As the sun sets over the southern French Alps on a cool evening in early June, a flock of sheep huddle in an enclosure at an altitude of 1,500 meters. Next to them, two khaki-clad watchmen settle down for the night in the Mercantour National Park on the border with Italy, equipped with thermal-vision cameras, warm jackets and a rifle with a night-vision scope. "What's going to be important for the next few hours is to be attentive all the time. For a wolf to cross [the pass] takes two or three seconds. If we aren't watching, it's over," one of the guards said. The pair are part of France's "wolf brigade", employed by the state to protect livestock from a predator that was hunted to extinction in France in the early 20th century but is now making a grand comeback. Starting in 1992, grey wolves started re-appearing in France, arriving across the Alps from Italy, which has rejected calls for a cull of its flourishing population of the fanged mammals. Seventeen years after their … [Read more...] about France’s ‘wolf brigade’: Alps guards with licence to kill
Crossing guard
Fear, anger as border guards tighten net in southern Mexico
TAPACHULA: Sitting inside a truck at a checkpoint near Mexico's southern border, a soldier is scrolling through images on a screen, looking for human forms hidden in cargo vehicles.The scanning equipment delivering the images to his computer is part of Mexico's new bid to stop undocumented migrants and human traffickers.It is a crackdown that is about to get stronger, under the deal the Mexican government struck on Friday (Jun 7) with the United States to avoid President Donald Trump's threatened tariffs.At another checkpoint nearby, officers inspect minibuses and taxis heading north from the Suchiate River, the frontier between Mexico and Guatemala.It does not take them long to find an undocumented family traveling in a minibus. They make them get off - a father, mother and three children, including a baby - and put them in a van with bars on the windows.It is likely the first step toward deportation."We're here 24/7," one border officer tells AFP, speaking on condition of … [Read more...] about Fear, anger as border guards tighten net in southern Mexico
Singapore Red Cross website hacked, over 4,200 affected
Singapore's privacy watchdog is investigating a breach of the Singapore Red Cross website which compromised the personal data of more than 4,200 people, including their full names, contact numbers and e-mail addresses. In a statement yesterday, the Personal Data Protection Commission said it was notified of the breach, which was detected on May 8. The Singapore Red Cross said "unauthorised access" was made to the part of its website that allows people interested in donating blood to sign up online. Hackers had also gained access to potential donors' declared blood type, preferred date and time for an appointment as well as preferred location for donating blood. The non-profit organisation did not say in its statement yesterday if any data was stolen by the hackers. The breach was reported on May 8 to the police and the privacy watchdog, as well as to the Health Sciences Authority (HSA). ST understands that the people affected were informed only yesterday, via e-mail and SMS. The … [Read more...] about Singapore Red Cross website hacked, over 4,200 affected
Iran drone video of American carrier appears ‘years old’: US Navy
WASHINGTON: Footage of an American aircraft carrier in the Gulf which Iran claimed it shot with a drone in the Gulf appears to be "several years old", the US Navy has said.The video was shot by a military drone, Iran's Tasnim news agency claimed on Sunday in a report on its website, and published some of the imagery from the surveillance flight."The footage the Iranians recently released ... appears to be several years old, and of the last deployment to the Arabian Gulf by the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69)," Lt. Chloe Morgan, US Naval Forces Central Command spokesperson, told AFP in an email.The video, which could not be independently verified, showed a light blue drone of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards taking off from a desert base near the sea, followed by imagery purportedly from its cameras of an escort ship and then an aircraft carrier with planes parked on the deck.Tasnim did not identify the vessels or say when the drone footage was shot, but in the video, the number "69" … [Read more...] about Iran drone video of American carrier appears ‘years old’: US Navy
To clarify, this is why I’m leaving Thailand at 90 years of age
It is simply amazing the verbal diarrhoea that spewed forth from some of the replies in online forums to my letter. Many adult minds have been sympathetic to my leaving, others childish and downright juvenile in their opining, many unnecessarily nasty and even threatening. One man said I would not live to see my 91st birthday. Some said I was lying. Some said I had cheated in the past. Others said, “Good riddance.” Why do these, supposedly grown men, get such personal delight in carrying on like a gaggle of teenage schoolgirls? Let me once again set the record straight and also add a few final thoughts: Donald Graber is not a pseudonym. I don’t hide behind a fictitious name so I can sling dirt at others from the comfort and ambiguity of my easy chair. I am not living on the street on garbage; I have Bt800,000 – and more. I am moving to an affluent place with a climate far better than Thailand’s: mild and pleasant, plenty of sunshine, not … [Read more...] about To clarify, this is why I’m leaving Thailand at 90 years of age