Bits and Bites from Around the World > Mom throws daughter in bear enclosure; Teen sentenced to 100 years; Stunning Images of our Galaxy; Moscow best city in the World

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Woman throws daughter into enclosure with live bear

Disturbing incident filmed at an Uzbek zoo shows the animal and the staff rushing to the toddler

Zuzu the bear. © Facebook / Tazhkent Zoo

In a blood-curdling incident captured on camera at a zoo in Uzbekistan’s capital city Tashkent on Friday, a young woman threw her three-year-old daughter into the enclosure of a massive brown bear.

CCTV footage from the scene showed the woman lifting the child into the air, putting her onto the fence of the enclosure and then pushing her into its five-meter-deep moat.

Zuzu the bear was visibly startled by the sudden invasion, rushing to check on the child as soon as she plunged into the moat. The animal approached the girl, sniffed her, and then walked away.

The predator was then promptly led away by the zoo’s staff, who hurried to extract the girl from the enclosure. While the infant was not harmed by the bear, she was hospitalized with injuries she suffered from her fall.

Uzbekistan’s prosecutors have launched a criminal probe into the incident, with the woman suspected of an attempted murder of a helpless person. If found guilty, she may face up to 15 years behind bars.

The woman, identified only as Z.T., had been known to the authorities, the country’s family ministry revealed Sunday. The 30-year-old had been receiving support over her crumbling marriage and suffered from depression, the ministry added. The woman’s husband is said to have been away, working in Russia.

Teen sentenced to 100 years over siblings’ deaths

Indiana teenager receives heavy sentence for murders of baby sister and brother

A teenager in the US state of Indiana has been sentenced to serve two consecutive 50-year prison terms for suffocating his baby stepbrother and half-sister to death in 2017, when he was just 13 years old. The judge who announced the sentence on Tuesday had insisted that the case against Nickalas Kedrowitz be tried in an adult court.

While the teen’s attorney had insisted his client had untreated mental health problems, Ripley County Prosecutor Richard Hertel pointed out that Kedrowitz had committed the crimes months apart, dismissing the notion that he had murdered his siblings in the “heat of passion.”

What kind of passion could we possibly be talking about?

Kedrowitz was convicted in August of murdering 11-month-old Nathaniel Ritz and 23-month-old Desiree McCartney in July 2017 and May 2017 respectively, at the family’s home in Osgood, Indiana. He was arrested in August 2018 and reportedly told detectives he was “freeing his siblings from hell and the chains of fire,” confessing to using a towel to suffocate his half-sister and a blanket to smother his stepbrother.

So, it was not mental illness, it was pure and simple demonic possession!

Questioned by investigators about what exactly the “hell” in question was, Kedrowitz answered “chores,” urging the authorities to look at the list of daily chores he was expected to complete. It’s not clear if they ever saw the list.

The teen’s uncle apparently told investigators that Ritz’s father had attacked Kedrowitz the day before he suffocated the infant boy, leaving the 13-year-old with a bloody nose. Shortly before killing his half-sister, the teen reportedly squeezed a kitten to death for allegedly scratching him.

According to an affidavit from Indiana state police, Kedrowitz told investigators he had “had a conversation with God about [his siblings’ deaths] but he could not talk about it because he had promised God he wouldn’t tell anyone.”

He, of course, wasn't God!

Kedrowitz’s own father is in prison on unrelated charges, while his mother cooperated with the investigation into her infant children’s deaths.

‘Remarkable’ images of our galaxy’s center revealed

A supermassive black hole lurking in the center of the Milky Way is the brightest spot

© Heywood, SARAO

A new MeerKAT telescope image of the galactic center reveals the “complex heart” of the Milky Way, with astronomers saying they now have “the best insight yet into the population of mysterious ‘radio filaments’ found nowhere else.”

Released by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory, the “remarkable” image is based on a mosaic of 20 separate observations, which took a total of 200 hours of MeerKAT telescope time to acquire. 

A rare, almost-perfect spherical supernova remnant that has been discovered at the edge of the MeerKAT mosaic.

A tailed radio source visible on the right of the image could be an object in our galaxy moving at high speed,

leaving a trailing wake. ©  Heywood, SARAO

The super-sensitive radio telescope consists of 64 antennas spread over a diameter of eight kilometers in the South African desert. It has allowed humanity to look into the center of the Milky Way, which, despite its relative closeness – it is just about 25,000 light-years away – is obscured by dust and gas and is very hard to penetrate.

The picture is dominated by the emission from the galactic center “super bubble,” which is traversed by many parallel radio-emitting magnetized threads astronomers call filaments. 

The complex, cirrus-like emission from the Galactic centre super bubble dominates this image. 

This is traversed by the Radio Arc, a complex of many parallel radio filaments. 

The bright dot near the centre of this region is Sagittarius A, a 4 million solar mass black hole. 

©  Heywood, SARAO

One of the strands has been lovingly nicknamed “Mouse” by the scientists; another feature is being called “Snake.” The supermassive black hole Sagittarius A can be seen as the brightest spot. 

The clarity and depth of the image give it significant scientific potential, the astronomers say.

In the centre of the image is the supernova remnant G359.1-0.5. To the left is ‘the Mouse’, a runaway pulsar 

possibly formed and ejected by the supernova event. To the upper right is one of the longest

and most famous radio filaments, known as ‘the Snake’. ©  Heywood, SARAO

“Up to 100 light-years long, these unique structures have defied a conclusive explanation for their origin since discovery over 35 years ago. MeerKAT has discovered many more such filaments than were previously known, and the new data release will allow astronomers to study these objects as a population for the first time,” the report reads.

The astronomers admit their own fascination over the discoveries, with SARAO chief scientist Dr. Fernando Camilo saying that “the best telescopes expand our horizons in unexpected ways.” The lead author of the study, Dr. Ian Heywood, confessed that he never gets tired of looking at the picture.

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UN names Moscow Best world city to live in

The Russian capital beat out major European and North American rivals

to claim the top spot

© Getty Images / ArtMarie

The UN has published its global cities ranking for 2022, and has awarded Moscow the top spot among large cities for quality of life and infrastructure, commending the metropolis for its transportation and its citizens’ well-being.

A draft of the report, the full version of which will be released in March, was made available online on Wednesday. Experts analyzed the 50 largest cities globally and ranked 29 “world cities” according to six metrics: productivity, infrastructure development, quality of life, equity and social inclusion, environmental sustainability, and urban governance and legislation.

The Russian capital came out first in terms of “quality of life” and “infrastructure development,” and was third overall in the “City Prosperity Index,” which considered all the categories together. The first and second spots were taken by Singapore and Toronto respectively, and the fourth and fifth by Sydney and London.

The report defines quality of life as “how an individual’s life or society’s condition is in comparison to another person or society, i.e. how good (or bad) someone’s life is compared to other individuals’ lives. Therefore, this is the measurement of a city’s average achievements for ensuring general well-being and satisfaction of its citizens.”

Infrastructure development is defined as “the set of basic physical systems, organizational structures, facilities, and installations needed for the functioning of a society, or economy. The prosperity of a city largely depends on the development of infrastructure, including transportation, communication, or provision of [basic] services, among others.”

Among the 29 cities, Moscow was ranked 12th for productivity, 13th for equity and social inclusion, 17th for environmental sustainability, and 10th for urban governance and legislation.

Around 20 million people officially live in the Russian capital and its surrounding region, though measurements of the population vary according to methodology. Some estimates suggest the real figure is substantially higher.

By any accepted measure, with at least 13 million inhabitants, Moscow city proper is the largest wholly within Europe, beating out London, St. Petersburg, Paris and Berlin.

Free Speech or Provocation? Danish Minister Reposts Prophet Muhammad Cartoon on Facebook

Denmark's immigration minister has sparked outrage once again, posting a photo of her iPad on Facebook which shows a satirical drawing of the Prophet Muhammad as the screen's backdrop in a move which some Muslims regard as blasphemous.

The post, which shows a bearded Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban, comes in reaction to a Danish museum's decision not to include the drawing in a new exhibition about blasphemy since the Reformation.

“It is the museum’s own choice and they have their full right to do it, but I think it’s a shame,” Immigration and Integration Minister Inger Stojberg wrote in her Facebook post, referencing the Skovgaard Museum in Viborg.

Stojberg went on to state that she uses the cartoon as her background screen because it reminds her that Denmark has freedom of speech, including the right to criticize religions.

“Honestly, I think we should be proud of the Mohammad cartoons,” she wrote.

Many have spoken out against Stojberg's post, particularly as visual representations of Muhammad are seen as blasphemous by hardline Muslims.

One person said the post had nothing to do with free speech, and was only aimed at "mockery and provocation," while accusing Stojberg of "looking for conflict, trouble, and discord between people in Denmark."

Another person accused the minister of "creating divisions" while others are "trying to create more unity." They called it "sad" that Stojberg didn't have "more important things to do."

One person called Stojberg "disgusting" for creating a "greater and greater distance between Danes and Muslims," adding that she doesn't "deserve" to hold the position of immigration and integration minister.

Others, however, seemed to agree with Stolberg's stance, with one person thanking her for "fighting so hard."

Another said the museum's decision "shows how much Islam has been allowed to influence Denmark," while encouraging Stojberg to "keep up the good work."

One person encouraged Stojberg to "stand firm on our freedom," adding that "the right to criticize and to make satire and fun over and with religion have made us the free people we are today."

Previous drawings of Muhammad published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten - including the one posted by Stojberg on Tuesday - led to three of Denmark's embassies being attacked in the Middle East in 2006. Dozens of people were killed in the rioting.

Stojberg is no stranger to controversy. In March, she sparked outrage after encouraging "normal Danes" to report "weird" situations, using the example of a local pizzeria which may have "many people going around in there not speaking Danish at all."

Merkel Let in Refugees ‘to Avoid Border Clashes that Would Look Bad on TV’

Merkel let in refugees ‘to avoid border clashes that would look bad on TV,’

claims insider book

A new book by a political journalist says that German leader Angela Merkel was on the verge of closing the borders instead of welcoming refugees, but was persuaded not to out of fear that images of violence would make her government unpopular.

'Driven by Events: Merkel’s Refugee Policy' by Robin Alexander, a journalist with Die Welt, was published this week. It claims that as late as September 2015, the peak of the migrant influx into Europe, the German chancellor had still not formulated a policy.

According to excerpts from the book, quoted in the Sunday Times, the situation came to a head when officials warned that as many as 40,000 migrants moving from the Balkans could enter Bavaria in a single weekend.

In secret – the media was informed but told to avoid publishing the news – thousands of police were deployed at the Austrian border, ready to physically protect it from the newcomers. A special order had been prepared by the police, denying entry to those who had no visas.

But Chancellor Merkel was hesitant, and according to Alexander, used her Interior Minister, Thomas de Maziere, to ask the police the questions, “What happens if 500 refugees with children in their arms run toward the border guards? Can we live with the images that will come out of this?”

“For historical reasons, the chancellor feared images of armed German police confronting civilians on our borders,” Alexander writes.

Cultural suicide as penance for sin

It's not clear from this article whether 'historical reasons' is a reference to how future generations would look back on such a border confrontation, or if it refers to something far more profound. There is, I believe, still a feeling of guilt associated with Hitler and his atrocities that haunts German society. This grand gesture of humanity may have seemed like a way of expunging that guilt - cultural suicide as penance for sin.

Despite objections from the police commissioner that the force would act within the scope of the law, Merkel, also worried about the legal implications of a border ban, spiked the original document, and forced a redraft, saying that "third-country nationals with an asylum claim are to be permitted entry even without legally binding documents."

This meant that the police would be powerless to stop almost anyone wanting to enter the country, as long as they said they were a refugee.

© Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters

In the end, the influx produced a positive media reaction, not least because of the publicity of the drowning of three-year-old Alan Kurdi earlier that month, and “Refugees are welcome!” banners appeared in most German urban centers.

© John Macdougall / AFP

Merkel rode the wave, visiting the newcomers and taking photos with them, and reiterating the “We can do it!” slogan, first used a fortnight earlier, when the Chancellor assured the electorate that Germany was capable of absorbing the influx.

“The selfies were not planned, the border opening was not planned. But then came a wave of incredible rapture in Germany — and she went with the public mood as ever. Merkel governs by the polls,” writes Alexander.

The border stayed open for another six months, though they had to be shut eventually, but the figures for 2015 showed that Germany had welcomed 1.1 million migrants – more than the rest of Europe put together.

“In the end, Merkel refused to assume responsibility, even as everything was in place to close the borders, so they remained open — without an explicit decision,” writes Alexander, who says in his book that Merkel’s generosity helped to create the “anxiety about migration” that contributed to the rise of right-wing Alternative for Germany, Brexit, and eventually, the election of Donald Trump.

That last statement seems like quite a reach when you first read it, but if you think about it, it is probably quite accurate. The effects of Merkel's actions, or perhaps, lack of action, has been profound throughout the western world and very little of it is positive. It simply could have been handled so much better.