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Woman dies in python attack after being swallowed up to her shoulders, Indonesia officials say
A woman was found dead after being attacked by a python in central Indonesia, police and local officials said Friday, the third such death in the province since June.
Maga, a 74-year-old woman who like many Indonesians had one name, raised concerns when she did not return home on Wednesday, prompting a search by relatives.
She was found dead presumably “because of being constricted and bitten by the snake,” said Supriadi, police spokesman in Palopo city in South Sulawesi province.
He told AFP the snake in question was a 13-foot python.
The woman was found with bites on her head and legs near her family home after going to work in a field, said Awaluddin, head of Padang Lambe district in Palopo.
She was found in Padang Lambe by her daughter with the snake just feet from her body, Awaluddin told AFP.
Locals beat the snake to death and said the woman had been swallowed up to her shoulders and vomited out, he added.
Other deadly python atacks
Deaths by large constrictors are considered rare, but several people in Indonesia have been killed by pythons in recent years — including two other women since June.
Last month, a woman was found dead inside the belly of a snake after it swallowed her whole in Siteba village, in South Sulawesi province. Police said the 36-year-old mother had gone missing after she left her house to buy medicine for her sick child.
In June a woman was found dead inside the belly of a reticulated python in another district of South Sulawesi. Graphic video published by TMZ appeared to show the snake being cut open in a wooded area while more footage posted by the Daily Mail appeared to show the woman’s body being carried in a blanket past distressed villagers.
Last year residents in the province killed an eight-meter python, which was found strangling and eating one of the farmers in a village.
In 2022, a woman in Indonesia’s Jambi province was killed and swallowed whole by a python, the BBC reported, citing local media.
Axel Heimken/picture alliance via Getty Images
In 2018, a 54-year-old woman was found dead inside a seven-meter python in Southeast Sulawesi’s Muna town.
The year before that, a farmer in West Sulawesi went missing before being found eaten alive by a four-meter python at a palm oil plantation. A six-minute video obtained by CBS News showed villagers slicing open the python’s carcass to reveal the legs and torso of the dead victim, named Akbar.
The reticulated python is the longest snake in the world, according to London’s Natural History Museum. They are native to Southern Asia and can grow to be more than 20 feet long.
Zoo Atlanta, which houses reticulated pythons, says the snakes “have a reputation for being aggressive.”
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North Carolina governor’s race rocked by CNN report on Mark Robinson’s alleged incendiary comments
Editor’s note: This story contains highly offensive language.
Washington — North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor, posted a slew of incendiary, explicit and racist comments on a pornographic website more than a decade ago, according to a CNN investigation released Thursday that has shaken the state’s gubernatorial race.
The report focused on comments made by an account with the name “minisoldr” on a pornographic website called Nude Africa between 2008 and 2012. The account used the name “mark robinson” in its profile and a number of biographical details posted by the account line up with Robinson’s own history, according to CNN. The network reported that Robinson appeared to use the account name on other platforms over the years, including YouTube and Pinterest, and that the email address associated with the account belonged to Robinson.
On the Nude Africa forum, the user expressed a desire to “bring [slavery] back” and “buy a few” slaves, while identifying himself as a “black NAZI,” according to CNN.
“Slavery is not bad. Some people need to be slaves. I wish they would bring it (slavery) back. I would certainly buy a few,” the account wrote in a discussion about Black Republicans in 2010, according to CNN.
“I like watching tranny on girl porn!” the minisoldr account also posted on Nude Africa, according to CNN. “That’s f****** hot! It takes the man out while leaving the man in! And yeah I’m a ‘perv’ too!”
In March 2012, minisoldr posted a preference for Hitler over former President Barack Obama’s administration: “I’d take Hitler over any of the s*** that’s in Washington right now!”
Minisoldr also used racist language to vilify civil rights hero Martin Luther King Jr.
“I’m not in the KKK. They don’t let blacks join. If I was in the KKK I would have called him Martin Lucifer Koon!” the account posted in October 2011, according to CNN.
Reports emerged earlier Thursday that CNN was planning to publish a damaging story that could lead other Republicans to call on Robinson to drop out of the race. In a video posted to X before the CNN story was published, Robinson flatly denied that he said anything in the CNN report and insisted he won’t drop out. North Carolina will begin mailing ballots to members of the military and voters outside the U.S. on Friday.
“The things that you will see in that story, those are not the words of Mark Robinson,” Robinson said in his video. “You know my words, you know my character and you know that I have been completely transparent in this race and before.”
Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Robinson echoed those comments in an interview with CNN. “This is not us. These are not our words. And this is not anything that is characteristic of me,” Robinson said, adding that he wouldn’t “get into the minutia of how somebody manufactured this, these salacious tabloid lies” when presented with evidence that the account belonged to him.
Robinson, who is 56 and married with two children, has a history of inflammatory remarks that have widely circulated since he won the state’s Republican primary in March. Serving as North Carolina’s lieutenant governor since 2021, he gained prominence in Republican circles after he delivered a pro-gun rights speech that went viral and kickstarted his political career. He’s made inflammatory comments across a number of topics — from Islam to abortion to feminism — but he’s been especially vocal on LGBTQ+ issues.
If elected, Robinson would become the first Black governor of North Carolina. Former President Donald Trump, who endorsed Robinson for governor, has referred to him as “Martin Luther King on steroids.”
The lieutenant governor blamed the CNN report on his Democratic opponent, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein.
“You all have seen the half truths and outright lies of Josh Stein,” Robinson said, claiming that Stein leaked the story to CNN.
The report’s release has spurred concern among Republicans about their nominee’s prospects in the coming election. Sen. Ted Budd, a North Carolina Republican, told reporters ahead of its release on Thursday that “North Carolinian voters are smart, and they know how to pick each and every candidate based on their own merits.”
When asked whether Robinson should step down, Budd said he didn’t have enough information.
“They’ve been assaulting him for years,” Budd said before the article was published. “We’re going to gather our facts through the weekend.”
contributed to this report.
Certain boxes of waffles sold at Costco Wholesale stores in the Midwest are being recalled because they may contain plastic, according to a notice by supplier Kodiak Cakes.
The recall involves Kodiak Power Waffles Buttermilk & Vanilla 40 count with the UPC code 705599019203 and a use-by date of Jan. 10, 2026, and only impacts products with the lot code 24193-WL4 and a time stamp of 12:00-23:00, according to the Park City, Utah-based company.
The recalled products were sold at Costco warehouses in 13 states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
The action was initiated “due to the potential presence of soft plastic film,” according to Kodiak, which noted that no injuries or illnesses had been reported.
Those who purchased the recalled product can return it to their local Costco for a refund.
People with questions can email Kodiak at: flapjacks@kodiakcakes.com or call 801-328-4067. Messages will be returned between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Mountain time, Monday through Friday.