following the early morning eruption, urging residents not to go near the volcano.
Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency (BNPB) said that all 843 residents living in Ruang island, where the volcano is located, have been moved to Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi province. Residents of Tagulandang island are being relocated to Siau island to the north.
The eruption follows a series of eruptions earlier this month that forced hundreds to evacuate, and the airport in the provincial capital of Manado to close. That eruption also caused damage to some homes. At the time, the volcanology also issued a warning about the potential for a tsunami.
Footage shared by Indonesia's disaster agency showed strikes of lightning flashing above Ruang's crater, as fiery red clouds of lava and rocks were projected into the air and rained down around the island.
The volcanology agency said the eruption column reached 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) high, and urged any remaining residents within a 7-km, previously 6-km, radius to immediately evacuate, warning of possible further "explosive eruptions".
Ruang island is about 100 km from Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi province in the north-central region of the sprawling Indonesian archipelago.
The eruption corresponded with a spike in seismic activity and deep volcanic earthquakes, the disaster agency said.
Authorities closed Manado's Sam Ratulangi airport again on Tuesday, citing the possible spread of volcanic ash, the airport operator said in an Instagram post. The airport will remain closed until noon on Wednesday, the transport ministry said.
Authorities downgraded the status level to level 3 last week before bumping it up again to level 4 on Tuesday.

Varieties

Plastic Pollution Talks Move Closer to World-first Pact

A sculpture titled "Giant Plastic Tap" by Canadian artist Benjamin Von Wong is displayed outside the fourth session of the UN Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution that has wrapped up in Ottawa, Canada. Dave Chan / AFP
A sculpture titled "Giant Plastic Tap" by Canadian artist Benjamin Von Wong is displayed outside the fourth session of the UN Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution that has wrapped up in Ottawa, Canada. Dave Chan / AFP
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Plastic Pollution Talks Move Closer to World-first Pact

A sculpture titled "Giant Plastic Tap" by Canadian artist Benjamin Von Wong is displayed outside the fourth session of the UN Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution that has wrapped up in Ottawa, Canada. Dave Chan / AFP
A sculpture titled "Giant Plastic Tap" by Canadian artist Benjamin Von Wong is displayed outside the fourth session of the UN Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution that has wrapped up in Ottawa, Canada. Dave Chan / AFP

A fourth and penultimate round of UN-led negotiations to solve global plastic pollution wrapped up in Ottawa early on Tuesday with a world-first pact said to be within reach by year's end but without a cap on the production of polymers.
For the first time in the negotiations, delegates from 175 countries and observers discussed a draft of what is to become a global treaty on ending the scourge of plastics that are found everywhere from mountain tops to ocean depths, as well as within human blood and breast milk, AFP said.
The current session picked up where talks in Kenya left off five months ago.
They also agreed to a series of consultations between now and November, when the final round of talks is to be held in South Korea.
The Ottawa talks saw "a massive, monumental change in the tone and in the energy" compared with the previous round, Canadian parliamentary secretary Julie Dabrusin said.
"I'm really optimistic that we can get to an agreement by the end of the year... to end plastic pollution by 2040," she said.
Dabrusin and others welcomed a shift in the negotiations from vague objectives to treaty language, as well as streamlining options presented in Kenya.
However, a proposed cap on plastic production did not make it into the draft text and remains a major sticking point.
Although there is a broad consensus on the need for a treaty, environmental activists pleading for a cut in plastic production remain at odds with oil-producing nations and the plastics industry, which favors recycling.
Recycling versus production cut
Ana Rocha, speaking on behalf of Global South nations, said there had been "a growing willingness to address primary plastic polymers under the treaty."
This is crucial, according to environmental groups. "You cannot end plastic pollution if you do not reduce the amount of plastic we produce," Greenpeace's Graham Forbes told AFP.
Annual plastics production has more than doubled in 20 years to 460 million tons and is on track to triple within four decades if left unchecked.
"This treaty will succeed or fail based on the extent to which it addresses and reduces plastic production. Nothing else will work if we don't get that right," Forbes said.
G7 environment ministers meeting in Italy had been expected on Tuesday to commit to reducing plastic production, recognizing "that the level of plastic pollution is unsustainable and that its increase is alarming," according to the French delegation.
Peru and Rwanda proposed in a motion in Ottawa cutting plastic production by 40 percent in the next 15 years, in line with Paris agreement climate goals. Plastic production is a significant driver of global warming because most plastic is made from fossil fuels.
The motion was defeated.
Chris Jahn, council secretary of the International Council of Chemical Associations, said the industry is "fully committed to a legally binding agreement" on plastic waste, but one that does not "eliminate the massive societal benefits plastics provide for a healthier and more sustainable world."
Alejandra Parra, from Latin America, called recycling a "false option."
A lot of plastic is not or cannot be recycled, she said. The process of melting plastics into new forms also has drawbacks because it releases toxins and carbon emissions.
Collecting and sorting recyclable plastics is also relatively expensive.