24 GRO Vietnam ditahan di Georgetown

BUTTERWORTH - Seramai 24 wanita Vietnam yang bekerja sebagai pelayan pelanggan (GRO) ditahan dalam serbuan Jabatan Imigresen Pulau Pinang di sebuah premis hiburan di Georgetown, dekat sini malam tadi.

Kesemua wanita berusia 18 dan 26 tahun itu ditahan ketika sedang melayan pelanggan dan hasil pemeriksaan mendapati mereka menyalahguna pas lawatan sosial.

Pengarah Jabatan Imigresen Pulau Pinang Hasbullah Abdul Rashid berkata seramai 31 wanita asing diperiksa dalam operasi pada pukul 9.30 malam itu.

Tujuh yang lain, termasuk rakyat China dan Indonesia dibebaskan selepas dikesan tidak melakukan kesalahan, katanya pada sidang akhbar di sini hari ini.

Hasbullah berkata turut ditahan ialah seorang lelaki tempatan berusia 35 tahun yang bekerja sebagai penjaga premis itu.

"Hasil pemeriksaan kami dapati ada antara wanita yang ditahan itu telah beberapa kali masuk ke negara ini sebagai pelancong dan ada juga yang masuk ke negara ini sejak tahun 2009," katanya. 

- Sumber: Bernama

Indian woman kills leopard with sickle

A 56-year-old Indian woman is recovering in hospital after killing a leopard that attacked her.

NEW DELHI: A 56-year-old Indian woman is recovering in hospital after killing a leopard that attacked her as she tended her fields armed only with a sickle.

The woman told Indian broadcaster CNN-IBN that she battled with the leopard for half an hour on Sunday before finally delivering a killer blow with her sickle.

"The leopard lunged at me many times and we fought for a long time," she told the channel from her hospital bed in the northern state of Uttarakhand, her arms bandaged and a livid scar across her right cheek.

"I got hold of my sickle and fought with it. That's when the leopard was killed," said the woman, named as Kamla Devi.

Devi, who was widowed a few years ago, told the Hindustan Times daily she was "terrified" when the leopard attacked, but was determined not to succumb.

"I gathered my courage to fight back. I promised myself that this is not my last day here," she told the paper.

Leopard attacks are relatively common in rural areas of India, although it is rare for the leopard to come off worse.

In 2009 a nine-year-old boy in the same state fought off a leopard that had attacked his sister.

The animals are increasingly venturing into populated areas as their habitat becomes depleted.

Video footage from Mumbai last year showed a leopard creeping into an apartment block foyer and snatching a small dog.

Conservation group WWF called for better management of forests and other habitats for India's leopard population, which numbered 1,150 at a 2011 census. - AFP