NEW ZEALAND KAYAKER’S LOST PICTURES FOUND ‘SEALED IN POOP’

WELLINGTON: A team of New Zealand scientists sifting through a slab of frozen leopard seal droppings have found a USB stick containing photos of frolicking sea lions. The droppings, known scientifically as “scat”, had been stored in a freezer for about a year and were being defrosted during research on the fish-eating mammals. They were originally collected in November 2017 by a vet sent to check on a sick leopard seal on Oreti Beach on the southern tip of New Zealand’s South Island. “Concealed deep inside the scat was a USB stick,” the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research said in a statement. The memory stick was in reasonably good condition considering where it had come from.

16 killed, 4 injured in Pakistan road accident

PESHAWAR: Two vehicles carrying passengers collided head-on in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Wednesday, killing at least sixteen people and injuring four others, police said. The passenger van was travelling to Dera Ismail Khan from Peshawar when it collided with a pick-up truck near the Sipena Bandi Village in Karak. The four injured passengers were taken to a nearby hospital, police said.

North Texas man killed as e-cigarette explodes

FORT WORTH: A medical examiner revealed that a man in North Texas was killed when an e-cigarette exploded in his face. The Tarrant County medical examiner’s office reported that William Brown, 24, of Fort Worth died on 29 January, two days after a vaporiser pen he was using at an e-cigarette shop exploded. The shrapnel from the explosion peppered his skull.

AP

Taliban: US promised to cut troop presence by half

MOSCOW: A Taliban official said on Wednesday that the US promised during talks last month that it will withdraw half of its troops from Afghanistan by April, which is more than past estimates of the planned pullout. There was no reaction from the Pentagon or the US government. REUTERS

Ex-costa Rican president accused of sexual assault

SAN JOSE: A doctor has filed a criminal complaint of sexual assault against Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, the NYT reported on Tuesday. The accuser said that Arias assaulted her at his home in Costa Rican capital San Jose in 2014. “I categorically reject the accusations against me,” Arias said. REUTERS

Macedonia takes step to become NATO member

BRUSSELS: Macedonia took a step towards becoming the 30th member of NATO on Wednesday. NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg and Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov led the “accession protocol” signing ceremony at the alliance’s Brussels headquarters. The ceremony marks the start of the ratification process. Macedonia, under the name North Macedonia, will join later this year or in early 2020. AP

Amnesty accuses UAE of diverting arms to Yemen

DUBAI: Amnesty International accused the UAE on Wednesday of diverting arms supplied by Western and other states to “unaccountable militias accused of war crimes” in Yemen. The UAE government media office didn’t respond to a request for comment on the claim. REUTERS