The government has turned to sharpshooter Nawab Shafat Ali Khan ahead of World Elephant Day on Saturday to hunt the animal who crushed four victims in the eastern state of Bihar in March before crossing into neighbouring Jharkhand and killing 11 more.

Jharkhand’s chief forest and wildlife conservator L.R. Singh said the decision to kill the animal was made after a team failed to tranquilise and capture the elephant during a week-long mission.

Singh blamed the rocky terrain and thick vegetation in Sahibganj district. “The visibility is only 15 feet and it’s become next to impossible to tranquilise the animal,” Singh told AFP.

“It has already killed so many people. There have been two deaths just in the last four days.

“Despite all the efforts by the forest department and our teams working 24-7, we had no option but to order the shooting of the animal,” he added.

The marauding elephant, believed to have lost its way after becoming separated from its herd, has strayed into villages in hillier parts of Sahibganj.

The area is inhabited by the Paharia tribe, one of the poorest indigenous tribal communities in India.

Of the 11 deaths in the state, nine of the victims were Paharias, Singh said.

Khan has been flown in from the southern city of Hyderabad to kill the prey.

“He is one of the best out there. He has vast experience in shooting such rogue animals and that’s why he has been given the responsibility to shoot the elephant,” he said.

“We expect him to get the animal anytime now — today, tonight, tomorrow — anytime.”

In 2014, Khan was licensed by the northern state of Uttar Pradesh to capture or kill a man-eating tiger that was believed to have killed eight people.

Elephants kill roughly 60 people every year in forested Jharkhand, Singh said. An estimated 1,100 people died across India from elephant or tiger attacks in the three years to May.

The environment ministry estimates a human dies every day in India in clashes with endangered animals — the vast majority crushed by elephants.

Violent encounters between elephants and humans were an “increasing trend”, said Singh, as vast swathes of forest are cleared for human settlements and industry.

The Aba prefecture emergency response office said in a statement that the bodies were found inside a bus in a river valley in Zhangzha. It did not give more details about what had happened to the vehicle.

The statement said at least 493 were injured in Tuesday’s 6.5-magnitude earthquake, which struck Jiuzhaigou, a popular tourist destination with a national park, forested mountains and over 140 lakes that has been recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

More than 70,000 people have been evacuated from quake-hit towns and villages, state media reported.

The tremor evoked memories of a devastating 8.0-magnitude earthquake in the region in 2008 that left 87,000 people dead or missing.

The El Prat airport, Spain’s second busiest after Madrid, has been hit by a partial work stoppage at baggage control since Friday last week, as guards complain about their workload, staffing levels and salaries.

The 360 employees, contracted by multinational firm Eulen, have stopped work for four hours on specific days.

But after negotiations with their company and a government mediator broke down — with workers rejecting an 18 per cent salary rise — they will launch into a full-time strike from Monday.

Public Works Minister Inigo de la Serna told reporters that as a result the government had decided to call in the Guardia Civil police force to help out.

The Eulen employees are required by law to ensure at least 90-per cent service during their strike, and the police officers will assist them in implementing full-body and luggage checks, he said.

“No one can forget the terrorism alert level we have,” he said, adding the measures were taken “to avoid any problem of this kind from happening.”

Spain is currently on a level four terror alert out of a maximum of five.

Passenger traffic at El Prat rose by more than 60 per cent from 2009 to 2016.

The airport has become a European hub for low-cost airlines lured by the Mediterranean city’s attraction as a tourist destination.

Pyongyang’s threats to launch four missile strikes near the US territory has stirred global curiosity in the remote Pacific destination, with it trending heavily on search engines as social media users wondered, “what is Guam?”

Although Guam hosts two US military installations and 6,000 US soldiers, making it the target of North Korea’s wrath, tourism authorities are keen to dispel any impression of danger to the tranquil island and its secluded beaches.

“The circumstance are unfortunate but this is a good opportunity for us to educate the world about Guam and our culture, about where we are, and who we are,” said Josh Tyquiengco, marketing director at Guam Visitors Bureau, the official agency for the island.

“Guam is more than a military base. We are a safe family destination. We reassure potential visitors that we continue to be a safe… place to visit,” Tyquiengco told AFP Friday.

Despite North Korea’s threats to prepare plans within days that would surround Guam with “enveloping fire”, fears of a potential attack have not deterred tourists from visiting Guam, he said.

“We heard about a few booking cancellations from South Korea, but it’s too minimal to affect the industry,” he said.

As aircraft after aircraft — packed with tourists — landed Friday at Guam’s international airport, the latest visitors to the island appeared untroubled by the prospect of missile strikes.

Sun Doojin, who arrived with her husband and two-year-old daughter on a flight from Seoul, responded with an emphatic “no” when asked if she was concerned about an attack during her visit.

The Guam Daily Post, in an editorial, said the spotlight on the territory offered an opportunity to show the world why an island of 162,000 people draws more than 1.5 million tourists a year.

“The beach waters are crystal clear, beaches aren’t overrun, and nature hiking trails are very accessible.

“The different cultures that are showcased on the island through food, make Guam a hidden gem, a tropical vacation getaway but with the amenities and comforts of some of the small cities stateside.”

Guam’s history of earthquakes and typhoons mean its infrastructure is built to robust standards and authorities insist that the island is prepared for any emergency, including a North Korean strike.

Homeland Security spokeswoman Jenna Gaminde told the Guam Daily News that in the event of an attack, residents would be immediately notified by sirens from the All-Hazards Alert Warning System located throughout the island.

“If you hear the sirens, tune into local media — radio, print, television — for further instructions,” she said.

Pyongyang has said it would take less than 18 minutes for a missile to cross the 3,400-kilometre (2,100 miles) distance to the US territory.

In addition to the US military bases, Guam is also equipped with the sophisticated THAAD weapons system which is capable of destroying intermediate-range missiles in the final phase of flight.

Officials, however, have sought to brush off fears and say there has been no change in the threat level for now.

“I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. No missile is going to land on Guam,” said Carl Peterson, who serves on the Guam Chamber of Commerce’s armed forces committee.

“We’ve got defence mechanisms in place… they have the ability to seek out the missiles with kinetic energy and destroy it.”

The Republican billionaire dismissed any criticism of his “fire and fury” warning, saying it possibly “wasn’t tough enough,” given threats made by the regime of Kim Jong-Un to both Washington and its allies.

Trump also said China, Pyongyang’s main diplomatic ally, could “do a lot more” to pressure Kim to end his country’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

Trump’s comments, made from his golf club retreat in New Jersey, came after the North announced a detailed plan to send four missiles over Japan and towards Guam, where some 6,000 US soldiers are based.

Pyongyang said the scheme to target the island, a key US military outpost in the western Pacific, was intended to “signal a crucial warning” as “only absolute force” would have an effect on a US leader “bereft of reason.”

Trump fired back with gusto.

“If North Korea does anything in terms of even thinking about an attack on anybody we love or we represent or our allies or us, they can be very, very nervous,” he told reporters, with Vice President Mike Pence at his side.

“And they should be… because things will happen to them like they never thought possible.”

‘Better get their act together’

Relations between Washington and Pyongyang have been tense for months, in the wake of the North’s repeated missile tests, including two successful intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test launches in July.

Those launches put the US mainland in range. Some experts believe the second missile could potentially reach New York.

The escalating saber-rattling took an unexpected turn Tuesday when Trump seemed to borrow from the North’s arsenal of rhetoric, saying it faced “fire and fury like the world has never seen” if it continued to threaten the US.

That prompted a defiant Pyongyang to threaten a missile attack on Guam.

The war of words has set off diplomatic alarm bells, and raised fears of a miscalculation that could lead to catastrophic consequences on the Korean peninsula and beyond.

The region is facing “a mini Cuban missile crisis,” John Delury, a professor at Seoul’s Yonsei University, told AFP.

Trump dismissed the notion that his administration was delivering mixed messages and said Washington remained open to negotiations.

But he once again suggested that he expected China to “do a lot more” to bring North Korea into line.

“I will tell you this, North Korea better get their act together or they’re going to be in trouble like few nations have ever been in trouble in this world, okay?” he added.

The United Nations imposed a seventh set of sanctions on Pyongyang at the weekend that could cost North Korea $1 billion a year, with even China voting for the US-drafted proposal.

The European Union announced Thursday that it was expanding its North Korean sanctions blacklist.

Unusual detail

In North Korea, General Kim Rak-Gyom, the commander of the North’s missile forces, dismissed Trump’s “fire and fury” remarks as “a load of nonsense,” according to Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency.

“Sound dialogue is not possible with such a guy bereft of reason,” he added.

The military was expected to finalize its Guam plan by mid-August and submit it to Kim for consideration, he said.

The unusually precise statement said the four missiles would be launched simultaneously and overfly the Japanese prefectures of Shimane, Hiroshima and Kochi.

They would have a flight time of 17 minutes 45 seconds, travel 3,356.7 kilometers (around 2,086 miles) and come down 30 to 40 kilometers away from Guam, it said — just outside US territorial waters.

Japan, which has in the past warned it would shoot down any North Korean missiles that threaten its territory, responded that it could “never tolerate” provocations from the reclusive state.

Professor Yang Moo-Jin of Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies said the level of detail in Pyongyang’s statement was unusual.

“The North appears to be saying what it is going to do is within international laws,” he told AFP.

“Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that the North may translate this plan into reality.”

‘Life and death’

Analysts said a North Korean launch towards Guam would put the US in a dilemma: if it did not try to intercept the missiles, its credibility would be damaged and the North would feel emboldened to carry out a full-range ICBM test.

But if an intercept were attempted and failed in any way, it would undermine the effectiveness of the United States’ ballistic missile defense system.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula tend to increase when Seoul and Washington launch major military joint exercises, and the next, Ulchi Freedom Guardian, is set to kick off around August 21.

“Pyongyang’s interpretation of rhetoric from Washington is different from the way the West regards the North’s habitual threats,” said Hong Hyun-Ik, a senior researcher with the Sejong Institute.

“It views such fiery rhetoric from Trump as a matter of life and death.”

Thousands of North Koreans marched through central Pyongyang Wednesday, waving clenched fists, as authorities put on a show of support for their stance.

One banner proclaimed: “10 million hearts burn with vows to defend the fatherland until death.”

Speaking at an event in California, Mattis said his mission and responsibility was to have military options ready “should they be needed” but stressed the US effort is currently focused on diplomacy.

“The American effort is diplomatically led, it has diplomatic traction, it is gaining diplomatic results and I want to stay right there right now,” Mattis said at an event in California.

“The tragedy of war is well-enough known it doesn’t need another characterization beyond the fact that it would be catastrophic,” he added.

Mattis’s comments came shortly after President Donald Trump warned North Korea it should be “very, very nervous” if it thinks of attacking America, and doubled down on a vow to rain “fire and fury” on Pyongyang if it continued to threaten the US.

Mattis did not elaborate on the diplomatic results he referenced, but the UN Security Council at the weekend passed a new set of sanctions against Pyongyang over its weapons program, including bans on the export of coal, iron and iron ore, lead and lead ore as well as fish and seafood.

In a diplomatic win for the United States, the measures were approved unanimously — including by Russia and China, the North’s sole major ally.

The Pentagon chief on Wednesday issued a carefully worded statement telling North Korea it would be “grossly” outmatched in any conflict with the US, and warning Pyongyang to stop considering any action that risked “the destruction of its people.”

AFP journalists in Jiuzhaigou, a popular tourist destination near the epicentre of Tuesday night’s 6.5-magnitude quake, saw dozens of relief and military trucks rolling through the remote corner of Sichuan province.

Locals took refuge in blue relief tents in several makeshift camps or out on streets in towns as more than a thousand aftershocks jolted the region and landslides kept nerves on edge.

Jiuzhaigou is an area populated largely by ethnic Tibetans and Qiang people. Its scenic landscape is popular with mainly Chinese tourists who flock to its national park, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Nearly 60,000 people — around half of which were tourists — were evacuated from quake-hit towns and villages Wednesday.

Authorities were seeking to help more victims Thursday, with the Sichuan provincial fire department saying 16 tourists were stranded in a picturesque spot called Panda Sea.

More than 500 medical staff have been dispatched to the disaster zone, provincial official Qumushiha said at a press conference Thursday evening.

Authorities have said thousands of response personnel were sent into the area, as rescue workers search for at least four people still missing.

Yang Yongzhi was among a search team in red jumpsuits and hardhats who were forced by landslides to turn back Wednesday night after trying to press into cut-off valleys.

“We’re responsible for finding if there are still people trapped over there. We’re the first to go check,” Yang said as the team prepared to make another attempt at reaching the isolated area.

The tremor evoked memories of a devastating 8.0-magnitude earthquake in the region in 2008 that left 87,000 people dead or missing, but the impact of Tuesday’s disaster was comparatively light.

Authorities brought the death toll up to 20 on Thursday afternoon, with 431 injured, 34 seriously. A Frenchman and a Canadian woman were among those hurt.

– ‘All-out efforts’ –

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The quake tore cracks in mountain highways and AFP journalists saw cars that had been smashed by giant falling boulders.

Some buildings in towns bore cracks, but few structures appeared to have sustained heavy damage.

One Jiuzhaigou hotel partially collapsed, however, and the body of a woman was pulled out of the rubble Thursday morning, provincial fire authorities said.

It was not known if others were still buried.

So far, 200 million yuan ($30 million) in government relief funds has been allocated for quake relief, according to authorities.

The government of Aba prefecture, where Jiuzhaigou is located, issued an appeal for donations.

Authorities said 1,680 private homes across Jiuzhaigou’s 17 townships suffered varying degrees of damage.

The local government said it had repaired 129 telecommunication towers or other installations that were damaged by the quake, restoring communications with much of the affected area.

President Xi Jinping had called earlier for “all-out efforts to rapidly organise relief work and rescue the injured” in the Sichuan quake.

Fighting between the ex-rebels of the Coordination of Movements of Azawad (CMA) and the pro-government Platform group has worsened in recent weeks in northern Mali, in repeated violation of a 2015 ceasefire.

The CMA said in late July it was holding dozens of prisoners in Kidal, a city it controls, after dismantling a base of the GATIA militia — part of Platform — and killing several of its fighters.

But Guillaume Ngefa, director of the human rights division of the UN mission to Mali, said Thursday that eight of those being held were children and possibly child soldiers.

And he detailed what he said were human rights abuses perpetuated by both sides.

“We were able to establish that the armed groups had minors in their ranks,” Ngefa said in a statement.

“What is extremely concerning is that among the 33 people currently held prisoner by the CMA in Kidal, eight are children.”

United Nations investigators had carried out seven different missions to the north and discovered evidence of mass graves and rampant rights abuses, he added.

These included “summary executions, kidnappings and torture, destruction of property and theft,” he said, elaborating on Saturday’s statement of the discovery of the mass graves.

The number of bodies and the cause of death of those buried remains unknown.

Ngefa also raised the possibility of compensation for the victims of the abuses. The UN would support families wishing to lodge legal cases against the perpetrators, while continuing to investigate 33 outstanding complaints, he said.

The US State Department said on July 31 it was “greatly disturbed at reports of reprisal killings of civilians and the discovery of unmarked grave sites…”

If the allegations proved founded, it added, “the perpetrators must be brought to justice”.

The conflict dates back to 2012, when key cities in northern Mali fell under the control of jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda, who exploited an ethnic Tuareg-led rebel uprising.

The armed groups accused of abuses by the UN operate in areas where Mali’s army is absent or has a very limited presence.

Although the Islamists were largely ousted by a French-led military operation, attacks have continued on UN and French forces, civilians and the Malian army.

Allegations of collusion between the former rebels and jihadists continue to circulate.