Vietnam bans wildlife imports
Hanoi: Vietnam announced on Friday that it was banning wildlife imports and would close wildlife markets in response to renewed concerns about the threat from diseases that can jump from animals to humans, such as the virus that causes COVID-19.
An order signed by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Thursday bans all imports of wildlife dead or alive and includes eggs and larvae. (AP)
Pak bans over  100 textbooks
Lahore: Pakistan’s Punjab government has banned over 100 textbooks taught at schools after finding in them blasphemous and objectionable content such as not showing Pakistan-occupied Kashmir as part of the country.
Some books had not even printed the correct date of the birth of Pakistan’s founder Quaid-e-Azam’ Muhammad Ali Jinnah and national poet Allama Muhammad Iqbal, and some had the content against the two-nation theory, Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board (PCTB) Managing Director Rai Manzoor Nasir said. Nasir said that some 10,000 books taught at public and private schools have been reviewed by 30 committees. (PTI)
Wildfires rage  in Arctic
Geneva: The UN weather agency warned on Friday that average temperatures in Siberia were 10 degrees Celsius (18 Fahrenheit) above average last month, a spate of exceptional heat that has fanned devastating fires in the Arctic Circle and contributed to a rapid depletion in ice sea off Russia’s Arctic coast.
The Arctic is heating more than twice as fast as the global average, impacting local populations and ecosystems and with global repercussions, World Meteorological Organisation Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a statement on Friday. (AP)
Indian hurls acid on girl in Nepal
Kathmandu: A 25-year-old Indian has been arrested in Nepal for allegedly throwing acid on a 22-year-old girl on the outskirts of Kathmandu, the police said on Friday.
Munna said that he was asked by his 42-year-old Nepalese employer Mohammad Alam to throw the acid in the girl’s face in Bafal area on Thursday, they said.
Munna attacked Pabitra Karki at around 8:45 PM with acid when she came out of her house to run some errands, according to the Superintendent of Police at Kathmandu Metropolitan Police Circle, Ishwor Karki. (PTI)