Tag: poison

Over 150 endangered vultures poisoned to death in southern Africa

  JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) — At least 150 critically-endangered vultures were poisoned to death in separate incidents in Botswana and South Africa, conservationists said Friday, warning the killings pushed the birds closer to extinction. Vulture poisoning is not uncommon in wildlife-rich southern Africa, where they are targeted by poachers because they draw unwanted attention to their illegal activities. Their heads are also used in traditional medicine, according to wildlife groups. In the latest incidents, […]

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Rizal, Laguna placed under state of emergency following deaths of 8 people reportedly after drinking “lambanog”

(Eagle News)-Rizal, Laguna has been placed under a state of emergency following the deaths of eight people after  reportedly drinking lambanog. Gov. Ramil Hernandez made the announcement in a Facebook post on Monday, Dec.23, a day after over 100 people were also rushed to the hospital for downing the drink. Hernandez said he has also ordered a ban on the sale of the drink as the police investigate the apparent mass poisoning. Lambanog is made […]

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Tajikistan probes poisoning deaths of 14 prisoners

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan (AFP) — Tajikistan has opened a criminal investigation after 14 prisoners were fatally poisoned while they were being transported between jails, the justice ministry said Monday, suggesting that another inmate may have given them contaminated bread. The incident happened on Sunday as more than a hundred prisoners, including eight women, were being transferred in a convoy from prisons in the north of the Central Asian country to jails in the south. The justice […]

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Toxic alcohol kills 98 in India, hundreds hospitalised

Ninety-eight workers have died and at least 200 others have been hospitalised in northeastern India after drinking toxic liquor, officials said Saturday, in the latest case of alcohol poisoning in the country. The deaths in Assam state came less than two weeks after tainted liquor killed about 100 people in the northern states of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. In addition to the latest toll, at least 200 more people were still hospitalised, according to a […]

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Skripal suspects say were in UK as tourists, deny murder attempt

by Anna Smolchenko Agence France Presse MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Two men accused by London of poisoning former Moscow spy Sergei Skripal denied involvement in the murder attempt in a bizarre Russian media interview Thursday that Britain dismissed as “an insult to the public’s intelligence”. Speaking with the head of the Kremlin-backed RT news network, the pair confirmed they were the men whose pictures British authorities released this month, but insisted they were visiting the […]

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British woman dies after exposure to Novichok nerve agent

  by Alice Ritchie Agence France Presse LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP)– British police launched a murder inquiry Sunday after a woman died following exposure to the nerve agent Novichok in southwest England, four months after the same type of chemical was used against a former Russian spy in an attack blamed on Moscow. Prime Minister Theresa May said she was “appalled and shocked” by the death of Dawn Sturgess, a 44-year-old mother of three, and […]

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Dutch probe Bosnian war criminal’s suicide in UN court

by Jo Biddle and Charlotte van Ouwerkerk THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AFP) — Dutch prosecutors were investigating Thursday how a Bosnian Croat war criminal managed to commit suicide in front of shocked UN judges, in scenes set to cast a shadow over the court’s two-decade legacy. Staff at the imposing buildings of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague had been expecting to spend the next few weeks quietly winding down […]

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Chaos at UN court as Bosnian Croat defendant “takes poison”

by Jo Biddle with Rusmir Smajilhodzic in Mostar Agence France Presse The United Nations war crimes court for former Yugoslavia descended into chaos during its last judgement on Wednesday when a Bosnian Croat defendant appeared to take poison to protest the upholding of his 20-year jail term. UN judges were handing down judgement in the appeals case of six former Bosnian Croat political and military leaders in the court’s final verdict for war crimes committed […]

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Malaysia: Two female suspects in Kim killing to be charged with murder

by M JEGATHESAN KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) — Two women arrested over the nerve agent assassination of Kim Jong-Nam are to be charged with his murder, Malaysia said Tuesday, as North Korea sent a senior diplomat to retrieve the body from the morgue. The spectacular killing of Kim Jong-Un’s half-brother with VX, a fast-acting poison developed for warfare, sparked an international probe and lurid stories of Pyongyang’s Cold War-style tradecraft. South Korea says its isolated […]

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N. Korea launches verbal tirade at Malaysia for ‘immoral handling’ of Kim assassination case

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — North Korea’s state media broke a 10-day silence Thursday on the murder of Kim Jong-Un’s half-brother, launching a ferocious assault on Malaysia for “immoral” handling of the case and for playing politics with the corpse. In its first comments on the airport assassination of Kim Jong-Nam, Korean Central News Agency said Malaysia bore responsibility for the death, and accused it of conspiring with South Korea. “Malaysia is obliged to hand his […]

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Nitrates poison water in California’s Central Valley

by Veronique DUPONT PORTERVILLE, United States (AFP) — In California’s Central Valley, where verdant fields of fruit and vegetables unfurl under sunny skies, the water that feeds them — and flows into taps across the region — contains a toxic and silent poison. The very same farmers who have tilled and cultivated the earth for decades in one of America’s biggest produce regions have also poisoned it, dumping millions of tons of fertilizer, which has […]

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