Runaway zebra recaptured in US' Tennessee County
A runaway zebra is airlifted by helicopter back to its owner following its capture after a week on the loose, in Rutherford County, Tennessee, US on June 8, 2025. PHOTO: REUTERS
RUTHERFORD COUNTY, Tennessee - The search for a runaway pet zebra that had evaded capture for nearly a week in Rutherford County, Tennessee, came to an end.
The Rutherford County Sheriff's Office, which had been searching for the animal that residents named Ed, said in a statement on June 8 that the zebra had been recaptured and returned to its owner.
In a video the sheriff's office posted on Facebook, the zebra's head and legs can be seen dangling from inside a net as it spun in the sky while being airlifted by a yellow helicopter.
Authorities said that the intrepid zebra was found in a pasture near Interstate 24.
The owner of the zebra – whose identity has not been released – got the animal May 30 and had it for less than a day before it escaped the next morning, the sheriff's office said in an earlier statement.
How the zebra escaped or why the man owned it was still not immediately clear, but dispatchers received a report May 31 that a zebra had been spotted darting in traffic on Interstate 24.
'This is the first zebra to escape in Rutherford County as far as I know in the 43 years I lived here,' Ms Lisa Marchesoni, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's office, said on June 8.
The zebra had escaped into a wooded area and disappeared until being spotted on June 5, authorities said.
On June 6, a police drone spotted the zebra dashing through a field near Christiana, a community about 40 miles (64km) south of Nashville.
Drivers on Interstate 24 also saw him scamper across east and westbound lanes on June 7, the sheriff's office said.
On the morning of June 8, deputies worked with the Tennessee Highway Patrol and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency to find the zebra, though it was not immediately clear how authorities captured it.
With several sightings of the zebra in the area, social media lit up with memes and images generated by artificial intelligence of the animal, including one that dressed him in a Middle Tennessee State University hat and T-shirt. NYTIMES
Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
42 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Ukrainian woman searches for husband lost in action two years ago
CHERNIHIV, Ukraine - When gaunt Ukrainian soldiers dismount from buses as part of prisoner swaps with Russia, Mariia Pylnyk tries to find out anything she can about her missing husband from the freed men, and hopes, just maybe, that he will be among them. Holding up a photograph of Dmytro Pylnyk, lost in action in early 2023, she has many questions. What happened to his unit when it was ambushed by Russian forces? Was he captured by Russia? Could he eventually be released? The mass prisoner swap last month was an opportunity for people like her to ask troops just out of Russian captivity about missing loved ones who they believe, or simply hope, are prisoners of war. The alternative is unthinkable. "I hold out great hope that someone has heard something, seen something," Pylnyk, 29, told Reuters at a recent exchange in May, flanked by other relatives of those missing in action. "My son and I are waiting for (his) dad to come home. Hope dies last. God willing, it'll all be okay and dad will come back." Precise numbers for soldiers missing in action are not made public. For Ukrainians, and for Russians on the other side of the conflict, it can be hard to find out even basic information. Pylnyk says she has written to government agencies and Russian authorities and learned almost nothing. Ukrainian officials say more than 70,000 Ukrainians have been registered missing since 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion. The majority are from the military but the figure also includes civilians. Another 12,000 have been removed from the list after being identified among the dead or returned in exchanges. Petro Yatsenko, a spokesman for the Coordination Council that arranges prisoner swaps from the Ukrainian side, said Russia had never notified Kyiv which soldiers it is holding prisoner. Ukraine collects that data by other means as best it can, he said. Pylnyk and others like her share information in online chat groups and use it to try to piece together what happened. "Misfortune brought us together," she said. "After two years of this, we're like a family." LAST PHONE CALL Dmytro Pylnyk, an electrician by trade, was drafted into the army in late 2022. He phoned home often so that his wife did not worry but last called on their son Artem's third birthday on Feb. 27, 2023. He was deployed from Kharkiv region towards Bakhmut, a small city that later fell to Russian forces after fierce fighting. His unit's convoy was caught in a Russian ambush, Mariia Pylnyk said she had learned. "The guys ran any which way," she said, citing conversations with commanders who told her 41 soldiers were missing in action. Two were captured and have since been released. One, who was freed in an exchange at Easter and had lost both his arms, was unable to share any valuable information, she said. The second refused to talk. The pace of prisoner swaps has increased in the last month. Ukraine and Russia each released 1,000 prisoners in a three-day exchange last month, the only tangible outcome of direct talks in Istanbul. A prisoner swap of under-25s on Monday was the first in a series of exchanges also expected to include each side repatriating the remains of thousands. Mariia Pylnyk has given her son's DNA to the authorities so that if Dmytro is confirmed killed in action they will be notified. "We all understand that this is war and anything is possible. But to this day, I don't believe it and I don't feel that he is dead. I feel like he's alive and God willing he'll return," she said. NO SIGNAL TO CALL She lives with Artem, now five, in Pakul, a village in the northern Chernihiv region that was briefly occupied by Russians. She has not told Artem his father is missing in action. "He knows that dad is a soldier, dad is a good man, dad is at work and just doesn't have any signal to call," she said. She takes comfort from seeing families reunited and never allows herself to cry in front of her son. She used to work in a shop, but Artem has often been ill. The angst of the last two years have taken their toll on her health too. She receives state support. Pylnyk has vowed to find her husband but has often not had time to attend prisoner swaps while looking after their son. "Only a weakling can give up, you know, throw up their hands and say that's it, he's not there," she said, adding that she was very emotional when she attended last month's big exchange. "When I was there, the fighting spirit awoke in me that I needed. I have to do this. Who else will do it but me?" REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
Fatal bus crash in Malaysia: ‘I'm sorry, the brakes stopped working' says driver
Mr Amirul, who has been driving buses since 2016, is currently being treated at Taiping Hospital. PHOTO: Fatal bus crash in Malaysia: 'I'm sorry, the brakes stopped working' says driver PETALING JAYA - Lying on a hospital bed, Mr Mohd Amirul Fadhil Zulkifle's voice cracked as he tearfully apologised. 'I'm so sorry to all the students and families involved. The brakes suddenly stopped working,' said the 39-year-old bus driver, according to Malay language daily Sinar Harian. His words carried the weight of the tragic deaths of 15 Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) students when the chartered bus he was driving from Jertih to Tanjung Malim overturned after colliding with a Perodua Alza on the East-West Highway near Tasik Banding, Gerik between 12.30am and 1am on June 9. The accident had also left 31 others injured, including Mr Amirul, his assistant, and the driver and three passengers of the MPV. Mr Amirul said he did not know how to face the victims' families. 'If there are parties who want to take legal action, what else can I say? I tried various things, but because the air (for the air brakes) was empty, everything stopped working, including the handbrake, and the gear couldn't be changed. 'I tried to avoid other vehicles, and as far as I can remember, I avoided four vehicles, including a lorry, before the accident,' he said. Mr Amirul, who is from Besut, Terengganu and has been driving buses since 2016, is currently being treated at Taiping Hospital. He said he had tried his best to prevent the situation from getting worse. 'Because the accident happened on a bend, I couldn't do anything,' he said, holding back tears. 'I shouted to the students to be ready and be alert as soon as I realised the brakes were not working. 'The students sitting at the front heard my instructions, but those in the back were mostly asleep. Maybe the screaming made them think I was angry. I wasn't going as fast as claimed by many because I am familiar with the Jeli-Gerik route, especially the downhill section where it happened.' He said the accident caused him to lose consciousness for a moment before waking back up and calling to the students to get out through the broken windshield of the bus. Mr Amirul, said he crawled out of the bus and broke down in tears when he saw the condition of the students. 'This is the first time I have been involved in an accident that has claimed a life, and as bus driver, of course, I feel guilty,' he added. THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
3 hours ago
- Straits Times
Frederick Forsyth, Day Of The Jackal author, dies at 86
British novelist Frederick Forsyth wrote the best-selling thriller The Day Of The Jackal in just 35 days. PHOTO: AFP LONDON – British novelist Frederick Forsyth, who authored best-selling thrillers such as The Day Of The Jackal and The Dogs Of War , has died aged 86, his publisher said. A former correspondent for Reuters and the BBC, and an informant for Britain's MI6 foreign spy agency, Forsyth made his name by using his experiences as a reporter in Paris to pen the story of a failed assassination plot on French president Charles de Gaulle. The Day Of The Jackal, in which an English assassin is hired by French paramilitaries angry at de Gaulle's withdrawal from Algeria, was published in 1971 after Forsyth found himself penniless in London. The 1973 film starred English actor Edward Fox. Written in just 35 days, the book was rejected by a host of publishers who worried that the story was flawed and would not sell as de Gaulle had not been assassinated. De Gaulle died in 1970 from a ruptured aorta. But Forsyth's hurricane-paced thriller – complete with journalistic-style detail and brutal sub-plots of lust, betrayal and murder – was an instant hit. The once-poor journalist became a wealthy writer of fiction. 'I never intended to be a writer at all,' Forsyth later wrote in his memoir, The Outsider: My Life In Intrigue. 'After all, writers are odd creatures, and if they try to make a living at it, even more so.' So influential was the novel that Venezuelan militant revolutionary Ilich Ramirez Sanchez was dubbed Carlos the Jackal. Forsyth presented himself as a cross between Ernest Hemingway and John le Carre – both action man and Cold War spy – but delighted in turning around the insult that he was a literary lightweight. 'I am lightweight but popular. My books sell,' he once said. His books, fantastical plots that almost rejoiced in the cynicism of an underworld of spies, criminals, hackers and killers, sold more than 75 million copies. Behind the swashbuckling bravado, though, there were hints of sadness. He later spoke of turning inwards to his imagination as a lonely only child during and after World War II. The isolated Forsyth discovered a talent for languages. He claimed to be a native French speaker by the age of 12 and a native German speaker by the age of 16, largely due to exchanges. He went to Tonbridge School, one of England's ancient fee-paying schools, and learnt Russian from two emigre Georgian princesses in Paris. He added Spanish by the age of 18. He also learnt to fly and did his national service in the Royal Air Force , where he flew fighters such as a single-seater version of the de Havilland Vampire . The reporter Impressing Reuters' editors with his languages and knowledge that Bujumbura was a city in Burundi, he was offered a job at the news agency in 1961 and sent to Paris and then East Berlin, where the Stasi secret police kept close tabs on him. He left Reuters for the BBC, but soon became disillusioned by its bureaucracy and what he saw as the corporation's failure to cover Nigeria properly due to the government's incompetent post-colonial views on Africa. It was in 1968 that Forsyth was approached by the Secret Intelligence Service, known as MI6, and asked by an officer named 'Ronnie' to inform on what was really going on in Biafra. By his own account, he would keep contacts with the MI6, which he called 'the Firm', for many years. His novels showed extensive knowledge of the world of spies and he even edited out bits of The Fourth Protocol (1984), he said, so that militants would not know how to detonate an atomic bomb. His writing was sometimes cruel, such as when the Jackal kills his lover after she discovers he is an assassin. 'He looked down at her, and for the first time she noticed that the grey flecks in his eyes had spread and clouded over the whole expression, which had become dead and lifeless like a machine staring down at her.' The writer After finally finding a publisher for The Day Of The Jackal, he was offered a three-novel contract by Harold Harris of Hutchinson. Next came The Odessa File in 1972, the story of a young German freelance journalist who tries to track down SS man Eduard Roschmann, or The Butcher of Riga. After that, The Dogs Of War in 1974 is about a group of white mercenaries hired by a British mining magnate to kill the mad dictator of an African republic – based on Equatorial Guinea's Francisco Macias Nguema – and replace him with a puppet. The New York Times said at the time that the novel was 'pitched at the level of a suburban Saturday night movie audience' and that it was 'informed with a kind of post-imperial condescension towards the black man'. Divorced from Ms Carole Cunningham in 1988, he married Ms Sandy Molloy in 1994. But he lost a fortune in an investment scam and had to write more novels to support himself. He had two sons – Stuart and Shane – with his first wife. His later novels variously cast hackers, Russians, al-Qaeda militants and cocaine smugglers against the forces of good – broadly Britain and the West. But they never quite reached the level of the Jackal. A supporter of the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union, Forsyth scolded Britain's elites for what he cast as their treachery and naivety. In columns for The Daily Express, he gave a host of withering assessments of the modern world from an intellectual right-wing perspective. The world, he said, worried too much about 'the oriental pandemic' (known to most as Covid-19), Mr Donald Trump was 'deranged', Mr Vladimir Putin 'a tyrant' and 'liberal luvvies of the West' were wrong on most things. He was, to the end, a reporter who wrote novels. 'In a world that increasingly obsesses over the gods of power, money and fame, a journalist and a writer must remain detached,' he wrote. 'It is our job to hold power to account.' REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
