Endangered red panda among 87 live animals seized from smugglers at Thailand airport
CBSN
Bangkok — Thai customs officials have arrested six Indians for attempting to smuggle a red panda and 86 other animals out of the kingdom, including snakes, parrots and monitor lizards, officials said Wednesday.
The illicit menagerie was discovered hidden in the suspects' checked luggage at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport as they tried to fly to Mumbai.
Thailand is a major transit hub for smugglers in the illicit wildlife trafficking trade, who often sell the animals in China and Vietnam, although recent years have seen an uptick in trafficking to India.
Paris — Jean-Marie Le Pen, the historic leader of France's far-right political movement, died Tuesday at the age of 96, the French news agency AFP said, citing his family. Le Pen, who had been in a care facility for several weeks, died Tuesday "surrounded by his loved ones," the family said in a statement.
Seoul — North Korea on Monday test fired a ballistic missile as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited South Korea, where he warned that Pyongyang was working ever closer with Russia on advanced space technology. Blinken also said that while he believed a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas would end the war in Gaza, it may not happen until after President Biden's term, under returning President-elect Donald Trump.