'Panicked' kangaroo smashes way into Australian home

An Australian family has been startled awake after a kangaroo crashed its way through a window in their home.

The residents managed to trap the marsupial in a bathroom after it "ran amok" in the house in Melbourne early on Sunday, a wildlife rescuer said.

The family was unharmed, but the distressed kangaroo suffered blood loss and cuts to its paws and legs.

Rescuer Manfred Zabinskas said the incident could partly be attributed to homes competing with kangaroo habitats.

After being called to the home, Mr Zabinskas found the kangaroo "fairly exhausted" in the bathroom, and administered a sedative to remove it safely.

"The family was quite concerned about him because of the amount of blood everywhere," he said.Image copyrightMANFRED ZABINSKASImage captionThe family managed to lock the kangaroo in a bathroom

He said the "medium-sized" kangaroo, weighing about 30kg (65lb), had caused damage across the house and broken a second window while trying to escape.

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The incident happened on the outskirts of the suburb Deer Park, close to open fields and known kangaroo habitats.

Mr Zabinskas said the animal may have been spooked by a dog or a passing car before jumping into the house.Image copyrightMANFRED ZABINSKASImage captionThe kangaroo broke a second window while trying to escape

"He would have been in a complete panic and in desperation just run in the path of what would have looked like a passage home, and just gone through the window," he told the BBC.

"They do get into trouble in suburbia where we've got urban areas expanding into the fields where they live."

The kangaroo has received treatment and is now being cared for by a wildlife rescue service.

Swimming with dolphins in virtual reality to aid disabled

APELDOORN, NETHERLANDS: 

Swimming with wild dolphins is something most can only dream of, and jumping into pools with captive animals has become increasingly controversial with environmentalists condemning it as cruel.

But a Dutch non-profit believes it has found a way to bring people, especially the disabled, closer to such a joyful experience through the technological, immersive advances offered by virtual reality (VR).

The Dolphin Swim Club is the realisation of a more than two-decade journey by artist Marijke Sjollema, who had her first chance encounter with a dolphin in 1993 while snorkeling off the coast of Mexico.

“I saw this grey shadow under the water and my first thought was this is the end. I thought it was a shark,” she told AFP. She tried to stay calm “but this shadow was following me. And then there was this split second that I realised that it wasn’t a shark. It was a dolphin.”

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“I didn’t know anything about dolphins, but I instinctively knew, ‘Oh a dolphin, I’m fine. This is a good thing’.”

From that moment on, Sjollema’s love of dolphins and all cetaceans was born. “We know that there is something magical about dolphins. We think of joy, and playfulness and happiness and innocence when we meet dolphins. And this is even a healing quality,” she told AFP.

She and her business consultant husband, Benno Brada, have devoted their spare time, energy and personal resources to their mission of enabling people to discover their own encounter with dolphins.

Their first project using normal VR headsets playing a film of the dolphins launched in late 2015.

But last month they went a step further, unveiling waterproof VR glasses, which allow people to drift around a pool watching bottlenose and spinner dolphins playing around them in virtual reality.

This VR dolphin therapy in a pool, still at the trial stage, is thought to be a world first.

“The dream was to find an alternative to dolphin-assisted therapies using dolphins in captivity,” Brada told therapists at a residential community for disabled people run by the ‘s Heeren Loo organisation who were testing out the waterproof goggles in the pool. The centre has been using the land version of the VR glasses since 2016, and has seen noticeable benefits.

“Some 82 per cent of our clients feel actually relaxed by seeing the films,” said the organisation’s policy advisor Johan Elbers. “It takes them away from the world they are in, they enter a new world in another mindset, think differently, feel differently, see differently, and relax completely.”

He recalled how one young woman, who had long had trouble sleeping, now watches a VR film of the dolphins swimming at night, and falls quietly asleep.

Another man is able to completely forget an agonising pain in his arm.

Dion, a 21-year-old resident of the community, said watching the film made him feel ‘peaceful.’ “The dolphin noises and the water calms me down, that calms me from all the noises that there are, then you’re zen,” he said.

The pool-safe VR goggles, developed thanks to US$59,000 grant from the Dutch government, consist of a waterproof Samsung smartphone in a waterproof backing mounted on a special 3D-printed rig made of recycled plastics.

“Stress is very important as a driver of all kinds of psychiatric problems,” explains psychiatrist Wim Veling, from the University of Groningen.

“So we are trying in therapy to make people more relaxed,” said Veling, who has been studying the use of VR to help people with mental health disorders. “The power of virtual reality is in the immersion” into another world, he says on the Dolphin Swim Club site.

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For Sjollema, the VR glasses offer huge advantages. Not only can they bring the dolphins to disabled people, who would not be able to travel to see them, but they also avoid the use of captive dolphins. “Right from the beginning we wanted to make this an alternative for existing therapies with dolphins in captivity,” she said.

The films were made during a 10-day shoot in December 2015 at the Red Sea, by a specialist VR team Viemr, using free divers capable of holding their breath for up to five minutes so as not to scare away the dolphins.

The dry version glasses are already being used in more than 150 universities, hospitals and community centres around the world.

And the hope is that the waterproof ones will prove equally beneficial. Sjollema and Brada are looking for a partner to launch their commercial production.

But Dion is ready for something a little more exhilarating.

He would like to watch “a film with sharks” or lions “where the animal is hunting a prey. It would be fun to see a little bit of action.”

Woman gives birth to baby girl during international flight on PIA

A Pakistani woman gave birth to a baby girl on an international commercial flight travelling from Madinah, Saudi Arabia, to Multan on Tuesday.

“Miracles happen everyday and we had our little miracle today onboard our flight PK 716 from Madinah to Multan,” the Pakistan International Airlines said in a statement issued on their Facebook page. “A beautiful baby girl was born!”

The cabin crew assisted with the emergency delivery. “The parents were over joyed and expressed their gratitude to the cabin crew members who helped with the delivery.”




As congratulations poured in for the parents, some questioned why the woman was allowed air-travel if she was full-term.

Deep 6.0 magnitude quake strikes off Indonesia: USGS

WASHINGTON: A deep 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck off eastern Indonesia on Saturday, the United States Geological Survey said, but there was no tsunami warning.

The strong quake was centered about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north-northeast of Maumere town on the island of Flores, the USGS said, at a depth of 360 miles.

Indonesia, an archipelago of thousands of islands, sits on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, a seismic activity hotspot.

It is frequently hit by quakes, most of them harmless. However, the archipelago remains acutely alert to tremors that might trigger tsunamis.

In 2004 a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9.3 undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, in western Indonesia, killed 220,000 people in countries around the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 in Indonesia.

Israel releases Palestinian teen jailed for slapping soldiers

Nabi Saleh, Palestinian Territories: Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi was released from prison Sunday after serving eight months for slapping two Israeli soldiers, an episode captured on video that made her a symbol of resistance for Palestinians.

Tamimi, 17, and her mother Nariman arrived in their village of Nabi Saleh in the occupied West Bank, where they were met by crowds of supporters and journalists.

"The resistance continues until the fall of the occupation, and of course the (female) prisoners in jail are all strong," Ahed Tamimi said, her voice barely audible above the crowd.

"I thank everyone who supported me in this sentence and supports all the prisoners."

Her father Bassem put his arms around Ahed and her mother as they walked together along the road, the crowd chanting "we want to live in freedom".

Tamimi later visited the tomb of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Ramallah and laid flowers there, before meeting Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

Abbas "praised Ahed and described her as a model of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, independence and statehood," according to a statement on official news agency WAFA.

"He stressed that non-violent resistance which Ahed embodies has proven to be an ideal and vital weapon in facing the repression of the Israeli occupation."

- ´Jailing of a child´ -

Israeli authorities appeared keen to avoid media coverage of the release as much as possible, and conflicting information had meant supporters and journalists scrambled to arrive on time at the correct location.

Tamimi and her mother had been driven early on Sunday from Israel´s Sharon prison into the occupied West Bank, authorities said.

But the location of the checkpoint where they were to cross into the territory was changed three times before it was finally announced they were being taken to a crossing at Rantis, about an hour´s drive from the initial location.

Family members and supporters gathered at the checkpoint to greet them, but the military vehicles driving them did not stop, instead continuing towards Nabi Saleh.

There had been slight tension at the checkpoint before Tamimi´s arrival as a few men with Israeli flags approached supporters holding Palestinian flags. Words were exchanged but there was no violence.

In a sign of the sensitivity of the case, Israeli authorities on Saturday arrested two Italians and a Palestinian for painting Tamimi´s now-familiar image on the Israeli separation wall cutting off the West Bank.

Both Tamimi and her mother were sentenced to eight months in an Israeli military court following a plea deal over the December incident, which the family said took place in their garden in Nabi Saleh.

They were released some three weeks early, a common practice by Israeli authorities due to overcrowded prisons, Tamimi´s lawyer Gaby Lasky said.

Video of the December incident went viral, leading Palestinians to view her as a hero standing up to Israel´s occupation.

But for Israelis, Tamimi is being used by her activist family as a pawn in staged provocations.

They point to a series of previous such incidents involving her, with older pictures of her confronting soldiers shared widely online.

Many Israelis also praised the restraint of the soldiers, who remained calm throughout, though others said her actions merited a tougher response.

Rights activists condemned Tamimi´s jailing.

Omar Shakir of Human Rights Watch tweeted on Sunday that "Israel´s jailing of a child for 8 months -- for calling for protests & slapping a soldier -- reflects endemic discrimination, absence of due process & ill-treatment of kids."

"Ahed Tamimi is free, but 100s of Palestinian children remain locked up with little attention on their cases," he said.

- Embassy protests -

Tamimi was arrested in the early hours of December 19, four days after the incident in the video. She was 16 at the time.

Her mother Nariman was also arrested, as was her cousin Nour, who was freed in March.

Israel´s military said the soldiers had been in the area on the day of the incident to prevent Palestinians from throwing stones at Israeli motorists.

The video shows the cousins approaching two soldiers and telling them to leave, before shoving, kicking and slapping them.

Ahed Tamimi is the most aggressive of the two in the video.

The heavily armed soldiers do not respond in the face of what appears to be an attempt to provoke rather than seriously harm them.

They then move backwards after Nariman Tamimi becomes involved.

The scuffle took place amid clashes and protests against US President Donald Trump´s controversial recognition of Jerusalem as Israel´s capital.

Relatives say that a member of the Tamimi family was wounded in the head by a rubber bullet fired during those protests.

Palestinian teenager jailed for slapping soldiers leaves prison

JERUSALEM: Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi left prison Sunday after an eight-month sentence for slapping two Israeli soldiers, an episode captured on video that made her a symbol of resistance for Palestinians, a prison service spokesman said.

Assaf Librati told AFP Tamimi, 17, and her mother, who was also jailed over the incident, were being driven by Israeli authorities from a prison inside Israel to a checkpoint leading to the occupied West Bank, where they live.

"They just left the prison," Librati said.

Israeli authorities provided conflicting information on which checkpoint they were being taken to.

They were first expected to arrive at a checkpoint near the Palestinian city of Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank, but there were later indications they would be taken to a crossing at Rantis.

Both Tamimi and her mother were sentenced to eight months in an Israeli military court following a plea deal over the December incident which the family said took place in their yard in Nabi Saleh in the West Bank.

Video of it went viral, leading Palestinians to view her as a hero standing up to Israel´s occupation.

Her now-familiar image has been painted on Israel´s separation wall cutting off the West Bank. Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has praised her and social media has been flooded with support.

But for Israelis, Tamimi is being used by her activist family as a pawn in staged provocations.

They point to a series of previous such incidents involving her, with older pictures of her confronting soldiers widely shared online.

Many Israelis also praised the restraint of the soldiers, who remained calm throughout, though others said her actions merited a tougher response.

Embassy protests 

Tamimi was arrested in the early hours of December 19, four days after the incident. She was 16 at the time.

Her mother Nariman was also arrested, as was her cousin Nour, who was freed in March.

Israel´s military said the soldiers were in the area on the day of the incident to prevent Palestinians from throwing stones at Israeli motorists.

The video shows the cousins approaching two soldiers and telling them to leave before shoving, kicking and slapping them.

Ahed Tamimi is the most aggressive of the two in the video.

The heavily armed soldiers do not respond in the face of what appears to be an attempt to provoke rather than seriously harm them.

They then move backwards after Nariman Tamimi becomes involved.

The scuffle took place amid clashes and protests against US President Donald Trump´s controversial recognition of Jerusalem as Israel´s capital.

Relatives say that a member of the Tamimi family was wounded in the head by a rubber bullet fired during those protests.

Munich airport cancels 200 flights after intruder alert

Berlin: Around 200 flights had to be cancelled and two terminals evacuated at Munich airport on Saturday after an unidentified person entered a secure area, police and the airport said.

The person -- a woman -- made it into a secure area of Terminal 2 without being checked and then disappeared without trace despite an extensive search, police said, adding that they did not believe she represented an "extreme danger".

Several thousand people at the airport on a busy weekend of holiday departures had to be evacuated.

Sixty flights were also delayed.