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After 19-year-old woman mauled to death, Romania authorizes the killing of nearly 500 bears
Romania’s parliament on Monday approved the culling of almost 500 bears this year in a bid to control the protected species’ “overpopulation” after a deadly attack on a 19-year-old hiker sparked nationwide outcry.
Last week, local media reported that a 19-year-old female tourist — identified by the Daily Mail as Maria Diana — was attacked and killed by a bear while she was hiking with her boyfriend.
“From the information we have, the bear attacked the young woman on the trail, dragged her into the vegetation next to the trail, and somewhere in this vegetation dropped her into a chasm and fell there. The bear came down after her,” Sabin Corniou, the head of Romania’s mountain rescue services, told CNN’s Antena 3.
The bear was killed after it reportedly tried to attack the rescuers.
Romania is home to Europe’s largest brown bear population outside of Russia with 8,000, according to the environment ministry.
Bears have killed 26 people and severely injured 274 others over the last 20 years in the southeastern European country, the ministry said earlier this year.
ANDREI PUNGOVSCHI/AFP via Getty Images
After the young hiker was mauled to death on a popular trail in Romania’s Carpathian Mountains, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu summoned lawmakers back from their summer recess to attend an emergency session of parliament.
As well as adopting legislation to control the brown bear population, the parliament held a moment of silence in the 19-year-old hiker’s memory.
The law adopted Monday authorizes the culling of 481 bears in 2024, more than twice last year’s total of 220.
Lawmakers argued that the bears’ “overpopulation” led to an increase in attacks, while admitting that the law will not prevent attacks in the future.
Environmental groups have denounced the measure.
“The law solves absolutely nothing,” World Wildlife Fund biologist Calin Ardelean told AFP, arguing that the focus should be shifted towards “prevention and intervention” as well as so-called “problem bears”.
According to WWF Romania, culls will not remedy the problem unless measures are put in place to keep bears away from communities, such as better waste management or preventing people from feeding animals.
In 2023, about 7,500 emergency calls to signal bear sightings were recorded, more than double the previous year, according to data presented last week by Romanian authorities.
Earlier this year, in Slovakia, a woman died after being chased by a bear through dense forest and mountainous terrain. Wildlife researchers previously estimated that the concentration of Slovakian bears was second only to Romania in terms of prevalence.
Reuters Photographer / REUTERS
At least 11 employees were taken to hospitals and residents were urged to shelter in place on Tuesday after an explosion at a Louisville, Kentucky, business.
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services reported on social media a “hazardous materials incident” at 1901 Payne St., in Louisville. The address belongs to a facility operated by Givaudan Sense Colour, a manufacturer of food colorings for soft drinks and other products, according to officials and online records.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said emergency teams responded to the blast around 3 p.m. News outlets reported that neighbors heard what sounded like an explosion coming from the business. Overhead news video footage showed an industrial building with a large hole in its roof.
WLKY-TV
“The cause at this point of the explosion is unknown,” Greenberg said in a news conference. No one died in the explosion, he added.
Greenberg said officials spoke to employees inside the plant. “They have initially conveyed that everything was normal activity when the explosion occurred,” he said.
The Louisville Fire Department said in a post on the social platform X that multiple agencies were responding to a “large-scale incident.”
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services first urged people within a mile of the business to shelter in place, but that order was lifted in the afternoon. An evacuation order for the two surrounding blocks around the site of the explosion was still in place Tuesday afternoon.
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A rare square 37-carat emerald owned by the Aga Khan fetched nearly $9 million at auction in Geneva on Tuesday, making it the world’s most expensive green stone.
Sold by Christie’s, the Cartier diamond and emerald brooch, which can also be worn as a pendant, dethrones a piece of jewelry made by the fashion house Bulgari, which Richard Burton gave as a wedding gift to fellow actor Elizabeth Taylor, as the most precious emerald.
In 1960, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan commissioned Cartier to set the emerald in a brooch with 20 marquise-cut diamonds for British socialite Nina Dyer, to whom he was briefly married.
Dyer then auctioned off the emerald to raise money for animals in 1969.
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images
By chance that was Christie’s very first such sale in Switzerland on the shores of Lake Geneva, with the emerald finding its way back to the 110th edition this year.
It was bought by jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels before passing a few years later into the hands of Harry Winston, nicknamed the “King of Diamonds.”
“Emeralds are hot right now, and this one ticks all the boxes,” said Christie’s EMEA Head of Jewellery Max Fawcett. “…We might see an emerald of this quality come up for sale once every five or six years.”
Also set with diamonds, the previous record-holder fetched $6.5 million at an auction of part of Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor’s renowned jewelry collection in New York.
