India: Mother and young daughters found living in forest cave alone for seven years
Nina Kutina, 40, and her two daughters, aged four and six, were found by authorities undertaking a routine patrol of Ramatirtha Hill, India.
The Mirror reported that local police said the Russian family had been living in the cave undetected for years following the expiry of Ms Kutina's visa eight years ago.
The mother told local media that they had passed the time by making art, singing, reading books and living peacefully.
A police spokesperson said they had convinced Ms Kutina to come out of the cave by warning her of the risk of a landslide in the area.
She had used red saris to form a makeshift curtain at the entrance of the cave, and inside had decorated the walls with pictures of Hindu deities.
The family of three had reportedly lived off instant noodles.
A police statement revealed a text message the mother had sent her friends after she was discovered.
'Our peaceful life in the cave has ended — our cave home destroyed,' Ms Kutina wrote.
The family have been moved to a detention centre and will be made to return to Russia.
Sridhar SR, a local police inspector, said Ms Kutina had told police that she worked as a Russian language tutor in Goa, a coastal tourist district in India.
'She had kept a schedule for kids which includes drawing, singing, chanting mantras, yoga and other exercises. Even on Sunday morning, she was teaching her kids yoga. It is nothing but her love for adventure that brought her here,' Sridhar said.
Police were surprised that the family had survived in the woods, and said thankfully nothing 'untoward' had happened to them while they were in the forest.
Ms Kutina told ANI that her family had a 'big experience' in the jungle.
'We were not dying, and I did not bring my daughters to die in the jungle. They did not feel bad, they were very happy,' she said.
'They swam in the waterfall, they lived, had a very good place for sleeping, a lot of lessons with art making, we made from clay, we painted, we ate good, I was cooking with gas, very good and tasty food.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sydney Morning Herald
8 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
The Chinese political bribery scandal that's rattling Europe
While prosecutors in Brussels did not name those charged, media reports have identified some members of parliament – known as MEPs – and their staff. The payments reported, however, appeared relatively modest. One report said more than €45,000 ($81,000) was transferred to a lobbyist and this was used to pay €6,700 to a member of parliament and about €16,000 to aides. Transparency International EU director Nick Aiossa said the charges demonstrated the lack of action in the parliament to stop corruption. 'The allegations that have been reported upon certainly point to a potential complex corruption scheme involving MEPs, their staff, Huawei and other legal entities,' he told this masthead. In a setback for prosecutors, Italian MEP Giusi Princi went public this month about claims by prosecutors that she attended a dinner with Huawei in Brussels in June last year. She was not an MEP at that time and was in her home region of Calabria on the date of the dinner, attending an event with her daughter. Loading 'To this day I cannot understand how they could have made such a blatant mistake,' Princi told Agence France-Presse. That mistake raised questions about whether Belgian prosecutors had their facts right – or whether the case should be investigated instead by stronger EU authorities. Huawei has insisted in statements over several months that it had a 'zero-tolerance policy toward corruption or other wrongdoing' and was complying with the law. Several of the politicians who put their names to the 2021 letter have told the media they received no payments from the company. Xi Jinping will host von der Leyen in Beijing on Thursday to mark 50 years of diplomatic recognition – the EU's predecessor recognised mainland China in 1975, 2½ years after Australia did the same – but against the backdrop of rising tensions. Von der Leyen has warned against China using its vast production capacity to flood markets and ruin competitors, and says it denies fair access to its market for EU companies. 'China is running the largest trade surplus in the history of humankind. Its trade surplus with our Union has surpassed €300 billion last year. And this is while it is getting harder and harder for European companies to do business in China,' she told legislators on July 9. The major dispute between the two sides, however, is Ukraine, because of China's economic support for Russia and the supply of Chinese technologies that find their way into Russian weapons. 'China's unyielding support for Russia is creating heightened instability and insecurity here in Europe,' von der Leyen said. 'We can say that China is de facto enabling Russia's war economy. We cannot accept this.' The lobbying concerns in Brussels are not only about Chinese influence but the broader question of ethics in parliament after an earlier uproar over payments from Qatar. Dubbed Qatargate and seen as the biggest scandal of its kind in decades, the affair began with allegations the Gulf state paid members of parliament to curry favour in Brussels. While some MEPs have been charged, the case has not been decided in court. Corporate Europe Observatory, a non-profit campaign group, has named Huawei as one of the top tech lobbyists in Brussels, with a budget of more than €2 million and 11 full-time lobbyists, according to its own declarations. 'We already have a transparency register at the EU level that repressive regime lobbyists easily bypass because it is weak, voluntary, and poorly enforced,' it said, naming China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Aiossa, from Transparency International, said the European Union had made some progress on transparency, for instance by disclosing meetings between lobbyists and politicians, but was failing on ethics. Loading 'The Huawei case is crucially important because it demonstrates that the European Parliament needs to have much stronger and robust integrity and anti-corruption frameworks in place to prevent these scandals,' he said. 'There was a moment in the wake of Qatargate when they could have been brave and brought forward ambitious reforms. They didn't do it, which has led to the current Huawei scandal.'
The Age
8 hours ago
- The Age
The Chinese political bribery scandal that's rattling Europe
While prosecutors in Brussels did not name those charged, media reports have identified some members of parliament – known as MEPs – and their staff. The payments reported, however, appeared relatively modest. One report said more than €45,000 ($81,000) was transferred to a lobbyist and this was used to pay €6,700 to a member of parliament and about €16,000 to aides. Transparency International EU director Nick Aiossa said the charges demonstrated the lack of action in the parliament to stop corruption. 'The allegations that have been reported upon certainly point to a potential complex corruption scheme involving MEPs, their staff, Huawei and other legal entities,' he told this masthead. In a setback for prosecutors, Italian MEP Giusi Princi went public this month about claims by prosecutors that she attended a dinner with Huawei in Brussels in June last year. She was not an MEP at that time and was in her home region of Calabria on the date of the dinner, attending an event with her daughter. Loading 'To this day I cannot understand how they could have made such a blatant mistake,' Princi told Agence France-Presse. That mistake raised questions about whether Belgian prosecutors had their facts right – or whether the case should be investigated instead by stronger EU authorities. Huawei has insisted in statements over several months that it had a 'zero-tolerance policy toward corruption or other wrongdoing' and was complying with the law. Several of the politicians who put their names to the 2021 letter have told the media they received no payments from the company. Xi Jinping will host von der Leyen in Beijing on Thursday to mark 50 years of diplomatic recognition – the EU's predecessor recognised mainland China in 1975, 2½ years after Australia did the same – but against the backdrop of rising tensions. Von der Leyen has warned against China using its vast production capacity to flood markets and ruin competitors, and says it denies fair access to its market for EU companies. 'China is running the largest trade surplus in the history of humankind. Its trade surplus with our Union has surpassed €300 billion last year. And this is while it is getting harder and harder for European companies to do business in China,' she told legislators on July 9. The major dispute between the two sides, however, is Ukraine, because of China's economic support for Russia and the supply of Chinese technologies that find their way into Russian weapons. 'China's unyielding support for Russia is creating heightened instability and insecurity here in Europe,' von der Leyen said. 'We can say that China is de facto enabling Russia's war economy. We cannot accept this.' The lobbying concerns in Brussels are not only about Chinese influence but the broader question of ethics in parliament after an earlier uproar over payments from Qatar. Dubbed Qatargate and seen as the biggest scandal of its kind in decades, the affair began with allegations the Gulf state paid members of parliament to curry favour in Brussels. While some MEPs have been charged, the case has not been decided in court. Corporate Europe Observatory, a non-profit campaign group, has named Huawei as one of the top tech lobbyists in Brussels, with a budget of more than €2 million and 11 full-time lobbyists, according to its own declarations. 'We already have a transparency register at the EU level that repressive regime lobbyists easily bypass because it is weak, voluntary, and poorly enforced,' it said, naming China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Aiossa, from Transparency International, said the European Union had made some progress on transparency, for instance by disclosing meetings between lobbyists and politicians, but was failing on ethics. Loading 'The Huawei case is crucially important because it demonstrates that the European Parliament needs to have much stronger and robust integrity and anti-corruption frameworks in place to prevent these scandals,' he said. 'There was a moment in the wake of Qatargate when they could have been brave and brought forward ambitious reforms. They didn't do it, which has led to the current Huawei scandal.'
Perth Now
21 hours ago
- Perth Now
Three Ukraine drones downed en route to Moscow: Russia
Russian air defence systems shot down three drones en route to Moscow, city mayor Sergei Sobyanin says on his Telegram account. Two Moscow airports - Vnukovo and Domodedovo - suspended arrivals and departures for safety reasons but later resumed operations, Russian aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia said. The Russian Defence Ministry said its air defence systems intercepted and destroyed 27 Ukrainian drones in total from 3pm to 7pm Moscow time, including four over Moscow region, 15 over Bryansk region, six over Kaluga region and two over Tula region. Earlier on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russian forces had launched attacks involving more than 300 drones and about 30 missile and cruise missiles on Ukrainian cities overnight. Zelenskiy posted photos on Telegram showing damage caused to a residential block in Odessa on the Black Sea, where one person was killed and six others injured, according to local officials. Two people were killed in a Russian missile strike in the Synelnykove district, the military governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region Serhiy Lysak said. A school and a cultural institution were destroyed; private buildings were also damaged and cars were burned out, he said. The Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions were also hit, according to Zelenskiy. Important infrastructure was destroyed in Sumy, where thousands of households were now without electricity. "There are still drones in the sky," Zelenskiy said. He added that Ukraine's air defences were destroying them and that emergency services were in operation. Pavlohrad in Dnipropetrovsk had been badly hit, with a residential block and important infrastructure damaged, Zelenskiy said. Regional military governor Serhiy Lysak spoke of a "hellish night" and said it was the worst attack to date on the city, which lies due east of Dnipro. "One explosion after another. Russian terrorists attacked with missiles and drones," he posted on Telegram. Ukrainian rail head Oleksandr Pertsovskyi posted on Facebook that there were increasing Russian attacks on civilian trains not transporting military goods. Coal trains were being hit in particular, he said. Ukraine has been defending itself against a full-scale Russian invasion for more than three years. with AP and DPA
