UK team performs surgery to fix rhino’s broken leg, an operation they say is world’s 1st
(LONDON) — A team of over ten vets – including specialist surgeons, anaesthetists, and animal keepers – have on Thursday performed what they described as a ground-breaking world-first surgery on a Rhino with a broken leg.
Amara is an almost 2-year old Southern white rhino whose home is the Knowsley Safari Park near Prescot, in northwestern England.
Vets say they performed a lengthy “world first medical procedure” on the Rhino, who had suffered a broken leg.
“Earlier this year, Amara began limping on her right front leg,” Knowsley Safari Park told ABC News in a statement. “The Knowsley Safari team brought in specialist equine surgeons from the University of Liverpool to help with the diagnosis, where radiographs confirmed a fractured ulna.”
The ulna — also known as the ulnar bone — is a long forearm bone that stretched from the elbow to the wrist in humans. For Rhinos, the Ulna is associated with the lower front leg of the animal.
The safari park says no records or documentation exists worldwide for this form of surgery, the team having to use expertise in treating horses with similar injuries to apply it to Amara for the groundbreaking surgery.
“Under anaesthesia in Amara’s enclosure, the large team performed a lengthy operation, including key-hole surgery of Amara’s wrist, in a procedure lasting five hours.”
Dr. David Stack, senior lecturer in Equine Surgery at the University of Liverpool, says the surgery was “unlike they have experienced previously.”
“Due to the unprecedented nature of the procedure, we didn’t know how much room we would have to operate, or how much of the affected area we would be able to see,” Stack said.
He added, “We were unsure if the cast would be strong enough and how Amara would cope with such a restriction on her limb. We hoped that she would accept it and that she would be able to move around, get down and, importantly, back up again but this was unchartered water.”
The Zoo says Amara wore a full limb cast to support her leg and was kept in her enclosure to minimize her movement. The zoo says she is doing “well” with her treatment and wearing the cast, which is set to be removed in May, the zoo told ABC News.
Southern white rhinos are commonly found in savannahs of southern and eastern Africa. The species is today listed as ‘near threatened’ due to ‘decades of rampant poaching’ for Rhino horn, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
The zoo describes Amara as a Rhino known for her “boisterous play,” a trait the zoo says is typical of her species.
“Treating Amara has been a truly ground-breaking veterinary journey incorporating many firsts which we will now document should another animal team encounter similar scenarios in the future, though we very much hope the notes are never needed,” said Stack.
(LONDON) — An 11-year-old girl and a 34-year-old woman were stabbed in Leicester Square in central London on Monday, police said.
A man has been arrested and investigators “don’t believe there are any outstanding suspects,” according to London’s Metropolitan Police Service
The girl and the woman were taken to a hospital, police said, adding that their conditions were unknown.
The incident occurred as the U.K. remains on edge after a week of violence as far-right rioters clashed with police. The riots took place across England and Wales and were fueled by far-right activists using social media to spread misinformation.
Those riots follow the deaths of three girls, who were stabbed in a “ferocious” attack during a July 19 dance event in Southport, a seaside town, according to police.
A 17-year-old was arrested and charged with murder, police said. The suspect was from Banks, a coastal village in Lancashire, and was born in Cardiff, Wales, police said.
The Crown Court released the suspect’s name after a judge ruled it could be released despite his age. Although the suspect was born in the United Kingdom, online rumors spread calling into question his immigration status, police said.
(NEW YORK) — A Palestinian human rights activist has accused Israeli soldiers of being involved in a series of alleged offenses against him and his property in the occupied West Bank, amid a spike in violence since the Oct. 7 terror attack in southern Israel by Hamas.
These allegations follow a probe by the U.S. State Department into a string of other alleged human rights abuses by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers in the West Bank, prior to Oct. 7.
ABC News spoke to Issa Amro, a Palestinian human rights activist, at his home in Hebron, the West Bank’s second-largest city. Amro spoke on his back porch, from behind the wire fence that now blocks his spectacular view of the Old City.
Amro said he needs the fence for protection and alleges Israeli soldiers have repeatedly failed to protect him from run-ins with right-wing settlers — his neighbors — who he says have threatened him. He also highlighted one particularly frightening encounter.
“He came here with a gun, he was very happy to show his power,” Amro said of an encounter with a neighbor. “He went around, he pointed the gun and said, ‘I will shoot you if I want.’”
This incident happened a few feet away from an Israeli military outpost, according to the activist.
“In spite of the presence of the soldier, I was attacked many times,” he said. “They do nothing about it. I’m afraid to stand here in the middle of the night – I feel they may shoot me.”
Amro first connected with ABC News in 2023, after the IDF put parts of Hebron under lockdown in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks. Months before that, an Israeli soldier was caught on video attacking Amro in the street. The IDF jailed the soldier for 10 days, they said.
After those incidents, Amro reinforced his windows with concrete stones to act as protection.
“From the settlers and the soldiers,” he said. “I see them the same now.”
He highlighted security camera footage that appears to show a soldier walking onto his property in November. The man stole a GoPro and CCTV cameras, Amro alleged.
“Then he told me that he would come to kill me on the night,” he said.
Amro alleged that soldiers took him from his home and interrogated him for 10 hours on Oct. 7. He held up a strip of cloth he said was used to gag him, putting it in his mouth to demonstrate his alleged treatment.
“I’m keeping it as a souvenir,” he said.
The Israeli military told ABC News that Amro had not filed a formal complaint alleging violence by its soldiers, and accused him of being linked to “illegal disturbances” in the area.
He highlighted security camera footage that appears to show a soldier walking onto his property in November. The man stole a GoPro and CCTV cameras, Amro alleged.
“Then he told me that he would come to kill me on the night,” he said.
Amro alleged that soldiers took him from his home and interrogated him for 10 hours on Oct. 7. He held up a strip of cloth he said was used to gag him, putting it in his mouth to demonstrate his alleged treatment.
“I’m keeping it as a souvenir,” he said.
The Israeli military told ABC News that Amro had not filed a formal complaint alleging violence by its soldiers, and accused him of being linked to “illegal disturbances” in the area.
In the wake of the Oct. 7 attack, the IDF says it has conducted “over 200 operations” in the West Bank, “eliminating over 500 terrorists.” They claimed that more than 17,000 people they’ve arrested are linked with Hamas.
Palestinian officials say Israeli operations have killed 140 children in the West Bank and Jerusalem since the October violence. Israel argues that the raids are necessary to prevent terror attacks.
A U.S. State Department investigation into IDF conduct in the West Bank concluded that three Israeli Army battalions committed “gross human rights violations” against Palestinian civilians before Oct. 7.
One such unit was Netzah Yehuda, a unit made up primarily of ultra-Orthodox men. A 2019 video allegedly shows some of its soldiers abusing a pair of blindfolded Palestinian detainees.
An Israeli court convicted an officer and five soldiers for their roles in mistreating the two men.
Yossi Levi is the CEO of Netzah Yehuda Organization, which represents soldiers in the unit. They refer to the West Bank as Judea and Samaria, a reference to ancient Israelite kingdoms as some Israelis assert that the area is a historic Jewish homeland.
“It’s too complicated to deal with civilian people in Judea and Samaria, to deal with thousands of operations, success operations, by the way,” he said of the incidents. “So sometimes you have bad events.”
However, such events have sometimes turned deadly. In 2022, Omar Assad, a 78-year-old Palestinian-American, died while in Netzah Yehuda’s custody. He and Mamdouh Abu Aboud were arrested at random as they drove through the village, according to Aboud.
“That night there were no security incidents, there were no confrontations between us and them,” Aboud said, speaking in Arabic.
He lay on the ground to demonstrate the position soldiers allegedly held Assad in, before he suffered from a heart attack and died, according to Aboud.
“The soldier came and hit me. I looked left and right and see Omar on the ground. I got close to him and put my hand here,” Aboud said, indicating his neck. “I knew him and called him. He didn’t respond. I checked his pulse, he had no pulse.”
In response, the IDF said the soldiers “violated” a core value of protecting human life and two of the commanders involved were suspended from their positions for two years. After the unit’s misconduct came to light in 2022, Netzah Yehuda was redeployed out of the West Bank.
That hasn’t stopped the alleged abuses. In June, video showed Mujahed Abbadi — an injured Palestinian — tied to the front of an IDF unit’s jeep. The IDF said soldiers had violated orders and standard operating procedures during a counterterrorism operation.
Former tank commander Ori Givati, who is now part of an Israeli nonprofit called “Breaking the Silence,” is among the Israelis trying to highlight the IDF’s alleged abuses in the West Bank, and says the problem is the occupation itself.
“When you occupy millions of people with the military, you go through a process of dehumanization,” Givati said.
He acknowledges that the soldiers stationed in the West Bank are working under extremely difficult circumstances — soldiers and settlers in the area are constantly threatened with attack. However, he highlights Israel’s role in creating that tension.
“Occupying the Palestinians for almost 57 years now is not helping our security,” he said. “Militarily occupy them, invade their homes, disperse their protests, build settlements on their lands. Maybe that is something that is creating a lot of hostility and we should change course.”
Amro, the Palestinian human rights activist, doesn’t understand why the Israelis see him as an enemy, saying he isn’t a security threat.
“I am here to resist peacefully the inequality, the injustice, and try to give hope,” he said.
(MOSCOW) — In what is one of the largest drone attacks since the Russia-Ukraine war began, Moscow officials said they shot down at least 12 drones on Wendesday.
The Air Defense Forces of the Ministry of Defense shot down 10 UAVs Tuesday night and two more Wednesday morning, local time, according to Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin.
It was not clear how many drones and missiles were launched in total. Unverified videos published online showed explosions in the sky over Russia. Sobyanin said some of the drones were destroyed in the region surrounding Moscow, brought down by the city’s layered air defense.
Russian authorities said that around 60 more drones were launched into Russia. Ukrainian authorities have not yet commented on the attack.