A volcanic eruption over the weekend in central Ecuador has covered several nearby provinces with ash, and also caused an area airport to temporarily close. The Sangay volcano erupted early Sunday, sending an ash plume as high as 10 kilometers (6 miles) into the sky. Such activity is nothing new for Sangay, which is typically described as the country’s most active volcano. The “earliest report of a historical eruption [by Sangay] was in 1628. More or less continuous eruptions were reported from 1728 until 1916, and again from 1934 to the present,”according to Google Earth. Several videos of the recent rash of…
Author: zenger.news
A local man claiming to be a veterinarian running a charity to help abused animals was arrested Sept. 15 for using donations of nearly 700,000 euros (roughly $760,000 U.S.) to finance a luxurious lifestyle. An investigation into the “Let’s Adopt” charity started in January 2018 after the suspect, identified by police as Victor Lharkill, started posting photos of abused animals on social media while asking for donations to help take care of them. Police said he was aided by two associates, who are also under investigation. Those two men, who have not been arrested, have not been identified. Police started…
The world’s biggest paint sprayer may well be an elephant at the zoo here who uses her trunk to suck up colored paints and discharge them, thereby creating artworks being sold hundreds of euros each. Sita the elephant started painting on canvases at Osnabruck Zoo in northwest Germany because keepers wanted to train her to spray on command during checkups by veterinarians. However, she was clearly enjoying herself and, since March, she has created paintings that have been sold to the public and raised 2,000 euros (about $2,4,00 U.S.). That money, in turn, goes toward animal husbandry efforts at the…
The announcement last week of a landmark agreement between Israel, Serbia and Kosovo to normalize economic relations drew no condemnation from Arab nations, but the European Union has criticized the deal because the two Balkan states will move their embassies to Jerusalem. Serbia will become the first European nation to open an embassy in Israel’s capital city, a step that only the United States and Guatemala have taken. The EU has made the city’s disputed status a part of its Middle East policy, creating new tension with the Serbs as they try to join the 27-nation trade and economic bloc.…
The remains of what could be the oldest pet dog ever found have been discovered by researchers from the University of Siena in Italy. The archaeological remains may be up to 20,000 years old and could reveal key information on the evolution of canines from wolf to dog, according to the Prehistory and Anthropology Research Unit from Siena University’s Department of Physical Sciences, Earth and Environment. According to the widely accepted theory, domesticated dogs evolved from wolves that transformed from predators to scavengers to ensure their survival, attaching themselves to human settlements to find enough food. But the role wolves…
Twenty-four-year-old Caroline Enjewi was overjoyed when the results of her pregnancy ultrasound revealed that she was carrying twins. She saw it as God’s will after her first child was stillborn. But her expectations turned into a nightmare when she delivered her babies by cesarean section in Yaounde, Cameroon. Her twin newborn girls were conjoined at the buttocks. “I was shocked when I realized that my twins were conjoined. I was worried why does this occur to me? Later, I just had to accept the fact. I have never seen conjoined twins before. It is not easy for the babies lying…
New protests erupted in Beirut on Tuesday on the centenary of the creation of Greater Lebanon by the French. The demonstration coincided with French President Emmanuel Macron’s diplomatic visit to Beirut to encourage reforms in the country, which has been gripped by economic crisis since 2019. People started gathering on Martyrs’ Square at 4 p.m., demanding the political system be reorganization and denouncing political corruption. Anti-government protesters then moved to Nimeh Square, near the Lebanese Parliament. Protesters stand in the street as debris burns in Beirut, Lebanon on September 1, 2020. (Dario Sabaghi/Zenger) Protesters watch as tear gas is…
Dr. Boli Baboule Zachée, 74, wanted to spend his retirement in his ancestral land, the Ebo Forest zone, Instead, he was forced to spend his 19-year retirement in Cameroon’s cosmopolitan capital city of Yaounde, dozens of miles away. His experience echoes those of people in 40 communities that make up the Banen indigenous group—which originated from the Ebo Forest Zone. Like them, Baboule was forced to quit the land in the early 1960s in the aftermath of Cameroon’s independence. In addition, Baboule, a retired Cameroonian soil-science researcher, wishes to be buried in his ancestral land when he dies. But his…
Six years after she lost both hands in a train accident in Mumbai, a 23-year-old woman became the first in the city to undergo a double hand transplant. Monika More is among a dozen people in India and about 100 across the world to undergo such a surgical procedure. More was attempting to board a moving train on Jan. 12, 2014, when she slipped in the gap between the platform and the train. Both of her hands were crushed and had to be amputated. She was 17 years old at the time and spent six months in the hospital undergoing…
Ambrose Ali’s son needed a blood transfusion. So Ali left his home, in the middle of a pandemic, and traveled 36 miles (58 km) to St. Mary’s Hospital Lacor, hoping to save the boy. “My child was diagnosed with malaria, which caused him to be anemic,” Ali said, “so we were referred here. At first the doctor told me there was no blood. But after some time they brought this unit.” Ali pointed at the bag of blood hanging on a stand above his groaning son. It was the only unit of the boy’s blood type available at the hospital.…