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Cammie, a young camel whose front leg was chopped off by a landlord in Pakistan’s southern province of Sindh, left her caregivers emotional as she walked for the first time on a prosthetic leg.”I started weeping when I saw her walking with the prosthetic leg. It was a dream come true,” Sheema Khan, the manager of an animal shelter in Karachi told AFP on Saturday.Veterinarian Babar Hussain said it was the first time a large animal in Pakistan had received a prosthetic leg.Cammie’s leg was allegedly severed by a landlord in June 2024 as punishment for entering his field in search of fodder. A video of the wounded camel that circulated on social media prompted swift government action. According to the deputy commissioner of Sanghar, she was transported the very next day to Karachi, over 250 kilometers (155 miles) away, and has been living in a shelter there ever since. “She was terrified when she first arrived from Sanghar. We witnessed her heart-wrenching cries. She was afraid of men,” Khan told AFP. One of the biggest challenges the caregivers faced was gaining her trust.”I cannot put her condition into words,” Khan added. To aid her recovery, the caregivers introduced another young camel named Callie. Her presence brought comfort to the injured Cammie, who tried standing on her three legs for the first time after seeing her new companion. “Cammie had been confined to her enclosure for almost four to five months before Callie arrived,” Khan added. After treating the wound and completing initial rehabilitation, the shelter — Comprehensive Disaster Response Services (CDRS) Benji Project — arranged a prosthetic leg from a US-based firm so she could walk on all fours again. “We don’t force her to walk. After attaching the prosthetic leg, we wait about 15 to 20 minutes. Then she stands up on her own and walks slowly,” veterinarian Hussain told AFP. He said that it would take another 15 to 20 days for her to fully adjust to the new limb. The caregivers said Cammie will remain at the shelter permanently.

Relatives anxiously sat beside ambulances on the wharf of one of Vietnam’s most popular tourist sites on Sunday, waiting for news of loved ones who were on a tourist boat that capsized killing dozens.Fruits and flowers were laid on the coast for the at least 35 killed in the wreckage on Saturday in what some called Ha Long Bay’s worst disaster.As rescuers worked into Sunday morning to salvage the sunken boat, a handful of people were still missing.The tourist vessel called “Wonder Sea” had been carrying 49 people, including several children, around the UNESCO World Heritage Site, according to provincial police.Hoang Quang rushed from Hanoi to Quang Ninh province at 2:00 am on Sunday for news of his cousin and her family who were on the boat when it capsized.The couple — a housewife and fruit seller married to a bus driver — had “tried their best” to afford the trip around the world-famous bay.”They found the body of (the husband), not my cousin yet,” Hoang told AFP.He was “so shocked” when he heard news of the incident and immediately went to the wharf with other worried family members.”Suddenly the victims were my relatives — anyone would be scared. We didn’t know what to do, except to keep waiting,” he said.”We think that as we are all here, she knew and she would show up. We are all so anxious… We just wish and pray for her to come back here to us.”- ‘No hope’ -At Ha Long city’s main funeral home, AFP journalists saw bodies wrapped in red cloth being carried in on stretchers, as friends and relatives cried in front of more than a dozen coffins.A 68-year-old man, who asked not to be named, rushed to the scene at 3:00 am, only to discover that his relatives -– a young family of four, including two boys — had died in the capsizing.”We were all so shocked,” the uncle of the family told AFP tearfully. “This was a very sudden accident. They were just taking the kids out to the bay for summer holidays and it ended up terrible.”The bodies of the mother and children had been recovered, but he was awaiting news of the father to be able to cremate them together.”We know there is no hope,” he said.The friend of another victim, a firefighter who had taken the trip with colleagues, said they had known each other since university.”He was still single. We brought his body back to (his hometown) for burial early this morning,” the friend said.He praised the rescue efforts and said provincial authorities had given families 25 million dong ($955) for each victim.- ‘Worst accident ever’ -The wreckage had been towed into the wharf by Sunday and 10 people were being treated at a nearby hospital.Security guard Nguyen Tuan Anh spent the night on the wharf where ambulances were waiting to carry the bodies away — a scene he described as “painful”.”I don’t think I have experienced this scene before. This maybe the worst accident ever in Ha Long Bay,” he told AFP, adding it had been “unpredictable and also I think unpreparable.””The whirlwind came so sudden and so big. The wind blew off the framework of a big stage for a grand music show nearby,” he said.Ha Long Bay is one of Vietnam’s most popular tourist destinations, with millions of people visiting its blue-green waters and rainforest-topped limestone islands each year.Several hundred rescuers including professional divers, soldiers, and firefighters joined the search for survivors through the night and heavy rain, state media said.”The whirlwind came just so sudden,” a rescue worker, who asked not to be named, told AFP on Saturday.”As the boat turned upside down, several people were stuck inside the cabin. Me and other rescuers pulled up two bodies and rescued one,” he said.”The accident was so devastating.”

Rescuers searched desperately Sunday for four people still missing after at least 35 were killed when a boat capsized at one of Vietnam’s most popular tourist destinations.The tourist boat ferrying families around Vietnam’s famed Ha Long Bay was lashed by a sudden storm Saturday in one of the deadliest disasters at the UNESCO World Heritage site.The vessel “Wonder Sea” was carrying 46 passengers and three crew when it capsized because of sudden heavy rain, according to a provincial police report seen by AFP.Previous state media reports had said that 53 people were on board and 37 people had died, but the figures were later revised by police.Tran Trong Hung, a resident in the Ha Long Bay area, told AFP: “The sky turned dark.”There were “hailstones as big as toes with torrential rain, thunderstorms and lightning”, he said.Most of those on board were families visiting from the capital, Hanoi, with more than 20 children among the passengers, state media outlet VNExpress said35 bodies had been recovered and 10 people rescued by Sunday, police said, with four people still missing.One of the rescued, a 10-year-old boy, told state media outlet VietnamNet: “I took a deep breath, swam through a gap, dived then swam up, I even shouted for help, then I was pulled up by a boat with soldiers on”.Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh sent his condolences on Saturday to relatives of those killed and called on the defence and public security ministries to conduct urgent search and rescue.Authorities would “investigate and clarify the cause of the incident and strictly handle violations”, a government statement said.Torrential rain also lashed northern Hanoi, Thai Nguyen and Bac Ninh provinces on Saturday.Several trees were knocked down in the capital by strong winds. The storm followed three days of intense heat, with the mercury hitting 37 degrees Celsius (99 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas.Mai Van Khiem, director of the National Center for Hydrometeorological Forecasting, was quoted in VNExpress as saying that the thunderstorms in northern Vietnam were not caused by the influence of Tropical Storm Wipha in the South China Sea.Wipha entered the South China Sea on Sunday gaining strength, and is on course to make landfall in Vietnam early next week.Ha Long Bay is one of Vietnam’s most popular tourist destinations, with millions of people visiting its blue-green waters and rainforest-topped limestone islands each year.Last year, 30 vessels sank at boat lock areas in coastal Quang Ninh province along Ha Long Bay after Typhoon Yagi brought strong wind and waves.And this month, a ferry sank off the popular Indonesian resort island of Bali, killing at least 18 people.

Vietnam’s plan to bar gas-guzzling motorbikes from central Hanoi may clear the air of the smog-smothered capital, but riders fear paying a high toll for the capital’s green transition.”Of course everyone wants a better environment,” said housewife Dang Thuy Hanh, baulking at the 80 million dong ($3,000) her family would spend replacing their four scooters with electric alternatives.”But why give us the first burden without any proper preparation?” grumbled the 52-year-old.Hanoi’s scooter traffic is a fixture of the city’s urban buzz. The northern hub of nine million people has nearly seven million two-wheelers, hurtling around at rush hour in a morass of congestion.Their exhausts splutter emissions regularly spurring the city to the top of worldwide smog rankings in a country where pollution claims at least 70,000 lives a year, according to the World Health Organization.The government last weekend announced plans to block fossil-fuelled bikes from Hanoi’s 31 square kilometre (12 square mile) centre by next July.It will expand in stages to forbid all gas-fuelled vehicles in urban areas of the city in the next five years.Hanh — one of the 600,000 people living in the central embargo zone — said the looming cost of e-bikes has left her fretting over the loss of “a huge amount of savings”.While she conceded e-bikes may help relieve pollution, she bemoaned the lack of public charging points near her home down a tiny alley in the heart of the city.”Why force residents to change while the city’s infrastructure is not yet able to adapt to the new situation?” she asked.Many families in communist-run Vietnam own at least two motorcycles for daily commutes, school runs, work and leisure.Proposals to reform transport for environmental reasons often sparks allegations the burden of change is felt highest by the working class. London has since 2023 charged a toll for older, higher pollution-emitting vehicles.France’s populist “Yellow Vest” protests starting in 2018 were in part sparked by allegations President Emmanuel Macron’s “green tax” on fuel was unfair for the masses.- ‘Cost too high’ -Hanoi authorities say they are considering alleviating the financial burden by offering subsidies of at least three million dong ($114) per switch to an e-bike, and also increasing public bus services.Food delivery driver Tran Van Tan, who rides his bike 40 kilometres (25 miles) every day from neighbouring Hung Yen province to downtown Hanoi, says he makes his living “on the road”.”The cost of changing to an e-bike is simply too high,” said the 45-year-old, employed through the delivery app Grab. “Those with a low income like us just cannot suddenly replace our bikes.”Compared with a traditional two-wheeler, he also fears the battery life of e-bikes “won’t meet the needs for long-distance travel”.But citing air pollution as a major threat to human health, the environment and quality of life, deputy mayor Duong Duc Tuan earlier this week said “drastic measures are needed”.In a recent report, Hanoi’s environment and agriculture ministry said over half of the poisonous smog that blankets the city for much of the year comes from petrol and diesel vehicles.The World Bank puts the figure at 30 percent, with factories and waste incineration also major culprits.Several European cities, such as Barcelona, Paris and Amsterdam have also limited the use of internal combustion engines on their streets — and other major Vietnamese cities are looking to follow suit.The southern business hub Ho Chi Minh City aims to gradually transition delivery and service motorbikes to electric over the next few years.But with the high costs, office worker Nguyen My Hoa thinks the capital’s ban will not be enforceable. “Authorities will not be able to stop the huge amount of gasoline bikes from entering the inner districts,” 42-year-old Hoa said.”It simply does not work.”

The patient lay prone on the operating table. An IV line snaking from his left leg, near the wound from the tranquilliser dart that sedated him. Yong, a pig-tailed macaque rescued from a life harvesting coconuts, was being treated at Thailand’s only NGO-run wildlife hospital.He is one of dozens of animals treated each month at the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand (WFFT) facility.Patients range from delicate sugar gliders intended as pets, to some of the hefty rescued elephants that roam WFFT’s expansive facility in Phetchaburi, southwest of Bangkok.The wide variety can be a challenge, said vet Siriporn Tippol.”If we can’t find the right equipment, we have to DIY use what we already have or modify based on the specifications we need.”She described strapping an extension handle onto a laryngoscope designed for cats and dogs so it could be used during surgery on bears and tigers.A treatment whiteboard gives a sense of an average day: cleaning a wound on one elephant’s tail, assessing another’s possible cataract and treating a Malayan sunbear’s skin condition.  Yong was in quarantine after rescue — coconut monkeys often carry tuberculosis or other infectious diseases — and needed a full health check.But first, he had to be sedated, with a tranquilliser dart blown from a white tube into his left haunch.Before long he was slumped over and ready to be carried to hospital.Blood was taken, an IV line placed and then it was X-ray time, to look for signs of broken bones or respiratory illness.Next was a symbolic moment: vets cut off the metal rings around the monkey’s neck that once kept him connected to a chain.The operating theatre was the final stop, for a vasectomy to allow Yong to join a mixed troop of rescued monkeys without risk of breeding.- Out-of-hand hobby -The light-filled hospital only opened this month, replacing a previous “tiny” clinic, said WFFT founder Edwin Wiek.”I’ve always dreamed about having a proper medical facility,” he told AFP, over the sound of nearby tigers roaring in grassy enclosures.With over 900 animals in WFFT’s care and a regular stream of emergency arrivals, “we needed really a bigger place, more surgery rooms, a treatment room,” he said.Wiek founded WFFT in 2001 with two macaques and a gibbon. It now spans 120 hectares (297 acres) and houses 60 species.”That hobby got out of hand,” he laughed.He has long advocated for stronger wildlife protections in a country well-known as a wildlife trafficking hub in part because of its location and strong transport links.Wiek once had tendentious relations with Thai authorities, even facing legal action, but more recently has become a government advisor.WFFT is now a force multiplier for the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP).”In many cases, when wild animals from elephants and tigers to macaques are found injured and displaced, we coordinate with WFFT, who assist in rehabilitation and medical care,” said DNP wildlife conservation director Chalerm Poommai.One of WFFT’s current campaigns focuses on the estimated thousands of monkeys like Yong trained to pick coconuts on plantations in southern Thailand.”The animal welfare issue is horrible,” said Wiek. “But another very important point is that these animals actually are taken out of the wild illegally. And that, of course, has a huge impact, negative impact on the survival of the species.”WFFT is working with authorities, the coconut industry and exporters to encourage farmers to stop using monkeys, and switch to shorter trees that are easier to harvest.There is also work to do equipping the new hospital. A mobile X-ray unit and specialised blood analysis machine are on Siriporn’s wishlist.And Wiek is thinking ahead to his next dream: a forensics lab to trace the origins of the animals confiscated from traffickers.”The laws are there, we lack the enforcement,” he said.”But with this tool, we could actually do some real damage to these illegal wildlife traffickers.”

Hundreds of thousands of supporters of Bangladesh’s main Islamist party rallied on Saturday, demanding an overhaul of the electoral system as the country gears up for polls next year.The Jamaat-e-Islami party has gained significant momentum since the ousting of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a popular uprising last year. During her tenure, Hasina took a hardline stance against Jamaat, even cancelling its registration as a political party. For decades, Jamaat was barred from holding public rallies. Last month, the Supreme Court restored the party’s registration, paving the way for its participation in elections slated for next April.”We have suffered a lot in the last 15 years. We went to jail, we were robbed of our political rights,” Mohammad Abdul Mannan, a 29-year-old party activist, told AFP.Demonstrators braving the sweltering heat in the capital demaded changes to the distrution of seats, calling for proportional representation. “We’ve gathered here in masses to press our seven-point demand, which includes participatory representation in parliament,” Mannan said.”Elections shouldn’t be held unless our demands are fulfilled.”  After independence, Jamaat was banned. It later re-emerged and registered its best electoral performance in 1991 when it secured 18 seats.The party joined a coalition government in 2001, but failed to build lasting popular support. “We want a proportional representation system so that winners can’t take all — we too deserve a voice,” Mannan said. Tens of thousands of demonstrators began swarming the Suhrawardy Udyan memorial in capital Dhaka by midday, spilling out into the surrounding park. Some wore T-shirts bearing the party’s logo, others sported headbands inscribed with its name, while many displayed metallic badges shaped like a scale — the party’s electoral symbol.Md Shafiqul Islam, 58, travelled from Bogura — a stronghold of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which is eyeing a landslide victory in the polls. “I felt it was my duty as a Muslim to attend. Jamaat-e-Islami promises to establish an Islamic country, and that’s why I came,” Shafiqul told AFP. During Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence from Pakistan, Jamaat-e-Islami supported Islamabad, a role that sparks anger among many Bangladeshis today.Bangladesh’s war crimes tribunal sentenced several of Jamaat-e-Islami’s senior leaders to death for their roles in the war, executing four of them.Many Bangladeshis believe the party must acknowledge its past to regain public trust and become a viable electoral force. But at the rally, supporters offered a different take. “Jamaat is being blamed unfairly,” said a 33-year-old private service holder, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.”It did nothing except uphold the integrity of the nation.” 

At least three wild elephants were found dead across Sri Lanka on Friday, officials said, a day after six young rescued elephants were returned to the jungle under a conservation drive.Wildlife officials said one elephant was run over by a passenger train in the island’s northeast, while two others were found shot dead in the central and eastern regions.Elephants are protected by law and considered sacred due to their significance in Buddhist culture, but farmers often kill them to protect their crops.Human-elephant conflict in Sri Lanka has resulted in the deaths of nearly 200 elephants and 55 people so far this year.”We have launched investigations into the shootings of the two elephants, it looks like the work of local farmers,” a police spokesman in the capital Colombo said.The train accident occurred in Gallella, the same area where seven elephants were killed by a locomotive in February, the worst incident of its kind in Sri Lanka.It happened despite speed limits on trains passing through elephant-inhabited forest areas.A Sri Lanka railway official said an “internal investigation has been launched to establish if the driver had violated the speed limit”.Wildlife authorities released six elephants, aged between five and seven, back into the jungle on Thursday after rehabilitating them under a conservation programme that began in 1998.The Elephant Transit Home in Udawalawe, about 210 kilometres (130 miles) southeast of Colombo, cares for rescued animals and eventually returns them to the wild.The sanctuary is a major tourist attraction and holds 57 elephants that had been abandoned, injured, or separated from their herds.Sri Lankan authorities believe the transit home’s strategy of rewilding rescued elephants, rather than domesticating them, has been successful.The home has returned 187 elephants to the wild since 1998.Conservation efforts have become increasingly urgent due to the escalating conflict between wild elephants and farmers.Official figures from Sri Lanka’s wildlife department show that 4,835 elephants and 1,601 people have been killed in the worsening conflict since 2010.

Pakistan will ban for five years the construction of new hotels around picturesque lakes in the north that attract tens of thousands of tourists each year, a government agency said.Unregulated construction of hotels and guest houses in Gilgit-Baltistan — which boasts around 13,000 glaciers, more than any other country on Earth outside the polar regions — has sparked major concerns about environmental degradation.The natural beauty of the region has made it a top tourist destination, with towering peaks looming over the Old Silk Road, and a highway transporting tourists between cherry orchards, glaciers, and ice-blue lakes.However, in recent years construction has exploded led by companies from outside the region, straining water and power resources, and increasing waste.”If we let them construct hotels at such pace, there will be a forest of concrete,” Khadim Hussain, a senior official at the Gilgit-Baltistan Environmental Protection Authority told AFP on Friday.”People don’t visit here to see concrete; people come here to enjoy natural beauty,” he added.Last month, a foreign tourist posted a video on Instagram — which quickly went viral — alleging wastewater was being discharged by a hotel into Lake Attabad, which serves as a freshwater source for Hunza.The next day, authorities fined the hotel more than $5,000.Asif Sakhi, a political activist and resident of the Hunza Valley, welcomed the ban.”We have noticed rapid changes in the name of tourism and development,” he said, adding hotel construction was “destroying our natural lakes and rivers”.Shah Nawaz, a hotel manager and local resident of the valley, also praised the ban, saying he believes “protecting the environment and natural beauty is everyone’s responsibility”.

State authorities blamed the management of India’s Royal Challengers Bengaluru cricket team for last month’s deadly stampede during celebrations for their first IPL title.Eleven fans were crushed to death and more than 50 wounded in a stampede near the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium after hundreds of thousands packed the streets in the southern city of Bengaluru on June 4, to welcome home their hero Virat Kohli and his RCB cricket team.Karnataka state authorities singled out the RCB, its partners and the state cricket association for their mismanagement of the event in a report made public on Thursday.It said organisers had not submitted a “formal request” or provided enough detail for permission to be granted for the celebrations. “Consequently, the permission was not granted,” it said.The team went ahead with its victory parade despite police rejecting RCB’s request, according to the report.AFP has been unable to contact RCB for comment.Four people, including a senior executive at RCB, representatives of event organisers DNA and Karnataka State Cricket Association, were detained by police in the days following the stampede.Players were parading the trophy near the stadium a day after their win over Punjab Kings in the final in Ahmedabad when the stampede occurred.The dead were aged between 14 and 29.Prime Minister Narendra Modi called it “absolutely heartrending” and Kohli, who top-scored in the final, was “at a loss for words” after it unfolded.India coach Gautam Gambhir said he was never a fan of roadshows, and the authorities should not have allowed the mass celebrations if they weren’t prepared.

Air India’s inspection of the locking feature on the fuel control switches of its existing Boeing 787 aircraft found no issues, an internal communication circulated within the airline said.The switches have come under scrutiny following last month’s crash of an Air India jet, which killed 260 people, after a preliminary probe by Indian investigators found that they had flipped from the run position to cutoff shortly after takeoff.India’s aviation regulator ordered the country’s airlines this week to investigate the locking feature on the switches of several Boeing models.The order came after Boeing notified operators that the fuel switch locks on its jets were safe.However, it was in line with a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB) issued by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 2018, which recommended inspection of the locks to ensure they could not be moved accidentally.Air India’s probe found no problems with the locking mechanism.”Over the weekend, our Engineering team initiated precautionary inspections on the locking mechanism of Fuel Control Switch (FCS) on all our Boeing 787 aircraft,” the airline’s flight operations department said in a communication to its pilots.”The inspections have been completed and no issues were found,” the communication said, noting that it had complied with the regulator’s directives.It said all of its Boeing 787-8 aircraft had also undergone “Throttle Control Module (TCM) replacement as per the Boeing maintenance schedule”, adding that the FCS was part of this module.Other countries have also ordered their airlines to examine fuel switches on Boeing aircraft.Singapore found them all to be “functioning properly”.”Our checks confirmed that all fuel switches on SIA (Singapore Airlines) and Scoot’s Boeing 787 aircraft are functioning properly and comply with regulatory requirements,” an SIA spokesperson told AFP this week.The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner that crashed last month was heading from Ahmedabad in western India to London. All but one of the 242 people on board were killed, as well as 19 people on the ground.A report in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, which cited unidentified sources, said a cockpit recording of a conversation between the two pilots indicated the captain had cut off fuel to the engines.India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which released the preliminary report, said it was still “too early to reach any definite conclusions”.It said the investigation’s final report would come out with “root causes and recommendations”. “We urge the public and the media to refrain from spreading premature narratives that risk undermining the integrity of the investigative process,” it said in a statement.