
-
New Bruce Springsteen music set for June 27 release
-
Tom Cruise pays tribute to Val Kilmer
-
Mexico president welcomes being left off Trump's tariffs list
-
Zuckerberg repeats Trump visits in bid to settle antitrust case
-
US fencer disqualified for not facing transgender rival
-
'Everyone worried' by Trump tariffs in France's champagne region
-
Italy's Brignone suffers broken leg with Winter Olympics looming
-
Iyer blitz powers Kolkata to big IPL win over Hyderabad
-
Russian soprano Netrebko to return to London's Royal Opera House
-
French creche worker gets 25 years for killing baby with drain cleaner
-
UK avoids worst US tariffs post-Brexit, but no celebrations
-
Canada imposing 25% tariff on some US auto imports
-
Ruud wants 'fair share' of Grand Slam revenue for players
-
Lesotho, Africa's 'kingdom in the sky' jolted by Trump
-
Trump's trade math baffles economists
-
Gaza heritage and destruction on display in Paris
-
'Unprecedented crisis' in Africa healthcare: report
-
Pogacar gunning for blood and thunder in Tour of Flanders
-
Macron calls for suspension of investment in US until tariffs clarified
-
Wall St leads rout as world reels from Trump tariffs
-
Mullins gets perfect National boost with remarkable four-timer
-
Trump tariffs hammer global stocks, dollar and oil
-
Authors hold London protest against Meta for 'stealing' work to train AI
-
Tate Modern gifted 'extraordinary' work by US artist Joan Mitchell
-
Mexico president welcomes being left off Trump's new tariffs list
-
Tonali eager to lead Newcastle back into Champions League
-
Lesotho hardest hit as new US tariffs rattle Africa
-
Stellantis pausing some Canada, Mexico production over Trump auto tariffs
-
Rising odds asteroid that briefly threatened Earth will hit Moon
-
Italy reels from Brignone broken leg with Winter Olympics looming
-
Is the Switch 2 worth the price? Reviews are mixed
-
Ancelotti’s tax trial wraps up in Spain with prosecutors seeking jail
-
Civilians act to bring aid to Myanmar earthquake victims
-
US trade gap narrows in February ahead of bulk of Trump tariffs
-
Stocks, dollar and oil sink as gold hits high on Trump tariffs
-
Countries eye trade talks as Trump tariff blitz roils markets
-
Arsenal defender Gabriel out for rest of the season
-
Trump says US to emerge 'stronger' as markets tumble over tariffs
-
Wiegman says Belgium games can aid England's women's Euros title defence
-
Prosecutors demand jail term for Ancelotti for tax fraud
-
Syria accuses Israel of deadly destabilisation campaign
-
Skiing World Cup champion Brignone suffers broken leg
-
Iconic Paris hotel Lutetia taken over by Mandarin Oriental
-
Nepal capital chokes as wildfires rage
-
AI could impact 40 percent of jobs worldwide: UN
-
'Shocking': US tariffs worse than feared for Vietnamese exporters
-
Liverpool's Slot happy to let Premier League title bid take its course
-
USA sole bidder for 2031 Women's World Cup, UK set to host in 2035
-
Tesla sales fall again in Germany amid Musk backlash
-
Italy's skiing champion Brignone air-lifted to hospital after crash
RBGPF | -0.41% | 67.72 | $ | |
CMSC | -0.81% | 22.32 | $ | |
SCS | -5.23% | 10.89 | $ | |
BCE | 2.96% | 22.485 | $ | |
JRI | -1.48% | 12.85 | $ | |
RIO | -2.08% | 58.68 | $ | |
RYCEF | 0.2% | 9.8 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.79% | 22.65 | $ | |
NGG | 5.5% | 69.605 | $ | |
BCC | -7.58% | 94.88 | $ | |
RELX | 1.01% | 51.5 | $ | |
VOD | 2.77% | 9.38 | $ | |
GSK | 3.5% | 39.005 | $ | |
AZN | 2.68% | 74.205 | $ | |
BP | -7.25% | 31.525 | $ | |
BTI | 4.18% | 42.005 | $ |

Belgium struggles with spread of 'invasive' raccoons
Belgian forest ranger Thierry Petit can barely keep pace with call outs to deal with raccoons, a North American species branded an invasive threat to Europe's indigenous wildlife.
Authorities admit it is too late for any cull to eradicate the entire population of more than 50,000 that has made its home in the forested hills of southern Belgium.
So Belgium may just have to live with the new arrivals, while battling to control their numbers and protect vulnerable local fauna from being eaten or catching diseases.
"We can't now respond to all the requests," says Petit, a ranger in the Barriere Mathieu woods, near Tenneville.
"We can't come out if it's just someone reporting raccoons in their garden. We'll reduce the population where it poses a threat to the Black Stork or the Sand Martin -- or where we can really protect a habitat."
Native to the North America, where the agile omnivore has adapted to suburban life and earned the dubious nickname "Trash Panda", raccoons invaded Belgium in an east-west pincer movement.
One group spread from Germany where they had been introduced from the Americas in the 1930s under Nazi rule as a game animal for hunters and as a source of fur.
Another population arrived from France, where they had established a population in the 1960s around a US airbase in the Aisne region after American airmen released animals brought over as mascots.
"From around 2005, we started finding tracks alongside waterways and dead racoons as roadkill, suggesting a growing population," said biologist Vinciane Schockert.
"They have also benefited from a series of mild winters," she added.
Schockert is part of a team measuring the effect on the local species of the new arrival, which is a good climber and a cunning forager, notably entering human homes through cat flaps.
The tawny owl is at risk, along with the white-throated dipper, whose riverside nests are low to the ground and an easy target for egg-loving raccoons.
Authorities in Wallonia, French-speaking southern Belgium, have launched a plan of action.
"It's a cute looking beast," admits Celine Tellier, Wallon environment minister.
"Unfortunately invasive exotic species ... are one of the five main causes of degradation of biodiversity around the world," she told AFP.
"Today the species is so widespread in our territory that we must learn to live with it, but at the same time learn to manage it in the places where it poses the most problems and avoid multiplying its spread."
- Trapped then shot -
Her advice for local communities: Don't feed raccoons and protect your home from break-ins at night.
What about just killing them? The Green minister is hesitant. When it's necessary to "destroy certain individual racoons" it must be done in the most "ethical" way possible.
Tellier's government is in talks with the main Wallon animal rights group about culling methods.
Hunters like 18-year-old Simon Taviet, a student of agriculture and the environment with a hunting rifle on his shoulder, already have their own technique.
Walking up to his cage trap in the woods near Ciney last week, he found a trapped raccoon. The prisoner was quickly dispatched.
"We limit the number because of they can spread disease and damage some crops," he told AFP. He himself has been bitten by a raccoon that got into a fight with his dog, during a hunt.
Benoit Petit, president of Belgium's biggest hunters' association the Royal Saint-Hubert Club, says Wallonia should organise a full-scale trap and cull operation to avoid landowners taking matters into their own hands.
"If a citizen is fed up with them, he'll trap them," he reasons. "And what comes after that, if he hasn't got a firearm or he doesn't want to pay a vet for a lethal injection?
"We need to limit both the demographic explosion and the geographical spread."
P.Costa--AMWN