India heatwave hits wildlife as thirsty
monkeys drown in well
PATNA, June 04: Dozens of monkeys in heatwave-hit India desperate for water have drowned in a well, a forest official said Tuesday, in a state where lakes have turned to dust. Swaths of northern India have been gripped by a heatwave since last month, with temperatures soaring over 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit). Last week, an Indian court urged the government to declare a national emergency over the ongoing heatwave, saying that hundreds of people had died during weeks of extreme weather. The heat is also hitting wildlife, with animals searching for water in villages. Nearly 40 monkeys drowned in the well in Palamu district of eastern Jharkhand state, where lakes have dried out in the heat, villagers said. —AFP
Women rangers go on patrol to slow deforestation in Indonesia
DAMARAN BARU, June 04: In a lush jungle at the foothills of a volcano in Indonesia's Aceh province, the song of gibbons in the trees mixes with the laughter of the seven forest rangers trekking below them. An hour into their patrol, the rangers spot another mammal in the forest with them. "Where are you going? What are you doing?" they pleasantly ask a man walking past, farming tools in hand. "Remember to not cut down trees wherever you go, OK?" The friendly engagement is just one tactic the women-led forest ranger group has been using to safeguard the forest their village relies on from deforestation and poaching. —AP
Australia opens military to non-citizens
SYDNEY, June 04: Australia will allow non-citizens to join its armed forces, the government said Tuesday, as the sparsely populated nation struggles to meet recruitment targets. Defence Minister Richard Marles said that from July, looser eligibility criteria would allow "permanent residents who have been living in Australia for 12 months" to serve. Citizens from Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the United States are being favoured, he added. Australia has a coastline that would stretch one-and-a-bit times around the Earth, but a population of just 26 million. —AP
12 dead in South African flooding
JOHANNESBURG, June 04: Twelve people have died in flooding caused by torrential rain on South Africa's eastern coast, local authorities said on Monday. In Eastern Cape province, "the death toll is currently sitting at seven," a spokesperson from Nelson Mandela Bay municipality, at the heart of the floods, told AFP. More than 2,000 people have been evacuated from Nelson Mandela Bay, notably from makeshift homes in the municipality's slums. Local authorities launched an appeal for donations of clothing, food and blankets. —AFP
New Haitian prime minister takes oath
PORT-AU-PRINCE, June 04: Garry Conille was sworn in as Haiti's prime minister on Monday, promising to "deliver" for the impoverished Caribbean nation grappling with overlapping security, humanitarian and political crises. Conille was appointed by the transitional presidential council running the country following the resignation in April of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, as gang violence surged. "Let's get to work and I assure you that we will deliver what we promised," the 58-year-old said at the ceremony at the Villa d'Accueil, an official government building in the capital Port-au-Prince. His swearing-in empowers him to form a government in consultation with the council, its head, Edgard Leblanc Fils, said. —AFP
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