Month: April 2019

A body surfer has died after being bitten by a shark in the waters off Cape Cod in the first fatal attack seen in the US state of Massachusetts for more than 80 years.

Arthur Medici, a 26-year-old Brazilian who was studying in America, had been seen by beach-goers moments earlier performing tricks 25 metres out in the waves at Newcomb Hollow Beach in the town of Wellfleet.

Mr Medici ‘s girlfriend’s brother desperately dragged him to shore where off-duty lifeguards performed CPR and made tourniquets to try and stem the bleeding. He was pronounced dead later in hospital having suffered multiple bite wounds to the legs.

Joe Booth, a local fisherman who witnessed the incident, told the Cape Cod Times that he first spotted a giant eruption of water, fifteen feet wide. 

"I saw a tail and a lot of thrashing. You could tell by the body language of the guys in the water something wasn’t right," he added.

"I was that guy on the beach screaming, ‘Shark, shark!’ It was like right out of that movie Jaws. This has turned into Amity Island real quick out here.”

On Sunday, the beach remained closed as experts speculated on the type of shark responsible.

"Based on the information I know, the highest probability is that it was a  (great) white shark. I can’t think of any other species that would do this,” said Gregory Skomal, state Division of Marine Fisheries shark researcher.

"Unfortunately he was in an area where the shark was hunting. When they strike with a ferocity of this nature, they believe what they are eating is an aggressive seal that can fight back. "

The last fatal shark attack in Massachusetts was in 1936 when a 16-year-old boy was killed.

But this summer there have been multiple reported sightings of Great Whites along the picturesque coastline, famous for its lighthouses and windswept beaches.

William Lytton, a 61-year-old neurologist, was bitten on the leg in August and is still recovering.

In an interview just last week with the Boston Globe he said he may be a little hesitant to go back in the water.

"But you know, you fall off the horse, you got to get back on," he added.

“As you can all see, there is no secret Hizbollah weapons warehouse here,” Gebran Bassil, Lebanon’s foreign minister, said wryly as he gestured down below the empty stands of the al-Ahed football stadium.

Just four days earlier, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, had publicly accused the Lebanese group of hiding precision missiles in the heart of the capital, Beirut.

“Here’s a picture that’s worth a thousand missiles,” Mr Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly as he held up a satellite image with three points marked with red dots. “Israel knows what you’re doing, Israel knows where you’re doing it, and Israel will not let you get away with it,” he warned.

In an unprecedented move, Mr Bassil decided to call his bluff on Monday, offering foreign ambassadors and journalists a tour of each of the sites in question.

“We are used to Israel fabricating information (…) but this time Israel lied in the presence of delegates from all over the world, which is why we took this extraordinary measure today,” Mr Bassil told the 73 envoys and reporters gathered.

Bemused football players looked on as Lebanon’s entire diplomat and press core descended on the stadium and began searching every corner of the pitch, seemingly looking for evidence that could prove Mr Netanyahu’s accusations right.

If there ever was any weapons silo here, there was certainly nothing to be found on Monday. Either Mr Netanyahu stood before the General Assembly with faulty or outdated intelligence, or perhaps the stash was moved – undetected – in the days since his Thursday address.

“I live just over there and come to practise every day,” said one of the local team’s players. “I think we would have seen a bunch of missiles being transported,” he smiled.

The Telegraph asked Alexander Zaspykin, Russia’s envoy to Lebanon if he believed Mr Netanyahu’s claims after seeing the site, which is located in an area of southern Beirut under the control of Hizbollah. He shrugged and just said: “Look around.”

But the farcical events of the day belied serious and rising tensions between Israel and Hizbollah.

Mr Bassil, who heads the Hizbollah-aligned Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), said Mr Netanyahu’s address at the UN was an attempt to justify a coming attack on Lebanon.

Israel believes Hizbollah poses a greater threat to Israel now that at any time during its 30-year conflict with the group.

Hizbollah is estimated to be sitting on an arsenal of over 120,000 rockets and missiles and can fire over 1,000 per day, capable of targeting almost every major city in Israel.

Earlier this month Hizbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah boasted that the militia had acquired highly accurate weapons that would “change the entire equation”.

They are believed to now be in possession of the Fateh-110, which uses advanced guidance systems and could take out the Jewish state’s power plants and airports.

“If Israel imposes a war on Lebanon, Israel will face a fate and a reality it has never expected,” Nasrallah warned.

Hizbollah and Israel have not engaged in major hostilities since the 2006 July war, which was devastating for both sides and ended with an Israeli withdrawal.

But Hizbollah has grown considerably stronger in recent years, benefitting from its involvement in the war in Syria.

What it has lost in troops fighting alongside Syrian government forces (the figure is reported to be as high as 1,500) it has gained in training and guidance from Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force.

In any future conflict, one could expect “significant damage to Israel,” said Brigadier-General Assaf Orion, a retired head of strategic planning for the Israel Defence Forces.

Israel’s missile-defense and anti-rocket systems Iron Dome and David’s Sling will offer some protection, he said, but they would be tested by the scale and scope of Hizbollah’s arsenal.

Israel has been attempting to cut off its supply route in Syria, launching strikes on Iranian and Hizbollah targets inside its neighbour’s territory.

However, a recent Israeli sortie that lead to a deadly incident of friendly fire between Russia and the Syrian government could have made that much more difficult.

Moscow reacted by arming the Bashar al-Assad regime with more advanced anti-missile technology, which Israel worries could be used against its aircraft.

Israel has already warned Lebanon that the entire country is a legitimate target now that Hizbollah has elected officials in government.

An alliance which included Hizbollah made significant gains in Lebanon’s May election, solidifying the group effective veto power on issues including foreign policy.

“The risks for Israel in Lebanon are far higher than in its periodic battles with Hamas in Gaza,” said Daniel L. Byman, senior fellow at DC-based Brookings Institution.

“Both sides are prepared for war this time – should it occur, conflict is likely to be painful for all concerned.”

The heir to the Samsung empire and the leaders of several other South Korean conglomerates will go to Pyongyang this week for an inter-Korean summit, Seoul announced Sunday.

Samsung’s Lee Jae-yong and the heads of the SK and LG groups will be part of President Moon Jae-in’s delegation as he heads for a meeting with the North’s leader Kim Jong-un, Moon’s office said.

Kim Yong-hwan, vice-chairman of Hyundai Motor Group – whose founder was a refugee from the North – will be among the entourage. Hyun Jeong-eun, chairwoman of the separate Hyundai Group which pioneered many cross-border economic projects, will also accompany Mr Moon.

Ms Hyun met Kim’s father Kim Jong-il several times. She was among the first South Koreans to meet the young leader when he assumed power following his father’s death in 2011.

Mr Moon, who favours dialogue with the North to nudge it toward denuclearisation, has advocated closer economic ties across the border, despite multiple sanctions on the North over its atomic weapons and ballistic missile programmes.

He is set to fly to the North’s capital Tuesday for a three-day summit with Kim – his third meeting this year with the young ruler of the isolated country.

The delegation of about 200 includes top Seoul officials including its spy chief, foreign minister and defence chief as well as prominent figures in the economy, religion, culture and sports, Mr Moon’s office said.

Mr Lee is the de facto leader of the Samsung group, by far the South’s biggest conglomerate, which includes Samsung Electronics – the world’s largest maker of smartphones as well as memory chips.

Other delegates include Archbishop Hyginus Kim Hee-jung of the Catholic church, a female ice hockey player who led the joint inter-Korean team which competed in the South’s 2018 Winter Olympics, and K-pop star Ailee.

US efforts to persuade the nuclear-armed North to disarm have been stalled for months after Kim and Donald Trump, the US president, vowed to denuclearize the peninsula at a landmark summit in June.

Mr Moon, who was instrumental in brokering that meeting, is hoping to play the role of a mediator again this week. He is also expected to discuss several joint economic projects agreed during his first summit with Kim at the border truce village of Panmunjom in April.

The Hubble Space Telescope has been put out of action by a gyroscope problem.

Nasa announced Monday that one of Hubble’s gyroscopes failed last Friday.

As a result, the telescope is in so-called safe mode with non-essential systems turned off. That means all science observations are on hold.

Rachel Osten, Hubble’s deputy mission head at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, said: "It’s true. Very stressful weekend. Right now HST is in safe mode while we figure out what to do.

"Another gyro failed. First step is try to bring back the last gyro, which had been off, and is being problematic. We’ll work through the issues and be back."

Nasa said mission controllers are working to restore the 28-year-old telescope.

In a statement the space agency said: "Mission experts are taking steps to return Hubble to great science."

Gyroscopes are needed to keep Hubble pointed in the right direction during observations.

Astronomers use the orbiting observatory to peer deep into the cosmos, revealing faraway solar systems as well as galaxies and black holes.

Launched in 1990, Hubble has had trouble with its gyroscopes before.

Spacewalking shuttle astronauts replaced all six in 2009.

The telescope could work with as few as one or two gyroscopes, although that leaves little room for additional breakdowns.

The problem with Hubble comes after Nasa’s Opportunity Mars rover went silent on June 10 following a dust storm on the red planet.

A wealthy British businessman is feared dead after he and his wife vanished from their luxury Thailand home where blood was found smeared on the walls.

Alan Hogg, 64, who is originally from Edinburgh, and his wife Nott, 61, have been missing for five days. Police suspect their disappearance is connected to a “long-standing conflict within the family”.

Mrs Hogg’s brother, Warut Satchakit, 63, was arrested after CCTV showed him entering the couple’s gated property and leaving in their new white Ford Ranger pick-up truck, which was sold to a Lao businessman the day after they were reported missing.

He was charged with theft but denied any involvement in their disappearance and was released on a £2,400 bail.

Mr and Mrs Hogg were reported missing by a friend last Thursday, two days after they had been due to meet them in Chiang Mai.

Bloodstains were reportedly found in a sink and on the wall of their swimming pool changing room,  allegedly with signs someone had tried to wipe it away, according to the Bangkok Post.

A mobile phone, understood to belong to Mrs Hogg, was found still plugged into the charger at their three-storey home in the northern town of Phrae.

The couple’s daughter Robyn Hogg, 31, a production assistant, flew to Thailand from the UK after being alerted to her parents’ disappearance.

Police investigators and sniffer dogs have been scouring the home for clues and CCTV footage of the area is being reviewed.

The pick-up truck is being checked for forensic evidence and divers have been searching a nearby river.

Mr Hogg, who has links with several UK businesses, is described on Companies House as an offshore construction manager. He moved to Thailand several years ago after working as an engineer in Australia.

He was born in Zambia and married in 1986 in Edinburgh, where his mother and brother still live.

Neighbours described Mrs Hogg as “the most beautiful woman in town” and said Mr Hogg was “very friendly” and often helped them. They told local media he was a millionaire.  

He and his wife were known to rear ducks, geese and cattle on their property, and made frequent and long trips to Australia.

Major General Sanpat Praputsra from the Thai Police said: "The case is moving well and we’re in control. Officers are working on the investigation day and night.

"The issue is likely to be a long-standing conflict within the family. We cannot find any other situations that are likely to have caused this.

"The brother-in-law had problems with money and there were family issues."

Officers believe that at least two people were involved in the couple’s disappearance and are interviewing friends and relatives.

Family members and former colleagues of Mr Hogg in Scotland declined to comment when approached by the Telegraph.

The arrest of an American accused of trafficking thousands of protected turtles has thrown a new spotlight on an illegal wildlife trade that spans the globe and threatens to force rare species of the reptile into extinction.  

This upcoming trial of David Sommers, 62, has exposed New Jersey as an unlikely hotbed of poaching that has surged due to a high demand in Asia, where native populations have been depleted, wildlife advocates say.

Popular for its meat, medicinal qualities and increasingly as an exotic pet, a single turtle of the right breed can be sold for hundreds or even thousands of dollars on the black market.

Mr Sommers, from Pennsylvania, is accused of smuggling 3,500 diamondback terrapins, native to the eastern US, out of New Jersey to sell them online to American and foreign buyers.

He was charged by the Department of Justice in July after one of his shipments to Canada – a box of turtles labelled as a book – was seized by authorities. He was found with more than 3,000 turtles, most of which were hatchlings.

Officials suspect that Mr Sommers bred the terrapins himself after catching a few adult females, inducing them to lay eggs and then incubating them.

Mr Sommers has denied the charges against him and is due to stand trial in the coming months. If convicted, he could face up to 35 years in prison.

New Jersey, which is a prime breeding spot for diamondback breeds, banned the collection, possession and transport of the turtles in 2016 after a huge increase in the numbers being removed from its shores.  

Conservationists say the removal of just one adult female has huge implications for the local population as females have to lay dozens of eggs just to replace themselves in a population.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) law enforcement department, which is responsible for catching wildlife traffickers, said it is striving to break up "international and domestic smuggling rings that target imperilled animals".

The FWS told The Telegraph it could not comment on Mr Sommers’ case while legal proceedings are ongoing. But it pointed to a series of cases it has brought to prosecution in recent months, adding that its officers are taking a number of steps to tackle the "potentially devastating threats to wildlife" by working with international counterparts.

Zane Batten, a conservation police officer for FWS’ New Jersey division, told NJ.com that was a "huge problem" in the state.  "It’s a clandestine market: people don’t know about it, people don’t hear about it, people don’t see about it," he said.

Mr Batten said an upswing in demand from Asia for diamondback terrapins has fuelled a significant increase in the illegal trade.

As a major hub for international trade, a number of species illegally travel through New Jersey’s ports and airports and on to Asia and Europe every year, according to the US Justice Department.

Rachel Kramer, manager of  wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), said the growth of the Asia market was “likely due to a combination of growing affluence, increasing connectivity between wild places and consumers, and age-old desires to own what’s rare and beautiful.”

She added: "Turtle soup has long been out of fashion in the United States, but there’s mounting demand for live turtles in the global pet trade. Traffic surveys have found protected North American turtles in markets as distant as Jakarta – that’s a long way from home for those little guys."

A Traffic investigation published in March discovered that 16 out of 65 species of tortoise and freshwater turtles in Jakarta markets and pet stores were from North America.

Nearly half of 4,895 individual reptiles found by the group were threatened with extinction according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s red list of threatened species.

The illegal trade works in both directions between Asian and US markets, said Serene Chng, a programme officer at the Southeast Asia office of Traffic, a wildlife trade monitoring network.

“Most people just think of turtles being eaten but they are also traded as pets in substantial volumes and this particular trade is global. It’s not just that they are in demand in Asia, they are also being traded in the States and in Europe,” she told The Telegraph.

“You have Southeast Asian species that are traded to Europe and the Americas and likewise you have species from the Americas that are traded in Asia,” she said.

In May, Ms Chng published a report revealing that Asia’s illegal trade in turtle was spiralling out of control at such a pace that the reptiles had become one of the world’s most threatened groups of animals.

Traffic has called for the urgent launch of intelligence-led investigations and collaborative law enforcement across source, consumer and transit hotspots. It has demanded more vigilance at key international airports and stronger prosecution efforts.  

“The States is quite a big demand centre so more could be done on their end to look at the buyers and ensuring that pet shops that do sell reptiles are doing so legally. There is some responsibility by the businesses as well as the buyers,” said Ms Chng.

Three babies and two adults were slashed during an early-morning assault at a suspected illegal childcare centre in New York City on Friday, police said.

A 52-year-old woman who works there as a "babysitter/worker" was arrested after assault which took place in the Queens neighborhood at around 3:30am, a police spokesman told AFP.

The suspect attacked two baby girls and a baby boy, leaving one of the girls in serious condition, police said. One of the adults hurt in the attack worked there, while the other was the father of one of the babies.

None of the victims’ lives were in danger, police said.

Officers found the suspect in the basement of the center with self-inflicted cuts to her wrists. She has not yet been charged.

"It looks to be an illegal" childcare facility, apparently for members of the city’s Asian community, the police spokesman told AFP.

"We’re unsure of its legality at this time."

It was not immediately clear how many other children were at the centre at the time of the assault.