Asia in 3 minutes: Komodo dragon attacks Singapore tourist, Thai police in child sex ring probe
Fugitive Red Bull heir ‘disappears’, no trial for Australian woman who stabbed eight children, girl kicked out of Malaysian chess competition for ‘seductive’ dress
Who’s snapping who? Komodo dragon attacks tourist taking photograph
A Komodo dragon attacked a tourist in Indonesia who was trying to photograph the giant creatures eating a goat. Singaporean Loh Lee Aik, 67, was rushed to hospital with leg injuries after being pounced on by the venomous creature. “He was probably very excited taking pictures of the dragon, he didn’t realise another dragon was approaching him and then he was bitten,” said local police spokesman Jules Abraham Abast. “Luckily it was a small dragon that bit him.”
What next? The attack happened during the dragons’ mating season, which runs from May to August and is a time when the lizards are more aggressive. Abast said Loh failed to report his visit to authorities or take a park ranger with him, something visitors are advised to do. Thirty people have been bitten by Komodo dragons since 1974, with five of the victims dying, according to Komodo National Park authorities. Recent research has found that the dragons’ jaws have highly sophisticated venom glands that can cause paralysis, spasms and shock through haemorrhaging. They can grow up to three metres long and weigh up to 70kg.
No trial for Australian woman who stabbed eight children to death
An Australian mother who killed seven of her children and a niece will not stand trial after being deemed of “unsound mind”. The bodies of the youngsters, aged between two and 14, were found stabbed to death at a home in Cairns, Queensland in December 2014. Court records said the mother believed there were evil spirits in her home. “I am the chosen one. I have the power to kill people ... You stab my kids, I stab them first. If you kill them, I will kill them,” she is said to have shouted in the street on the night of the killings. Raina Thaiday was charged after being found at the scene with 35 self-inflicted stab wounds.
What next? The Queensland Mental Health Court found she could not be held criminally responsible as she had suffered a psychotic episode from an undiagnosed mental condition. “Mrs Thaiday … had no capacity to know what she was doing was wrong,” her psychiatrist said. “In fact, to her way of thinking at that time, what she was doing was the best thing she could do for her children; she was trying to save them.” Thaiday, 40, is being held in a high-security mental health institute and it is unclear if she will ever be released.
Girl, 12, kicked out of chess competition over ‘seductive’ dress
A 12-year-old girl was barred from a Malaysian chess tournament for her “seductive” dress, her coach has claimed, igniting public outrage against the organisers. In a widely shared Facebook post, trainer Kaushal Khandhar said his pupil felt “harassed and humiliated” after being forced to withdraw in the middle of the National Scholastic Chess Championship on April 14. The girl had been told her knee-length dress was “seductive and a temptation from a certain angle far, far away”, he said in the post on Thursday, demanding an apology from the organisers.