logo
Dog freed from hot locker after owner puts it inside to tour castle in Germany

Dog freed from hot locker after owner puts it inside to tour castle in Germany

Straits Times9 hours ago
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Tourists objected and security staff were alerted when a woman shut her dog inside a hot locker so she could tour Germany's Neuschwanstein Castle.
BERLIN - A dog was rescued from a locker for valuables at Neuschwanstein Castle in southern Germany after its owner shut her pet inside over the objections of other tourists so that she could visit the famous attraction, police said on July 6.
Neuschwanstein, a picture-postcard castle with surging turrets nestled in the Alps near the border with Austria, is one of Germany's top tourist attractions.
Despite it being a hot summer's day and half the locker already having been filled by a pram, the woman locked the dog inside the small space and left to tour the castle, police in the nearby town of Fuessen said in a statement.
Security staff were alerted and freed the dog, they added.
'The dog was fortunately unharmed but visibly glad when it was rescued from the already hot locker,' the police statement said, adding that officers deployed to the scene took him back to the police station.
The police did not specify what breed the dog was but said it was of 'medium' size and about 60cm tall at the shoulder. An officer on duty at Fuessen police station contacted by telephone said the dog was a mongrel.
Police said they had initiated criminal proceedings against the owner on suspicion of breaking Germany's animal welfare law. REUTERS
Top stories
Swipe. Select. Stay informed.
Singapore First BTO project in Sembawang North to be offered in July HDB launch
World Tariffs will kick in on Aug 1 barring trade deals: US Treasury Secretary
Singapore Woman on SMRT's 190 bus injured after bottle thrown at vehicle leaves hole in window
Business Great Eastern says Takeover Code not breached when it shared IFA valuation with OCBC
Asia 'Don't be seen in India again': Indian nationals pushed into Bangladesh at gunpoint
Asia Thousands evacuated as Typhoon Danas lashes Taiwan
Asia Two women fatally stabbed at bar in Japan by man
Life Star Awards 2025: Christopher Lee wins big, including Special Achievement Award and Best Actor
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Israel attacks 3 Yemeni ports and power plant, Israeli military says, World News
Israel attacks 3 Yemeni ports and power plant, Israeli military says, World News

AsiaOne

timean hour ago

  • AsiaOne

Israel attacks 3 Yemeni ports and power plant, Israeli military says, World News

ADEN — Israel has attacked Houthi targets in three Yemeni ports and a power plant, the Israeli military said early on Monday (July 7), marking the first Israeli attack on Yemen in almost a month. The strikes on Hodeidah, Ras Isa and Salif ports, and Ras Qantib power plant were due to repeated Houthi attacks on Israel, the military added. Since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, the Iran-aligned Houthis have fired at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea, disrupting global trade, in what it says are acts of solidarity with the Palestinians. Most of the dozens of missiles and drones fired toward Israel have been intercepted or fallen short. Israel has carried out a series of retaliatory strikes. Israel also attacked Galaxy Leader ship in Ras Isa port, which was seized by Houthis in late 2023, the military added. "The Houthi terrorist regime's forces installed a radar system on the ship, and are using it to track vessels in international maritime space, in order to promote the Houthi terrorist regime's activities," the military said. The Houthi military spokesperson said following the attacks that Houthis' air defences confronted the Israeli attack 'by using a large number of domestically produced surface-to-air missiles'. Residents told Reuters that the Israeli strikes on the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah put the main power station out of service, leaving the city in darkness. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV reported that Israel launched a series of strikes on Hodeidah, shortly after the Israeli military issued an evacuation warning for people at the three Yemeni ports. The assault comes hours after a ship was attacked off of Hodeidah and the ship's crew abandoned it as it took on water. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but security firm Ambrey said the vessel fits the typical profile of a Houthi target. Israel has severely hurt other allies of Iran in the region — Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The Tehran-backed Houthis and pro-Iranian armed groups in Iraq are still standing. The group's leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, created the force challenging world powers from a group of ragtag mountain fighters in sandals. Under the direction of al-Houthi, the group has grown into an army of tens of thousands of fighters and acquired armed drones and ballistic missiles. Saudi Arabia and the West say the arms come from Iran, though Tehran denies this. [[nid:719878]]

ICE raids derail Los Angeles economy as workers go into hiding
ICE raids derail Los Angeles economy as workers go into hiding

Straits Times

timean hour ago

  • Straits Times

ICE raids derail Los Angeles economy as workers go into hiding

Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox A main is detained as clashes break out after US Customs and Border Protection officers attempted to raid a store in Bell, Los Angeles, on June 20. Los Angeles was already struggling to revive its fragile economy after the most destructive wildfires in its history erupted six months ago. Now, immigration raids are driving workers crucial to the rebuilding into the shadows. Framers and landscapers are abandoning job sites. Renovations of retail shops have stopped midway. Real estate developers say they are struggling to find crews to keep projects on track in a sector that relies heavily on immigrant labor. 'We don't have enough people to staff the work and we're scrambling to figure it out,' said chief executive Arturo Sneider of Primestor, a manager of US$1.2 billion (S$1.5 billion) in shopping centers and 3,000 apartments under development in California and three other states. 'It's triggering delays.' President Donald Trump's deportation campaign has roiled workplaces and communities from Florida to Illinois and New York. But few places are feeling the shock as acutely as LA, a longtime sanctuary city and home to one of the nation's largest migrant labor forces. Between June 6 and June 22, immigration agents arrested more than 1,600 people across the LA area – at car washes, construction sites and day-laborer hubs such as Home Depot parking lots. The scope of the crackdown has rattled neighborhoods. Businesses have shuttered, police overtime costs have surged and Fourth of July events in Latino areas were canceled amid fears of apprehensions. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. World Trump says US nears trade deals as tariff effective date delayed Singapore MPs should not ask questions to 'clock numbers'; focus should be improving S'poreans' lives: Seah Kian Peng Singapore Sequencing and standards: Indranee on role of Leader of the House Singapore NUS College draws 10,000 applications for 400 places, showing strong liberal arts interest Singapore Life After... blazing biomedical research trail in S'pore: Renowned scientist breaks new ground at 59 Singapore More students in Singapore juggle studying and working to support their families Business Beyond the 9 to 5: Why side hustles are becoming a way of life for more full-time workers Life Star Awards 2025: 11 looks that shocked and charmed on the red carpet The wave of detentions sparked a week of protests in downtown LA and outlying suburbs, some turning violent. Mr Trump deployed the National Guard and US Marines to protect federal property, dismissing the objections of Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom. While the demonstrations have largely eased, the Trump administration escalated tensions last week by suing LA over its refusal to cooperate with federal agents. Homeland Security officials argued in the case that the city's sanctuary policies – which limit local cooperation with federal immigration authorities – obstruct enforcement and create instability. Mayor Karen Bass vowed to fight the lawsuit despite the cost to the city's already stretched budget. The raids are doing 'severe economic damage' and undercutting efforts to rebuild after the fires, she said. 'We know that Los Angeles is the test case, and we will stand strong,' Ms Bass said. 'We do so because the people snatched off city streets and chased through parking lots are our coworkers, our neighbors, our family members, and they are Angelenos.' A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official disputed the link between economic health and immigration enforcement. 'If there was any correlation between rampant illegal immigration and a good economy, Biden would have had a booming economy,' DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in an emailed statement. Before the raids, the second-largest US city was already facing economic strains unlike any in decades. Imports through the Port of Los Angeles, a key gateway for global commerce, dropped 19 per cent in April from a month earlier as Mr Trump's tariffs disrupted trade flows. Hollywood studios are losing ground to overseas markets, prompting California lawmakers to double film tax incentives to US$750 million. Housing permits, which had already plunged 57 per cent in the city of LA during the first quarter, had just begun to rebound before migrant arrests surged in June, according to real estate consulting firm Hilgard Analytics. 'Papers or not, fear spreads quickly,' Hilgard founding principal Joshua Baum said. 'When workers do not feel safe showing up to job sites, it slows down not only the pace of construction but also the willingness to propose new projects in the first place.' The scale of the reconstruction effort is immense. The wildfires, which erupted Jan 7, torched more than 16,000 structures across the region, from Pacific Palisades to Altadena. Rebuilding those areas could require an additional 70,000 workers by mid-2026, according to a report by the Urban Land Institute, University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Southern California. Today's construction workforce in LA County is about 145,000. Some contractors are taking extraordinary measures to shield workers, said Ms Clare De Briere, founder of LA-based C+C Ventures and a lead author of a post-fire rebuilding report. An example is moving portable toilets from the curbs to backyards so workers won't be visible from the street, she said. 'We're already labor challenged and you're adding unpredictability through the raids, which is only going to increase costs and slow things down,' Ms De Briere said. 'Nothing good related to these projects is going to come from ICE raids.' Reconstruction is barely getting going. In the Eaton Fire zone east of LA, only 66 building permits have been issued out of more than 900 applications. About 150 scorched lots are up for sale – a number that keeps growing as more owners discover they can't afford to rebuild. 'Already people trying to rebuild have huge gaps in financing, where every dollar counts,' Mr Tim Kawahara, executive director of the Ziman Center for Real Estate at UCLA, said in an interview. 'Increased labor costs will just add to that and potentially make it more challenging to rebuild.' LA County had about 3.4 million immigrants – a third of its population – including almost 700,000 undocumented residents in 2019, according to a report by the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation, which is preparing a study of the deportation campaign's economic impact. An estimated 14.5 per cent of the construction workforce was undocumented, second only to 17.1 per cent in hospitality, the report said. The full impact of the immigration enforcement is hard to track because many workers toil in the underground economy. One early indicator: Ridership on LA public transit fell as much as 15 per cent in the two weeks after immigration raids began June 6, the first drop after 30 months of gains, according to LA Metro spokesman Patrick Chandler. Climate of fear New social media videos, mostly shot on shaky cellphones, are circulating daily and spreading fear. They have shown workers handcuffed at the Bubble Bath car wash. A team in military uniforms was recorded blowing open a home in pursuit of a suspect. A blue-vested Walmart employee was taken into custody after trying to protect a colleague. A landscape worker and father of three US Marines was punched repeatedly during a take down. 'The community feels hunted,' said Ms Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. Her group joined a lawsuit last week accusing federal agencies of targeting people 'on the basis of their skin color and occupation' in mass roundups. People are scared because the apprehensions are conducted in some cases by agents wearing masks, with little explanation or identification. 'You have a concern about being targeted, because of the way you look,' said Ms Sneider, who said his projects in Arizona and Nevada have been disrupted as well. 'So even people that have full citizenship or status are concerned to just go out.' Agents detained about 30 people at a Home Depot parking lot in Hollywood on June 19, including a US citizen who recorded an agent smashing a truck window. A week later, day laborers waited warily for work outside the store, many now keeping their documentation close-at-hand. 'I've got my Real ID here and my passport at home,' said Mr Melvin Maldonado, a native of Guatemala who offered handyman services for US$30 an hour. 'We're good people, trying to feed our families.' BLOOMBERG

Palestinian armed group in Gaza admits to coordination with Israel
Palestinian armed group in Gaza admits to coordination with Israel

Straits Times

time3 hours ago

  • Straits Times

Palestinian armed group in Gaza admits to coordination with Israel

Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox A building hit by Israeli bombardment in the Nuseirat camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip on July 6. Gaza City, Palestinian Territories – The head of a Palestinian armed group opposed to Hamas and accused of aid looting in the Gaza Strip confirmed on July 6 that it was coordinating with the Israeli military, in an interview with public radio. Mr Yasser Abu Shabab said his group, known as the Popular Forces, was able to move freely in zones under Israeli military control and communicated their operations beforehand. 'We keep them informed, but we carry out the military actions on our own,' he said in an interview with Makan, Israel's Arabic-language public radio broadcaster. Mr Abu Shabab also said his group had received 'logistical and financial support from several parties', without mentioning Israel directly. 'There are things we can't talk about publicly.' In June , the Israeli authorities admitted to providing support to armed Palestinian groups opposed to Hamas in Gaza, without naming them, though local media reports identified the group in question as Mr Abu Shabab's. 'It is only good, it is saving lives of Israeli soldiers,' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the time. Knesset member and former defence minister Avigdor Lieberman, however, accused the government of 'giving weapons to a group of criminals and felons'. The European Council on Foreign Relations think-tank describes Mr Abu Shabab as the head of a criminal gang in the Rafah region of southern Gaza that has been suspected of looting aid trucks. Mr Abu Shabab did not address the accusation in his radio interview, and stressed that the only goal of his militia was to defeat Hamas and to provide an alternative for governance in the Gaza Strip. 'We do not belong to any ideology or political organisation,' Mr Abu Shabab said in the interview, adding that he was seeking to eradicate Hamas' 'injustice' and 'corruption'. 'We will continue to fight, no matter the bloodshed,' he added. 'Right now, Hamas is dying. They know their end is near.' Mr Abu Shabab has drawn the ire of Hamas, which has ruled over the Gaza Strip since 2007. On July 2 , a Hamas military court gave him 10 days to turn himself in to be tried for treason, among other charges. On July 6 , a coalition of Palestinian clans accused the Popular Forces of 'shamelessly collaborating with the enemy'. 'They are rejected by all our people,' the coalition said in a statement. 'We will show no mercy to them or to anyone who follows in their footsteps by aiding the occupation. They will be treated as they deserve to be: traitors and collaborators.' AFP

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store