Latest news with #Myna
Qatar Tribune
17-07-2025
- General
- Qatar Tribune
36,000 birds hunted since launch of National Project to Combat Myna: MoECC
QNA Doha The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MoECC) has announced that the National Project to Combat Myna Birds in Qatar has recorded the hunting of approximately 36,000 birds since its launch, reflecting the effectiveness of the measures taken to limit the spread of this invasive species that threatens the ecological balance. In a statement on Wednesday, the ministry explained that hunting operations were carried out in 35 locations using 611 cages, trapping approximately 9,416 birds between January and June 2025, an indication of the escalation of control and environmental monitoring efforts. The ministry emphasised that the Myna is an invasive species that causes significant damage to the local environment by driving local birds from their nests and feeding on their eggs and young. It also has a remarkable ability to reproduce rapidly and colonise urban environments, which increases competition for food, spreads diseases, and poses a threat to biodiversity. The ministry also noted that the bird's native habitat is South Asia, indicating that the problem is not limited to Qatar alone, but rather extends to other Gulf and Arab countries facing the same challenges. It noted that the national campaign to combat the Myna includes programmes for monitoring, surveying, and identifying areas of spread, in addition to trapping campaigns and community awareness of the danger posed by the bird and the importance of reporting its whereabouts. The ministry called on community members to immediately report Myna locations, prevent the bird from providing food sources, cover garbage bins, and reduce nesting sites by blocking openings in buildings, trimming trees, and removing dry branches that could provide suitable shelter. The ministry highlighted the importance of raising awareness among community members as a fundamental step to limiting its spread. It also emphasised the need not tamper with cages and traps placed by specialised teams, and to leave handling of the birds to the relevant authorities to ensure community safety and the effectiveness of control measures.
Bangkok Post
05-07-2025
- Bangkok Post
Bird row turns deadly; spirited drugs chase; sex toy romp
Up hill and down dale Police were conducting a manhunt on Koh Lanta in Krabi after a man shot his neighbour, his wife and child, killing two of them, in a row over a pet bird. Officers were scouring coastal villages, local hills and orchards looking for the suspect, Wiwat Sukontharat, 41, who lived across from his victim's home. Wiwat shot dead his neighbour Apiwath Manpian, 37, a taxi driver, in a hail of bullets which also hit the victim's wife and one-year-old daughter. Sudarat Boosman, 28, Apiwath's wife, was shot in the right arm and is recovering, and Nicharin Manpian, his daughter, was shot in the head and later died. Apiwath himself was shot in the left arm, with the bullet passing through his chest and severing his heart with one shot. The men had argued the day before after Wiwat discovered his victim had bought a pet bird, a golden-breasted Myna, which his mother had been raising on his behalf, and which came free from its cage. A villager caught it and sold it to Apiwath, who claimed he did not know it belonged to Wiwat. When the suspect turned up to ask for its return, Apiwath suggested he buy it back from him. The two exchanged insults and the next day the suspect returned and shot him. In front of the victim's house, police found eight 9mm shell casings. Wiwat fled the village on a Yamaha R15 motorcycle, sparking the search. Police later discovered the suspect's motorcycle abandoned in a palm plantation at the foot of a hill next to a durian orchard in Koh Lanta Noi, adjacent to a coastal village. A team of 100 policemen spread out to search the area, covering several kilometres. Over 30 houses along the coast were checked. Locals said they had seen no sign of him attempting to board a fishing boat to leave the island. Police, who appealed to residents for help, also searched rubber plantations on the hill that required foot access to huts. They established a perimeter to block escape routes down the hill, which is heavily forested. Wiwat's mother, 70, who visited Koh Lanta police, appealed to her son through the media to give himself up. She said her son had a conviction for bodily harm resulting in death in Phang Nga in 2014. He served eight years in prison before being released two years ago and returning to Koh Lanta to work as a fisherman with relatives. After the fatal shooting over the bird, he returned to his home and told his mother what he had done. He said he shot the little girl unintentionally and apologised before fleeing. Police obtained a warrant for his arrest on charges of premeditated murder and firearms charges. The search is ongoing. Well-paid drug mule trips up A drug-dealer led police on a spirited chase through Buri Ram before abandoning his partner along with 2 million speed pills. Police in Lam Plai Mat district pursued a pickup truck after it fled the scene of a search, finally shooting the tires multiple times until the vehicle was immobilised. The driver escaped on foot, leaving his wife in the car along with the methamphetamine pills, before eventually being caught. Earlier, district police spotted a suspect vehicle traveling on the Khu Mueang-Lam Plai Mat road, accompanied by a lead vehicle. Police spotted the bronze-grey Isuzu truck entering the district, and signalled to the driver to stop, but he fled. Motorcycle and car police units pursued the suspect through various alleys in Lam Plai Mat before firing a the tires, forcing it to a halt. The driver fled on foot, leaving behind Ladawan (no surname provided), 28, his wife, who was taken into custody. In the truck's cabin, officers discovered five sacks of plastic-wrapped packages of methamphetamine, a total of 2 million pills. Provincial police joined the search and by 6am on June 30, they apprehended Thongkham (no surname given), also known as Bass, 29, 10km from the incident site. Investigators found a video on his phone showing a box containing 200,000 baht in cash, believed to be payment for the drug transport. They also seized another Isuzu pickup truck abandoned in Huai Thalaeng district of Nakhon Ratchasima, near the border with Lam Plai Mat. However, the driver had fled. Ladawan said her husband had picked up the meth from Nakhon Phanom and was delivering it to Saraburi, his second such trip, for which he received 200,000 baht. Bass said he had made two previous trips, taking 2 million pills each time. He picked up the drugs from That Phanom in Nakhon Phanom, traveling through Kalasin, Roi Et, Maha Sarakham, and into Lam Plai Mat before heading towards Nakhon Ratchasima. On his first trip, he delivered the drugs to Ang Thong and received 200,000 baht. They were left on the roadside near his home in Yang Sisurat, Maha Sarakham for him to pick up. He admitted taking at least 10 pills himself during each trip. Police charged Thongkham with selling and taking drugs. It's a rainy-day thing An LGBTQ+ man in Chiang Mai who admits that riding his bike naked in the rain makes him sexually aroused was busted after locals raised concerns. Mae Faek police arrested the man, "B", 49, after he was spotted on CCTV riding the streets in San Sai district, naked and with sex toys attached to the front of his bike. B, originally from Lampang province and who identifies as LGBTQ+, said he had been roaming around the village in this unusual fashion, what he called a "personal preference", for six years. Residents filmed him on one of his nighttime escapades early on July 1. The clip was posted online, sparking concerns from locals who say they feared for their safety. Police traced the motorcycle and arrested him in the middle of the street in Phaya Chedi village. A search turned up three large sex toys and three bottles of lubricant hidden inside a backpack. B said he experiences sexual urges during the rainy season and would go out once a week for about an hour, riding his motorcycle with a sex toy along the back roads of the village, trying to avoid encounters with residents. He acknowledged his actions were wrong and apologised to the local community, adding he would seek medical help for his condition.
The Print
27-06-2025
- Politics
- The Print
Karnataka's new misinformation bill can penalise social media users for honest mistakes
The Karnataka government now proposes to criminalise such false speech and create a parallel regime to central laws for the targeted blocking of online content. The bill will be sent to various departments for consultations before being presented before the state cabinet. In this piece, we will delve into the structural and enforcement infirmities of the bill. Time and again, the Indian government takes up the task of regulating the menace of misinformation, which includes any information that is incorrect, and in most cases spread without the intention to deceive. By no stretch of imagination is this easy, but most policy interventions have focused on requiring social media intermediaries to restrict the sharing of false and/or superstitious content. You capture an image of a Myna bird perched on your window sill and immediately post it on your social media account with the caption 'One for bad luck'. Careful. Sharing this superstition online could land you in prison for up to seven years under the Karnataka Misinformation and Fake News (Prohibition) Bill 2025. Structural infirmities The bill attempts to distinguish between 'fake news' and 'misinformation' and assigns penalties that range from five years for misinformation to seven years for fake news. It claims to differentiate between these two types of false speech, but the definitions reveal no difference as each describes speech that can influence the public through false or exaggerated information. Determining intent is a challenge when scrutinising online false speech. Legal scholars have repeatedly warned against using catch-all phrases like 'fake news' to describe any form of false speech, as this term is often used by politicians to delegitimise criticism levied at them in modern-day public squares. And it also remains too vague to accurately define under law. Social media users may end up being penalised for honest mistakes and trivialities and social media companies may themselves over-censor to avoid penalties. The bill criminalises speech that is factually incorrect and imposes unusually harsh penalties. Spreading fake news could get you the same prison time as that for kidnapping. Communication of misinformation to any user within Karnataka is prohibited under the bill. But geo-fencing online speech is technologically hard. Digital natives can easily circumvent detection using virtual private networks (VPNs) for instance, evading accurate geolocation via proxy servers distributed globally. This sets the stage for a digital cat-and-mouse game, with the Karnataka police chasing anonymous users across a geographically unbound internet. Also read: Internet can't be regulated like TV. Look at how UK, Australia are doing it Enforcement concerns The definition of 'communication' in the bill is wide enough to capture any other forms of communication, possibly extending to in-person communications, which is excessive. A prohibition on communication of misinformation also raises concerns about applicability to past communications or to situations where the recipient moves into the state post communication. Instances where the sender has no knowledge of the receiver's location will make compliance impossible. The bill also provides for a six-member social media regulatory authority to enforce provisions related to fake news under the proposed law. But the authority's enforcement powers stand on shaky ground. For instance, the authority has the power to trigger punitive action under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS), yet 'fake news' as defined in the bill does not map onto any specific offence in the BNS. The authority's powers are confined to fake news, excluding misinformation, despite the significant conceptual overlap between the two. Penalties for misinformation can be enforced through a standard legal process of filing a First Information Report (FIR) and finally adjudication by a court, all without the involvement of the authority. This framework makes the identification of illegal content difficult in instances like when a piece of content qualifies both as fake news and misinformation. How will the authority keep itself from adjudicating on aspects of the content that is misinformation? The regulatory authority is also given a sweeping mandate to police a wide range of speech based on subjective standards. For instance, the authority is to monitor and pre-emptively block content deemed disrespectful to Sanatan Dharma, and which promotes superstition or is unscientific in nature. Imagine the enforcement burden on the six-member body to apply these standards to a deluge of complaints, especially given the speed of content circulation. Beyond its many conceptual issues, the drafting of the bill is inelegant in multiple places with key terms left undefined, scope of penalties unclear, and vague obligations for social media companies. Such drafting, in a legislation with criminal penalties, is unfortunately common in both central and state laws and complicates both compliance and enforcement efforts. The design challenges with the proposed law do not end at definitional and structural inconsistencies, but also extend to constitutional and philosophical problems which we will explore in the subsequent article. The authors work at Koan Advisory Group, a technology policy consulting firm. Views are personal. This article is part of ThePrint-Koan Advisory series that analyses emerging policies, laws and regulations in India's technology sector. Read all the articles here. (Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
4 Santa Clara County students to compete in California spelling bee
(KRON) — Four students from Santa Clara County are heading to the California State Spelling Bee Championship. The super spellers include Myna Nama, who goes to school in the Los Alto School District. Myna won the county's 4th-6th grade elementary division spelling bee, and Austin Foz from the Mount Pleasant Elementary School District earned runner-up. Students Nancy Nguyen from the Mount Pleasant Elementary School District, and Raymond Matlob from Alum Rock Union School District, will represent 7th-9th grades at the state championship. Nancy won her age group at the county-level bee, and Raymond was runner-up. The students competed on March 8 at the Santa Clara County Office of Education's spelling bee. The winning words were 'exhilarate' and 'equivocation.' On April 26, the California State Spelling Bee Championship will be held in Manteca, Calif. Whiz-kids will attempt to earn spots to compete in the annual Scripps National Spelling Bee. Bay Area students win 2023 California Sate Spelling Bee 'Congratulations to the students for their outstanding work,' said Superintendent of Schools Charles Hinman. 'We are proud to have them represent Santa Clara County.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
