Eagles will soar where the drones are
THE HAGUE: Dutch police will become the world’s first force to train an army of eagles to resolve the problem of an increasing number of unauthorised drones in the skies.
Giving the first public demonstration, Dutch forces unveiled one of their feathered friends, 2-year-old Hunter, a female American Bald Eagle, on Monday.
“It’s a low-tech solution to a hi-tech problem,” police spokesman Dennis Janus said.
The eagles will be deployed whenever drones may pose a threat to the public. – Xinhua
£5 note goes plastic
LONDON: The Bank of England introduced its first plastic banknote yesterday, with governor Mark Carney dipping one of them into a bubbling container of chicken curry to prove its greater durability.
The new £5 notes, which feature World War II leader Winston Churchill and Queen Elizabeth II, will trickle through to cash machines and banks in England and Wales over the coming weeks.
They are made of a thin, flexible polymer. – Reuters
Italy to help Libya
TRIPOLI: Italy has stepped up its involvement in Libya and would send 200 paratroopers to guard an Italian military hospital to be set up near Misrata Airport.
Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said the field hospital was being set up at the request of Libya’s Presidency Council.
“We have met a request from the UN-backed government in Tripoli to send a military hospital,” he said, adding that the location had to be safe but not too far from the battle zone.
Gentiloni did not say when the medical staff and their protection force would arrive. – ANA
Asylum costs billions
CANBERRA: The Australian government had spent A$9.6 billion (R104 billion) on its asylum policy since 2013, Save the Children said yesterday.
A report by the charity and Unicef forecast that the costs, which include spending on detention, boat returns and offshore processing, could increase by a further A$5.7 billion over the next four years. It also said offshore processing in Nauru and Papua New Guinea cost A$400 000 an asylum seeker a year. – dpa
Muslim inmates freed
CAIRO: As a goodwill gesture during the Muslim Holiday of Eid-ul-Adha, Egypt has released hundreds of prisoners so they can spend the holiday with relatives.
But only those with criminal backgrounds will spend time with their families. Political prisoners have been denied the same luxury, as Egypt continues to persecute political opponents, including human rights activists, lawyers and journalists.
The Interior Ministry in Cairo yesterday ordered the release of 700 prisoners after a presidential pardon from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. – ANA
Tanzania quake toll 17
DODOMA: The number of people killed following an earthquake in the Lake Victoria region of Tanzania over the weekend has risen to 17.
George Simbachawene, the minister of state in the office of the president, told the National Assembly yesterday the 5.7-magnitude earthquake left 252 people injured and 840 families homeless. He said over 1 200 houses needed repair, and the government had closed two secondary schools that were heavily damaged by Saturday’s quake.
The quake was felt in western Kenya and parts of Uganda. – AP
Cleese earns Rose d’Or
BERLIN: Monty Python comedian John Cleese will be honoured by the European Broadcasting Union when he receives the Rose d’Or Award for lifetime achievement at a ceremony in Berlin today.
Cleese began his acting career in the 1960s and is best known for the television series Fawlty Towers.
The award Cleese will receive honours those making “an outstanding contribution to television or radio entertainment throughout their careers”. – Reuters WASHINGTON: When Hillary Clinton was diagnosed with pneumonia late last week, she informed a handful of her closest advisers, but pressed on with a busy campaign schedule and did not inform the public.
“I just didn’t think it was going to be that big a deal,” she said.
Clinton’s first comments about her health condition came in a CNN interview late on Monday, a day after a dizzy spell caught on video forced her to disclose her illness and