Daily News Roundup

THURSDAY, March 21

A 13 year old boy, whose father and older brother were shot dead while praying alongside him in Christchurch’s  Al-Noor mosque last Friday has farewelled them at their funerals with a stark message.

During the service, Zaid was reported to have directly addressed his father and brother, saying he didn’t want to be left alone.

Zaid Miustafa went to the cemetery in a wheelchair, a blue blanket wrapped around his legs, wrists bandaged and an expression of deep anguish.

The boy was with his father, Khalid, and older brother Hamza when they were murdered alongside scores of other worshipers by a gunman who targeted them because of their faith.

Hamza and the boys’ 44-year-old father were the first of the 50 victims to be buried.

The Mustafa family came as refugees from Syria to New Zealand less than a year ago.

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An pregnant orangutan has lost her baby but is recovering in intensive care after being rescued from an Indonesian palm oil plantation, blinded and riddled with air rifle pellets.

The mother orangutan had been shot with 74 air rifle pellets. The guns are readily available in Indonesia.

The mother orangutan aged around 30 has regained weight after the surgery but it is unlikely she will be able to return to the wild

The orangutan and her one-month-old baby were evacuated from a village near Subulussalam City in the province of Aceh earlier this week.

They had become isolated in a local palm oil plantation, according to the Orangutan Information Centre.

A rescue team tranquilised the mother and the pair was rushed to a wildlife rehabilitation centre, but the baby did not survive the journey.

Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry said the infant was severely malnourished and was buried in an orangutan quarantine centre.

The mother, estimated to be around 30 years old, was examined by vets.

They counted 74 air rifle pellets in her body, including four in her left eye and two in her right.

“This orangutan, that we named Hope after 1,000 hopes for her future, is one of [the] most tragic orangutans that we [have] ever come across,” an Orangutan Information Centre spokesperson said on Facebook.

Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme vet Yenny Saraswati said Hope underwent a four-hour surgery to repair her broken collarbone.

“Hopefully Hope can pass this critical period, but she cannot be released to the wild anymore,” she said.

Two days after the surgery, Hope was eating fruit and drinking milk, gaining an extra 5 kilograms since she was brought into care.

Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme director Ian Singleton said Hope was “strong and tough”.

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A newborn baby boy, less than 24 hours old, has been left in a box outside a medical centre in the southern Perth suburb of Booragoon.

Staff at the Garden City Medical Centre rang police about 8:00am after finding the healthy baby.

The child was covered with a blanket inside the box.

It is believed the baby had only been alone for about 10 minutes when he was found and taken by ambulance to Perth Children’s Hospital.

Detective Sergeant Dixie Johnson said the boy appeared to have been taken care of before being abandoned, and the mother left a note expressing that she wanted him to be looked after.

She said police had concerns about the mother’s welfare, and appealed for her to come forward.

“It appears the baby hasn’t been born in a hospital,” Sergeant Johnson said.

“That’s why we do want to speak to the mother because we’ve got concerns about the environment the baby was born in, and we really just need her to come forward to make sure she gets her medical attention and her welfare concerns are looked after.

“That’s why we’re quite concerned and we want the mother to come forward just to let her know that there are people that she can speak to and that there is help out there for her,” she said.