Friendship of tiger and goat tugs at Russia's heartstrings

Yahoo – AFP, 10 Dec 2015

Amur the tiger rests close to a goat named Timur in the Primorye Safari Park
(AFP Photo/Dmitry Mezentsev)

Moscow (AFP) - A goat sent to a Russian safari park as live prey for a Siberian tiger has instead befriended the big cat and the two have become inseparable in a story that has captivated Russia.

Amur the tiger and Timur the goat now sleep in the same enclosure in the Primorsky safari park outside the Pacific port city of Vladivostok, eating and playing together in the snow. And this week they even playfully head-butted each other.

The story of the unusual friendship has touched hearts in Russia, with the safari park releasing regular updates on the pair and planning to install webcams in their enclosure.

Staff at the park say the male tiger, who has been given live animals to hunt and eat twice a week, did not touch the billy goat when it entered the enclosure last month because the goat did not show any fear.

"No one had taught the goat to be afraid of tigers," the park said in a statement.

Zoo chief Dmitry Mezentsev, who studies tigers and leopards, described the unlikely friendship as nothing short of a miracle.

"This is a sign from above," Mezentsev told AFP on Thursday.

"People, take a look at yourselves. There are wars everywhere -- Ukraine, Syria. While such different animals can live together in peace."

Mezentsev said staff realised the tiger would not eat the goat after the two had spent three days together.

Timur now sleeps inside the shelter where Amur previously rested, while the tiger spends the night on the roof.

A morning stroll

They meet up in the morning to walk around the spacious enclosure, with the goat usually following the tiger. Over the past few days, they have begun playing together and chasing each other.

On Wednesday, Timur challenged Amur, poking him with his horns.

"The tiger accepted the goat's challenge," the safari park said.

"He pushed his forehead against Timur's horns, the friends butted heads for five seconds without coming to blows, after which Amur calmly went to bask in the sun on the hill."

The tiger has also attempted to teach the goat how to catch prey and has recently taken a great interest in a block of salt given to Timur.

Amur is now being fed live rabbits for lunch -- "out of respect for goats," said Mezentsev.

Many praised the story as a welcome respite from a stream of doom-and-gloom news in a sanctions-hit nation that has been accused of fanning an insurgency in eastern Ukraine and which began a bombing campaign in Syria in September.

Breaking the gloom

"We liked the story of the friendship between the tiger and the goat simply because a normal person cannot always live amid the lies, hatred and humiliation," Gazeta.ru online wrote in an op-ed this week.

"One would like to believe it is possible not to gobble up the weak but be friends with them."

With the exchange rate also keeping Russians awake at night, the mass-circulation Komsomolskaya Pravda on Thursday went as far as to publish a joke about it.

"We are so tired of this rubbish! Any news on the tiger and the goat instead?"

The story has sparked calls for a fundraising campaign for the remote zoo, while many are worried that nature will prevail and Timur will eventually perish.

State news agency TASS quoted Novosibirsk zoo director Rostislav Shilo as saying the chance of the tiger eating the goat was 80 to 85 percent.

Mezentsev, however, begged to disagree.

"Timur is in no more danger than a human living next to another human."

Related Articles:

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The Animals are Not Waiting for Us

Blind couple left stranded in woodland after attack on guide dog

DutchNews, December 7, 2015

A guide dog in action

A blind couple were abandoned in woodland after their guide dog was attacked by another dog on Sunday, local broadcaster AT5 reports. 

The couple, named as Jasper and Marion, were left stranded in Diemerbos with their dog Ian, who was bleeding and unable to lead them to safety, after the other dog’s owner fled the scene.

‘The owner shouted at us to call our dogs to heel, but his dog went straight into a fight with Ian,’ said Jasper. ‘He [the owner] had difficulty separating his dog from Ian. We spoke to the man but he ran away. Marion tried to go after him but he got in his car and drove off.’

Ian was given emergency treatment by a vet but it is unclear if he will be able to resume his work as a guide dog.

‘Incidents like these can cause long-term anxiety towards other dogs,’ said Peter van der Heijden of the Royal Dutch Guide Dog Foundation (KNGF). ‘That would make Ian unsuitable for guide work. Guide dogs need to be 100% dependable in their work.’

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Russian priests pose with pet cats in hit calendar

Yahoo – AFP, 5 Dec 2015

A selection of images from the a 2016 calendar put together by an Orthodox
news website, showing priests with their pet cats (AFP/Artos Fellowship)

In a rare venture into popular culture, bearded Russian Orthodox priests have posed as models for a glossy 2016 calendar -- cuddling their pet cats.

The calendar put together by an Orthodox news website sees 12 smiling priests in dark robes relaxing with their cats -- sitting side-by-side on the sofa, or having the pet sprawled on their chest or draped round their shoulders.

It is the first calendar to depict priests in such a style, said one of the creators, Ksenia Luchenko, a journalist at the Pravmir website who came up with the idea.

She conceded Russia's powerful Church is not usually open to such an informal depiction of its clerics.

"That's why we did it ourselves. We're not linked to official structures."

Religious-themed calendars usually just depict holy icons.

"It's all their own cats -- nothing was staged," Luchenko said of the casting process for the calendar.

"It was whoever had a cat and was ready to pose for a photo."

Nevertheless the cat-owning priests in the charming black-and-white shots by Anna Galperina turned out to be "nice-looking," she added.

The calendar is not officially endorsed by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Senior Church spokesman Vsevolod Chaplin has said it is "not a great sin" but added: "I wouldn't hang such a calendar on my wall," in comments to Russkaya Sluzhba Novostei radio station.

But it has won praise from media, with the Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid writing that the priests are "kind and twinkly, and the cats are cute and fluffy."

The calendar was even covered by Russian Cosmopolitan magazine.

"Not all priests agreed to do it. Not everyone wants that kind of publicity," Luchenko said.

The calendar called "Pop i Kot" or "Priest and Cat" grew out of a photography book project showing Russian priests in their everyday lives, she said.

"By chance we had a photo of a priest with a cat and I thought: why not do a series?"

It was only after the calendar was completed that the team realised they had a Roman Catholic competitor: an unofficial calendar published in Rome every year featuring handsome priests called the Calendario Romano, she said.

The Russian calendar had an initial print run of 1,000 copies but that looks likely to be extended, Luchenko said.

Several churches have ordered them to sell in their shops, she said.

The creators also plan a presentation with some of the priest models later this month, raising funds for an animal shelter.

Danish auction house stops ivory sales after protests

Yahoo – AFP, 24 Nov 2015

Ivory, as displayed here at an auction on October 28, 2008 in Windhoek, Namibia,
is sold for jewellery and decorative objects, with much of it is smuggled to China,
where many increasingly wealthy shoppers are buying ivory trinkets (AFP)

Denmark's second largest auction house said Monday it had stopped selling ivory products amid a social media storm over its planned sale of two tusks belonging to an African elephant.

The nearly two-metre (80 inch) tusks, weighing 28 kilogrammes (62 pounds) each, were to have gone under the hammer for a total of 150,000 kroner (20,107 euros, $21,344) on Wednesday.

"We try to be as aware as possible of what can cause offence," Kasper Nielsen, a sales director at Bruun Rasmussen, told AFP.

The move had been based on "the reactions we have received both" from the conservation group WWF "and our customers on social media," he said.

The decision also covered any tusks and horns belonging to the endangered species listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, the company said.

The auction had been slammed by the WWF as immoral, and on the company's Facebook page one user had left comments that said: "Supporting the poachers is horrific!" and: "I will never do business with this outfit again."

Rampant poaching of elephants in Africa has caused a major drop in their numbers over recent decades.

There are between 419,000 and 650,000 elephants left, according to conservation group Save the Elephants.

In a bid to show their determination to end the trade in ivory, Kenya's wildlife authority last week vowed to destroy its vast ivory stockpile from several thousand elephants, nine times more than the largest pile torched so far.

Ivory is sought out for jewellery and decorative objects and much of it is smuggled to China, where many increasingly wealthy shoppers are buying ivory trinkets as a sign of financial success.

Russia gives France puppy to replace killed police dog

Yahoo – AFP, 21 Nov 2015

Russia has offered to send an Alsatian puppy named Dobrynya (pictured) 

to France in a gesture of solidarity after police dog named Diesel was killed

during a raid on jihadists linked to the Paris attacks (AFP Photo/HAND OUT)

Moscow (AFP) - Russia has offered to send an Alsatian puppy to France in a gesture of solidarity after a police dog was killed during a raid on jihadists linked to the Paris attacks.

Russia's interior minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev said he had written to his French counterpart Bernard Cazeneuve offering to send a puppy named Dobrynya to replace Diesel, a Belgian Shepherd killed in a huge raid north of Paris last Wednesday.

Kolokoltsev said that as "a sign of solidarity with the people and police of France," he was offering the puppy, which "will be able to occupy the place in service of the police dog Diesel killed during a special operation to neutralise terrorists."

The dog is named after a hero of Russian folk legend, Dobrynya Nikitch, famed for his strength, goodness and courage, he added.

The ministry late Friday posted pictures of the small fluffy puppy and a video of him playing with a ball, which can be viewed here: https://mvd.ru/news/item/6802710.

The puppy was also shown on state television on Saturday.

A member of a French special police unit and a police dog during a raid on an

 appartment in the Paris suburn of Saint-Denis on November 18, 2015 following

attacks in the capital city that claimed 130 lives (AFP Photo/Francis Pellier)

Dobrynya is two months old and lives at a police dog centre in the Moscow region, Channel One television reported. He will have to undergo medical checks and quarantine before going to France.

Two dog-handlers from Moscow police's special forces also posed with their dogs and signs with the hashtag "Je Suis Diesel" on the service's Instagram account.

"Our four-legged friends also serve the police, protecting society from terrorist threats," the Moscow police service said.

The hashtag #JeSuisChien (I am a dog) trended on Twitter after French police announced that seven-year-old Diesel died in the raid targeting Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected ringleader of the November 13 attacks in Paris that killed 130 people.

Three people died during the massive operation at the apartment in Saint-Denis north of Paris -- Abaaoud, his cousin Hasna Aitboulahcen, and a suicide bomber who has yet to be identified.

Seven people arrested during the raid were freed on Saturday.

Related Article:

France accepts Russian replacement for police dog killed in Paris attack - New

US government ends research on all chimpanzees

Yahoo – AFP, 19 Nov 2015

Captive chimpanzees were listed as endangered by the US Fish and Wildlife
Service last year (AFP Photo/Yasuyoshi Chiba)

Washington (AFP) - Chimpanzees will no longer be used for US government research and the remaining 50 chimps in federal custody will be sent to a sanctuary for retirement, health authorities said.

The decision by the National Institutes of Health came two and a half years after the agency announced it would phase out most of its biomedical research using chimpanzees, which are humans' closest living relative and share 98 percent of the same genes.

Since 2013, no new applications for research using chimps have been approved, and last year, captive chimps were listed as endangered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

The NIH said the endangered designation requires researchers to obtain an extra permit for any experiments that could harm the animal, and that no such permits have been sought.

"As a result of these numerous changes over the last few years and the significantly reduced demand for chimpanzees in NIH-supported biomedical research, it is clear that we've reached a tipping point," NIH director Francis Collins said in a statement.

"In accordance with NIH's commitment in June 2013, I have reassessed the need to maintain chimpanzees for biomedical research and decided that effective immediately, NIH will no longer maintain a colony of 50 chimpanzees for future research."

The NIH-owned chimps are "now eligible for retirement" at the Federal Sanctuary System operated by Chimp Haven in Keithville, Louisiana, Collins said.

The NIH said it will continue to use other non-human primates for research.

US government ends research on all chimpanzees https://t.co/Wajxh6J4IC pic.twitter.com/xtXycl4zaX

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) November 19, 2015

Dutch appeal court upholds fur farming ban

DutchNews, November 10, 2015

Photo: Romoro via Depositphotos.com

The ban on fur farming introduced in the Netherlands in 2013 has been upheld by the appeal court in The Hague. 

A lower court last year found in favour of fur farmers who are furious at being ordered to shut down their companies without compensation. The appeal court, however, said on Tuesday that the new legislation does take the interest of fur farmers sufficiently into account because of the 11 year changeover period. 

Fur farmers said in a reaction to Tuesday’s ruling that they will take the issue to the high court. ‘We have already said that we will pursue this case to the bitter end,’ a spokesman for the fur farmers association NFE told news agency ANP.

 ‘We are extremely puzzled as to why last year the court found in our favour and now opinions have changed. This is both a surprise and a disappointment, because we had not expected it,’ the spokesman said.

The ban on fur farming came into effect on January 15, 2013 and included an 11-year transition for existing companies. 

The Netherlands has some 160 fur farms producing five million pelts a year. The sector employs some 1,400 people. The Netherlands is the third biggest fur farming nation in the world behind Denmark and China.

Eagle owl which terrorised Purmerend faces ‘life’ in captivity

DutchNews, November 8, 2015

An eagle owl. Photo: Brocken
Inaglory via Wikimedia

The eagle owl which terrorised the Dutch town of Purmerend earlier this year is to remain in captivity for the rest of its life, local paper Noordhollands Dagblad said at the weekend. 

The risk that the bird will continue to attack people if it is released is too great, the local authority is quoted as saying in a briefing for councilors. 

The owl was caught in mid March after officials issued a special permit for its capture. They have now asked for government permission to keep the bird in captivity, the paper said. 

The owl attacked dozens of people in the town, north of Amsterdam, and generated newspaper headlines around the world. Several people had to get hospital treatment for wounds to their heads during its five-week reign of terror, and the council recommended people carry umbrellas as protection.

Experts at the bird sanctuary where the eagle owl has been placed say it is a young male in good health and with strong eyesight. They have also concluded the bird was born in captivity and is used to people. 

No ring

The bird is not ringed or chipped and no clue has been found as to where the bird has come from. Eagle owls can have a wingspan of almost two metres when fully grown and it may have been released into the wild by its owner, the council briefing said. 

Even if it is released a long way from civilization, the bird is likely to return to places where people live, the council quotes the experts as saying. The sanctuary would like to keep the owl but does not have a zoo licence. It has now applied for one, the paper said.

Rare Sumatran rhino 'Hope' arrives in Indonesia to mate

Yahoo – AFP, 2 Nov 2015

This photo obtained November 2, 2015 courtesy of the Cincinnati Zoo shows

 male Sumatran rhino Harapan in his crate upon arrival in Sumatra (AFP Photo)

Jakarta (AFP) - A rare, US-born Sumatran rhino arrived Monday at his new home in Indonesia, an official said, where it is hoped he will find a mate and give his critically endangered species a shot at survival.

Harapan, an eight-year-old male whose name means "Hope", arrived at a specialist rhino sanctuary on Sumatra island at dawn after a long journey from a zoo in Cincinnati.

A senior biodiversity conservation official in Indonesia's forestry ministry told AFP the rhino was "adapting well" after travelling 36 hours by air, sea and land to reach to the national park.

"He is healthy and has a great appetite," Bambang Dahono Adji told AFP.

Harapan, a male Sumatran rhino, pictured

 in a photo taken on July 23, 2013 courtesy

 Michelle Curley of the Cincinnati Zoo, 

Ohio (AFP Photo)

"We noticed this morning he was lapping up all the leaves. Being Sumatran, perhaps he preferred local fare, like rice instead of cheese," he joked.

Sumatran rhinos are among the rarest in the world, with just 100 believed to still exist.

Harapan was the last remaining rhino of his kind in the US, but without a mate there it was decided he should return to Sumatra to have a chance at producing offspring.

His older brother, Andalas, also moved from a zoo in Los Angeles to the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Way Kambas National Park in 2007.

Since then, he's fathered a calf at the park, with a second offspring expected in May.

Harapan will be quarantined for just over two weeks before entering the sanctuary, Adji said, where it's hoped he will follow in his older brother's footsteps and mate with one of three female rhinos there.

"Like his brother, we hope he will be able to breed and boost the Sumatran rhino population here," Adji said.

Challenges ahead

Rhino experts welcomed news of Harapan's return to his ancestral homeland, especially given the desperation in recent years as the species' future looked bleaker than ever.

With few alternative options, the Cincinnati Zoo took the controversial step in 2013 of trying to mate Harapan with his older sister Suci. The female died the following year in yet another blow for conservationists trying to save the species.

"It's good news that he's (Harapan) here in Indonesia to mate with unrelated females," Widodo Ramono, head of the Rhino Conservation Foundation of Indonesia, told AFP.

"Inbreeding would cause genetic degeneration, which brings problems such as illnesses and defects."

Another forestry ministry official Andhika Respati said Harapan's transition out of captivity would come with challenges, though a vet and two keepers from Cincinatti accompanied the rhino to offer advice to his new carers.

"One challenge is how to get him used to life and finding food in the forest, as he had been living in the zoo from birth," Respati told AFP.

"However we think he will adjust just fine."

Sumatran rhinos are the only Asian rhinoceroses with two horns. They are covered in woolly hair that ranges from reddish brown to black in colour.

While Javan rhinos are considered the world's rarest rhinos, Sumatran rhinos are under increasing threat by poachers and continue to lose precious forest habitat.

Dutch government initiates animal-free testing fund

DutchNews, November 2, 2015

Photo: vkovalcik via Depositphotos.com

The Dutch government wants to set up a new investment fund which will put money into developing animal-free research. 

The cabinet plans to fund the start-up costs but the rest of the investment will have to come from the private sector, junior economic affairs minister Sharon Dijksma said in a briefing to parliament. 

The fund will be open to researchers who want to develop techniques for testing drugs and other substances without using animals, Dijksma said. 

Every year some 500,000 animals are used in scientific experiments in the Netherlands. Around half of the experiments are for scientific purposes and a third for the production and testing of drugs. The rest were used for assessing dangerous substances and for training purposes. 

Dijksma said the Netherlands aims to be the world’s most advanced nation in terms of animal-free research by 2025.

Joko Cuts Short US Trip to Deal With Fire, Haze Crisis

Jakarta Globe, Basten Gokkon, October 27, 2015

President Joko Widodo inspects a firefighting operation on burning peat forest in
Pulang Pisau district, Central Kalimantan, on Sept. 24. The president has cut short
 his inaugural visit to the United States to coordinate a response to the worsening
forest fires. (AFP Photo/Romeo Gacad)

Jakarta. President Joko Widodo has decided to cut short his first official visit to the United States as a forest fire crisis blazes out of control back home.

“The president has received recent updates from the minister for politics, legal and security affairs minister regarding the haze that has affected more Indonesian people,” Arrmanatha Nasir, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, told the Jakarta Globe late on Monday.

He said Joko and part of his delegation would immediately return home on Tuesday after attending scheduled events in Washington, D.C., where the president met with President Barack Obama, congressmen and US executives on Monday.

Joko’s return means he will not attend much-anticipated meetings with technology executives from Apple, Google and Microsoft, among others. Representing him in Silicon Valley instead, Arrmanatha said, will be the communications and trade ministers, as well as the head of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM).

Arrmanatha said the president would fly to either South Sumatra or Central Kalimantan once he arrives back in the country. Both provinces are among the hardest hit by forest fires generating intense volumes of health-threatening haze.

A top legislator earlier on Monday lashed out at the president for going abroad just as the fire and haze crisis worsens. Up to three-quarters of Indonesia is affected to varying degrees by the haze.

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#INFOGRAPHIC Updated map and pollution data on the Southeast Asian haze @AFP pic.twitter.com/rIWRmxjas1

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) October 27, 2015

China is lending the Netherlands two pandas

DutchNews, October 26, 2015

China is lending two giant pandas to the Netherlands, foreign affairs minister Bert Koenders said on Monday. 

The minister was speaking in Beijing on the second day of a state visit by king Willem-Alexander and queen Máxima. 

The loan is ‘a sign of the special bond between China and the Netherlands’, the minister told Dutch media. 

The loan is definitely a sign of close ties between the two countries, but the Netherlands has been pushing for it for some time, according to Volkskrant reporter Marije Vlaskamp. 

‘Prime minister Mark Rutte did not ask explicitly during his visit to China two years ago, but he hardly stopped talking about it,’ she writes. 

The pandas are not a gift and will cost the Netherlands money, although how high the cost will be is not known. 

The pandas will housed at Ouwehands Zoo in Rhenen, but it is not yet known when they will arrive. ‘It depends on the preparations, including the building of an enclosure for them,’ a spokesman told the Volkskrant. 

Junior economic affairs minister Sharon Dijksma says she has signed an agreement with the Chinese forestry commission for the two animals. She says it offers the opportunity for working together on other animal protection programmes.

Indonesia fires can't be put out, Malaysian minister warns

Yahoo – AFP, 19 Oct 2015

Facing growing pressure, Indonesia earlier this month agreed to accept international 

help after failing for weeks to douse the fires from slash-and-burn farming that have

 shrouded angry neighbours Malaysia and Singapore in smoke for weeks (AFP

Photo/Mohd Rasfan)

International efforts to douse raging Indonesia fires will fail and Southeast Asia could face several more weeks of choking smoke until the rainy season starts, Malaysia's environment minister warned on Monday.

Facing growing pressure, Indonesia earlier this month agreed to accept international help after failing for weeks to douse the fires from slash-and-burn farming that have shrouded angry neighbours Malaysia and Singapore in smoke for weeks.

But Malaysia was forced once again to close schools in several areas Monday due to unhealthy air, and Natural Resources and Environment Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said the crisis could continue for another month.

"Unless there is rain, there is no way human intervention can put out the fires," he told AFP on the sidelines of Malaysia's parliament session, warning that the blazes were spread across "huge areas" of Indonesia.

Even the multi-nation effort now under way "is not enough to put out the fires," he added.

"We hope the rains will come in mid-November. It will be able to put out the fires," Wan Junaidi said.

On Friday, Indonesia launched its biggest fire-fighting assault yet, with dozens of planes and thousands of troops battling the illegally started agricultural and forest fires in its territory on the huge islands of Sumatra and Borneo.

Thirty-two planes and helicopters -- including six aircraft from Singapore, Malaysia and Australia -- were deployed to back up more than 22,000 personnel on the ground.

The fires and resulting region-wide haze are an annual dry-season problem, but experts warn the current outbreak is on track to become the worst ever, exacerbated by tinder-dry conditions from the El Nino weather phenomenon.

The acrid air has sparked health alerts, sent thousands to hospitals for respiratory problems, and caused the cancellation of scores of flights and some major international events across the region.

Indonesian National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho also offered sobering comments Monday, saying the fires were "yet to be overcome."

Sutopo said satellite data indicated Indonesia now had more than 1,500 "hotspots", which are loosely defined as areas where fires are either burning or where conditions are ripe for blazes to break out.

"The actual number is higher as the satellite is not able to penetrate the thickness of the haze in Sumatra and (Borneo)," he added.

Malaysia enjoyed a brief spell of lowered haze last week, but the government -- which has repeatedly ordered school closures across wide areas as a health precaution -- did so again on Monday as skies once again reverted to the now-familiar soupy gray.

Schools were closed in several states and in the capital Kuala Lumpur as pollution levels climbed well into the "unhealthy" range under the government's rating system.

Air quality in Singapore, however, improved Monday after entering "unhealthy" levels over the weekend.

Pregnant chimp adopts orphan in 'unheard of' act

Yahoo – AFP, 14 Oct 2015

Baby chimp Boon - who was orphaned when his mother Soona died shortly after 

he was born on October 9, 2015 - clings to his new adopted mother Zombi in 

Monarto Zoo, southeast of Adelaide, Australia (AFP Photo/David Mattner)

Sydney (AFP) - An Australian zoo Wednesday unveiled a baby chimp adopted by a pregnant female in an "unheard of" act after his mother died during birth.

The baby, whose name Boon means blessing, was orphaned when mum Soona died shortly after he was born at Monarto Zoo, southeast of Adelaide, late last week.

The adoption of another female's baby by a 

pregnant female, an "unheard of" act amoungst

 chimps, has happened at Monarto Zoo in

Australia (AFP Photo/David Mattner)

But in a heartwarming twist, the "strong" and "healthy" infant was immediately adopted by fellow chimp Zombi, who had remained by Soona's side as she died.

The zoo's senior primate keeper Laura Hanley said she did not know of anywhere else in the world where a pregnant chimpanzee had taken on the role of surrogate to another infant, so close to a birth of her own.

"I'm humbled by what we've seen from the chimpanzee troop over the last few days -- it's unheard of to see a heavily pregnant chimpanzee adopt an orphaned newborn infant," she said in a statement as the "miracle" baby made his public debut.

"From the minute she first cradled the newborn, she's been amazing -- grooming, supporting and nursing the little man as though he was her own.

"The unique situation certainly reinforces the strong bond our chimps share and the similarities these amazing creatures have with their closest living relative, us."

Hanley said she was optimistic Zombi would continue to care for Boon once her own baby was born later this month.

Singapore banks urged to curtail loans to haze-linked firms

Yahoo – AFP, Martin Abbugao, 9 Oct 2015

A worker waters a field as downtown buildings are shrouded in smog in
Singapore on October 5, 2015 (AFP Photo/Roslan Rahman)

Singapore (AFP) - An umbrella group of local and foreign banks in smog-hit Singapore has urged members to make "sustainable development" part of their lending requirements, stepping up pressure on companies linked to land-clearing fires in Indonesia.

The 158-member Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) on Thursday issued guidelines for the inclusion of greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, forest degradation and biodiversity loss among the criteria for approving commercial loans.

The move came in the wake of fires illegally started to clear land for plantations on Sumatra island and the Indonesian part of Borneo, which have shrouded Singapore and Malaysia in acrid smoke since early September.

"The banking sector in Singapore wants to play a bigger role in driving responsible business and long-term sustainable development," ABS director Ong-Ang Ai Boon said in a statement.

The smoky haze has also reached the popular Thai holiday islands of Phuket and Samui, forcing several planes packed with beach-bound tourists to turn back.

Palm oil and pulp and paper companies are believed to be the main culprits behind the use of burning to clear massive tracts of land for their plantations, but prosecution by Indonesian authorities has been rare, prompting affected countries like Singapore to resort to economic pressure.

Singapore's biggest supermarket chain, NTUC Fairprice, this week withdrew from its shelves all paper products sourced from Indonesian-owned Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), which has corporate offices in the city-state.

The company's suppliers are suspected of starting forest fires in Indonesia.

The Fullerton Hotel is blanketed in thick haze, in Singapore, on September 24,

2015 (AFP Photo/Roslan Rahman)

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