Israeli hostage Noa Argamani freed in time to see her terminally ill mother - CNA

TEL AVIV: Hours after being rescued from eight months captivity in Gaza, freed hostage Noa Argamani arrived at a hospital in Tel Aviv to see her terminally ill mother.

Argamani, 26, was one of the most recognised faces among the hostages abducted by Hamas on Oct 7, 2023. Harrowing footage of her being taken into Gaza on the back of a motorcycle, pleading for her life and reaching desperately towards her boyfriend being marched alongside her on foot circulated across the globe.

Argamani's boyfriend Avinatan Or is still in captivity.

Argamani was rescued on Saturday (Jun 8), along with three other hostages, in an operation by Israeli special forces from an apartment building in central Gaza.

"I'm so happy to be here," she said in a phone call with Israel's President Isaac Herzog upon her return, smiling and surrounded by friends and family.

She was later met with cheers upon her arrival at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center where her mother, Liora, was being treated for terminal brain cancer.

In October last year, shortly after her daughter was abducted from a music festival turned killing field in southern Israel, Liora, sitting in a wheelchair, was asked in an interview with a local television station how she imagined their reunion.

"At least to be able to hug her," Liora answered.

The hospital's CEO Ronni Gamzu said the mother's condition was "complicated and tough". He said Argamani was able to communicate with her mother, who they believe understood that her daughter had come home.

"For the last eight months, we are trying to keep her in a status that she can communicate," Gamzu said.

Argamani's father, Yaakov, first met her after a military helicopter carried her back to Israel.

"Today is my birthday, and a gift like this I never believed I would get," he said.

More than 360 people were killed during the rampage at the Nova dance festival, and another 40 were taken hostage by Hamas, according to Israeli tallies.

Near the hospital in central Tel Aviv, at what has become known as hostage square, thousands of Israelis rallied to commemorate the rescue of the four hostages and to demand the release of more than 115 people that remain in Gaza.

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2024-06-08 23:05:53Z
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Israel rescues four hostages in raid that Hamas claims kills 210 - CNA

Gazan paramedics and residents said the assault killed scores of people and left mangled bodies of men, women and children strewn around a marketplace and a mosque.

Israel named the rescued hostages as Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 41. They were taken to hospital for medical checks and were in good health, the military said.

They were all kidnapped from the Nova music festival during the deadly raid by Hamas-led Palestinian militants on Israeli towns and villages near Gaza on Oct 7, which precipitated the devastating war.

Hamas' raid killed some 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities, and Israel's subsequent bombardment and invasion of Gaza has killed at least 36,801 Palestinians, according to an updated tally by the territory's health ministry on Saturday.

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2024-06-08 19:03:00Z
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Israeli forces rescue four live hostages in Gaza, military says - CNA

JERUSALEM: Israeli forces rescued four hostages alive from two locations in the central Gaza area of al-Nuseirat on Saturday (Jun 8), the military said, eight months after they were kidnapped by Hamas-led militants in a deadly incursion into Israel.

The four hostages, three males and one female who were abducted from the Nova music festival in southern Israel on Oct 7 last year, were taken to hospital for medical checks, the military said and were in good health.

They were identified as Noa Argamani, 25, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40.

After eight months of devastating war in Gaza triggered by Hamas' Oct 7 attack, 116 of the approximately 250 hostages abducted by militants are left in the Palestinian enclave, according to Israeli tallies - at least 40 of whom have been declared dead in absentia by authorities.

Israel's chief military spokesman said the rescue operation was held under fire in the heart of a residential neighbourhood, where he said Hamas had been concealing hostages among Gaza civilians under the armed guard of militants.

In a televised news conference, spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said one Israeli soldier had been badly injured. Israeli forces returned fire, including with airstrikes, he said.

The Gaza health ministry said that at least 55 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli operation. It did not say how many of the fatalities were combatants but said that women and children were among the dead.

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2024-06-08 13:13:00Z
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More than 14000 con artists arrested in crackdown on online scams in Thailand - The Straits Times

The authorities arrested 14,826 individuals involved in illegal operations from Oct 1, 2023, to April 30, 2024. PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO FILE

BANGKOK - In a huge crackdown on online fraud over seven months, the Royal Thai Police arrested more than 14,000 individuals involved in call centre scams, investment fraud schemes and online gambling websites.

The operation also led to the freezing of 4.56 billion baht (S$167.5 million) in assets, and discussions are under way with the Anti-Money Laundering Office on how these can be distributed among victims.

Royal Thai Police deputy spokesman Siriwat Depor told the press on June 7 that following directives from Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin and acting national police chief Kittirat Panpet, the authorities have been intensively investigating and combating technological crimes.

Their efforts have yielded substantial results in three key areas – cracking down on criminals, disrupting infrastructure and dismantling financial networks.

The authorities arrested 14,826 individuals involved in illegal operations from Oct 1, 2023, to April 30, 2024.

The police collaborated with the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission to investigate the illegal installation of signal transmission equipment along the border.

These devices were used by criminals to facilitate ongoing illegal activities, and the operation led to the confiscation of the equipment.

The authorities also investigated and expanded their operations through financial tracking and the freezing of mule accounts. They froze the 4.56 billion baht between Nov 1, 2023, and April 30, 2024.

The public is urged to stay informed about the various types of crimes to protect themselves from becoming victims. THE NATION/ASIA NEWS NETWORK

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• Thailand
• Internet crimes and scams
• Fraud

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The Stories Behind: The S'pore couple given residency by Ukraine after designing, building 500 emergency homes there - TODAY

SINGAPORE — When Ms Lam Bao Yan flew to a refugee camp in eastern Germany in April 2022 to offer volunteer support to Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion of their country, she could hardly have imagined what lay ahead.

Since then, Ms Lam, 40, along with her husband Rudy Taslim, also 40, have shuttled between Ukraine and Singapore around 10 times. The couple were also granted residential status in Ukraine after being invited to do so.

In that initial solo visit, Ms Lam lived at the refugee camp in Bad Blankenberg, Germany for a month, where she cooked for, counselled and cared for Ukrainian refugees.

“When the month was up, we were supposed to come back to Singapore, but I just felt like I could do more,” Ms Lam told TODAY.

“If these refugees were already so in need, I was wondering where is the need the most? I can only imagine it would be in Ukraine.”

This prompted her to enter Ukraine itself to continue serving its citizens and residents on the frontlines of the war. Her husband joined her in June 2022.

The couple are the founders of architecture firm Genesis Architects in Singapore, whose projects have included a resort in the Maldives, a residential development in Australia and various projects in Singapore.

The success of the business helps to fund their humanitarian work in Ukraine, as well as other good works around the world, including helping vulnerable children in the Amazon basin in Brazil.

In Ukraine, they have built more than 500 emergency houses for vulnerable members of the community, including the elderly, the young and the physically disabled.

The homes are in various parts of the country, including villages near the cities of Lyman, Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, which are all in the country's east.

Other emergency homes have been built in villages such as Moschun, outside the capital Kyiv.

The projects also provide employment to Ukrainian locals, whom they hire to help build these houses.

The couple are co-founders of humanitarian organisation Love on Ukraine.

Besides building homes for vulnerable Ukrainians, they also bring in generators from the Netherlands, and provide free electricity and internet access to individuals and organisations such as hospitals and orphanages.

This allows those in need to charge their mobile and medical devices, communicate with family members outside of Ukraine, and obtain information online on getting food and medical aid, if needed.

To date, they have planted more than 80 “lighthouses” – the name they give to these areas of refuge – in several locations across Ukraine.

Through Love on Ukraine, the couple also extend financial and social support to pregnant women who have lost their husbands to the war, and individuals with special needs or disabilities who are unable to leave the country.

The couple, who shuttle between Singapore and Ukraine every 10 weeks or so, were awarded Ukrainian residential status by the government in 2022.

Mr Taslim told TODAY that the Ukraine government recognised their commitment to rebuilding the country, and the couple were invited to apply for residential status. They were granted residency, which allowed them to continue their works in Ukraine.

They will next return to Ukraine on June 13, where they will focus on setting up rehabilitation hospitals for wounded casualties, and train chaplains and community leaders involved in trauma counselling.

They will also convert more vehicles in order to make them suitable for transporting casualties, and expand existing orphanages’ capacities.

Before each trip back to Ukraine, the couple prepare themselves by spending time with their families.

They also wean themselves off coffee, sugar and chocolate, and cut down their daily intake by one meal to ensure they can keep functioning even without easy access to food. 

The pair also obtain medication to regulate heart palpitations, which they experience at times while serving on the frontlines of the war zone.

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2024-06-08 00:00:00Z
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In Indonesia, lizard-hunting feeds families – and China's traditional medicine industry - CNA

HARVEST QUOTAS SET

Also known as the common or Asian house gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus), or rumah cicak Asia in Bahasa Indonesia, the lizards are believed to still be abundant, according to a herpetologist and hunters CNA interviewed.

The house lizard is not the only gecko species used for traditional medicine, and the Indonesian government has set quotas for various species.

This year, the catch quota for Asian house geckos is about 2.5 million. The catch quota for the flat-tailed house gecko (Hemidactylus platyurus) is also about 2.5 million, while that for the four-clawed gecko (Gehyra mutilata) is about 2 million.

They can be caught as pets or for consumption, said Dr Satyawan Pudyatmoko, director general of natural resources and ecosystem conservation at the Ministry of Environment and Forestry. 

The three species are allowed to be hunted in the provinces of West Java, Central Java, East Java and Yogyakarta as they have been deemed potential regions of export, said Dr Satyawan. 

He said there are more than five export permit holders who work with small enterprises and hunters in villages. 

“The people in villages help with catching, collecting, sorting (the lizards) according to the size, drying and, finally, packing,” said Dr Satyawan. 

“These activities can be a main or additional source of income.”

The environment ministry did not provide information on export quotas and actual export volumes. 

In the past, actual exports have been found to exceed quotas for certain species such as the Tokay gecko.

From 2013 to 2019, over 79.5 million Tokay geckos were exported by Indonesia based on the Ministry of Trade’s data, vastly exceeding harvest quotas at the time, according to a report last year by Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency and the Ministry of Environment and Forestry.

In addition, only about 1.7 million legal export permits were reported by the environment ministry from 2013 to 2019. 

The disparity was because exporters were not required to obtain a permit from the environment ministry at the time. In 2019, the Tokay gecko was added to Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora for controls to be placed on its trade.

China is a major importer of Tokay geckos, which are thought to be effective in suppressing asthma, relieving coughing and treating diabetes and other ailments.

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2024-06-07 22:00:00Z
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What has changed as Hong Kong marks five years since 2019 protests - CNA

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2024-06-07 12:20:38Z
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