Rare white rhino takes birth in Belgian zoo

Brussels: A rare southern white rhino was born at a zoo in Belgium, boosting efforts to save the endangered species. “An adorable little male was born on Monday. Madiba, the mother, and her baby are doing well,” Pairi Daiza zoo said in a statement. There are roughly 18,000 southern white rhinos in the wild but the subspecies is being exterminated by poachers at a rate of one every eight hours. Another species of rhino, the world’s second-largest land mammal, the northern white, is in even more danger with only two left in existence. AFP

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Two members leave Nobel literature panel

STOCKHOLM: Two external members of the Nobel literature prize committee quit on Monday, with one of them saying the work to reform the scandal-hit Swedish Academy was taking too long. “I leave my job in the Nobel Committee because I have neither the patience nor the time to wait for the result of the work to change that has been started,” author Kristoffer Leandoer said. The Academy confirmed in a statement that Leandoer and Gun-Britt Sundstrom had left the Nobel committee. Reuters

Australia slams China’s treatment of jailed writer

Sydney: Australia’s foreign minister on Monday said the treatment of a writer detained in China was “unacceptable”, as his lawyer reported he was being shackled and subjected to daily interrogation. Yang Hengjun, an Australian citizen, has been detained in China since January and was recently charged with spying, which could bring a lengthy prison sentence. Minister Marise Payne said repeated requests had been made for Yang to get “basic standards of justice, procedural fairness and humane treatment”. AFP