Marilyn Monroe statue stolen from popular tourist landmark
Los Angeles: A small statue of Marilyn Monroe, in her iconic pose from her 1955 hit film “The Seven Year Itch”, has been stolen from the top of the Ladies of Hollywood Gazebo, a popular landmark at Hollywood Boulevard. The gazebo, created in 1993 and dedicated to the late actor in 1994, celebrates women in films from different cultures who brought a change to the film industry. The statues of Dolores Del Rio, Dorothy Dandridge, Mae West, and Anna May Wong hold up the gazebo while a small statue of Marilyn Monroe is on top of it. Located at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and La Brea Avenue, the statue was reported to be stolen at around 3 am on Monday, according to The Los Angeles Times. The 25-year-old landmark, a popular tourist and photo attraction along the Hollywood Walk of Fame, has since been swarmed by detectives and forensics experts who are investigating the theft. (PTI)
Historic US drug bust nets 16 tonnes of cocaine
New York: US authorities said Tuesday they had seized around 16 tonnes of cocaine with an estimated street value of over USD 1 billion in a historic drug bust aboard a ship at the port of Philadelphia. “This is one of the largest drug seizures in United States history,” tweeted William McSwain, the US attorney for the Eastern District of Philadelphia. “Members of the ship’s crew have been arrested and federally charged” following the drug bust at Philadelphia’s Packer Marine Terminal, McSwain’s office said on Twitter. The drugs were found in seven containers aboard the MSC Gayane cargo ship, which was leaving for Europe after having previously called in Chile, Panama and the Bahamas, according to local media. The bust comes after US authorities seized nearly 1.5 tonnes of cocaine in March – the biggest haul in nearly 25 years at the port of New York/Newark. The United States is also currently experiencing a deadly epidemic of opioid use. (AFP)
Indonesia pet orangutans released back into the wild
Jakarta: The young orangutan looks back at her rescuers before clambering over her steel cage and into the trees, swinging from hand to hand and hanging upside down. Five-year-old primate Elaine, covered in fuzzy cinnamon-coloured hair, was one of two critically endangered Sumatran Orangutans released back into the wild on Tuesday. Both female apes were rescued after being kept as pets by villagers in Aceh province on Sumatra island. Elaine and four-year-old Reipok Rere spent nearly two years learning to fend for themselves at a rehabilitation centre and “forest school” before being returned to the wild at Pinus Jantho Forest Reserve. The healthy pair have joined nearly 120 other orangutans freed from captivity at the conservation site, said the Aceh natural resources conservation agency. The rescue is a rare spot of bright news for the critically endangered species, which has seen its habitat shrink drastically over the past few decades largely due to the destruction of forests for logging, paper, palm oil and mining. A string of fatal attacks on the great apes in recent has been blamed on farmers and hunters. Plantation workers and villagers are sometimes known to attack the animal because they see it as a pest, while poachers also capture them to sell as pets. (AFP)