A city in the US state of Texas is appealing to the public to help solve a mystery that took place at a zoo last month.

A strange image was captured at the Amarillo Zoo early May 21 outside of the fence of the facility.

"Was it a person with a strange hat who likes to walk at night? A large coyote on its hind legs? A Chupacabra? It is a mystery – for Amarillo to help solve," authorities said on their website.

They said the strange visitor is for now an Unidentified Amarillo Object, or UAO.

"Perhaps Amarillo has a better explanation. In the spirit of fun if not curiosity, the City of Amarillo is letting the public offer ideas on the identity of the UAO," they said.

"It is important to note that this entity was outside the Amarillo Zoo. There were no signs of attempted entry into the zoo. No animals or individuals were harmed. There were no signs of criminal activity or vandalism," said City of Amarillo Director of Parks and Recreation Michael Kashuba.

“It is definitely a strange and interesting image. Maybe Amarillo can help solve the mystery of our UAO," he added./agencies

A death-row inmate was executed by lethal injection in the US state of Arizona for killing a girl in 1984, according to a report Wednesday.

Frank Jarvis Atwood, 66, was convicted of kidnapping and murdering 8-year-old Vicki Lynne Hoskinson.

The Arizona Republic newspaper reported that the execution took place at 10.16 a.m. local time at the Arizona State Prison in Florence.

The execution, the second since 2014, came hours later the US Supreme Court rejected Atwood's request for a stay of execution.

Atwood challenged his convictions and sentence, exhausting all of his appeals by 2018, according to the newspaper.

The slain girl's remains were found in the desert northwest of Tucson nearly seven months after her disappearance, Fox10 television station reported. The cause of the death remains unknown.

Lethal injection became Arizona's primary method of execution in November 1992./aa

At least 21 people were killed and several others injured after a passenger train derailed in eastern Iran early on Wednesday, local officials said.

The train was heading from Mashhad in northeastern Iran to the central city of Yazd when it derailed from the track near Tabas, a city in eastern Iran, 550 kilometers (341 miles) southeast of the capital Tehran.

Iranian railway's public relations division issued a statement, saying the train collided with an excavator on the railroad at around 5.30 a.m. local time (0100GMT).

Authorities initially put the death toll at 10, which later jumped to 17, and yet reached 21 as search and rescue operation continued at the scene.

A total of 47 injured people were transferred to the hospital, said the Yazd emergency service.

According to the South Khorasan Governorate, eight out of 11 wagons derailed, and three wagons overturned in the incident. The rescue work concluded.

The train was carrying 348 passengers, it said.

Earlier, the emergency officials said the casualties are likely to rise as many passengers were admitted to the hospital with critical injuries.

Tabas Governor Ali Akbar Rahimi told local media that four wagons of the train had moved off the track after hitting the excavator.

Local media quoted survivors as saying that the train was moving normally when the driver suddenly pushed the break, which threw passengers off balance.

President Ebrahim Reisi, in an emergency Cabinet meeting, expressed condolences to the families of victims and ordered a probe into the cause of the crash, his office said.

Roads and Urban Development Minister Rastom Ghasemi tweeted that his ministry takes responsibility for the tragic incident and said he was on his way to the accident site in Tabas.

Iran, hit hard by sanctions, has in recent years tried to modernize its aging railway fleet by adding new or renovated trains to the national railway network.

Among the worst train accidents in the county was a 2004 crash when a train loaded with petrol, fertilizers and cotton crashed near the northeastern city of Neyshabur, killing at least 320 people.

More recently, in September 2019, a train derailment in the Sistan and Baluchestan province in southeast Iran killed three people and injured dozens of others.

Iran is yet to recover from the shock of a building collapse in southwestern Abadan city last month, which has so far killed 43 people.

Türkiye expressed "great sorrow" over the loss of lives due to the train crash.

"We wish Allah's mercy upon those who lost their lives, extend our condolences first and foremost to the relatives of the deceased as well as to the friendly and neighborly people and the Government of Iran, and wish a speedy recovery to the injured," the Foreign Ministry said./aa

The YPG/PKK terrorists in northern Syria's Manbij region which they have occupied have been seen in possession of US-made anti-tank TOW missiles, with their barrels aimed at Türkiye's Operation Euphrates Shield area.

According to the photos and videos obtained by Anadolu Agency, terrorists were seen observing the area towards Jarablus, which is controlled by the Turkish Armed Forces and the Syrian National Army.

Among some Russian- and US-made weapons, one of the YPG/PKK terrorists was spotted with the TOW missile, known as the most effective weapon against armored vehicles.

TOW, a US-made anti-tank missile, can be effective against armored vehicles on land in harsh environments or conditions.

The YPG/PKK terror group often mounts attacks on Jarabulus, Afrin, and Azaz from the Manbij and Tal Rifat areas in Syria.

The YPG/PKK terrorists often target Turkish security forces who provide security in the areas of Operation Euphrates Shield, Olive Branch, and Peace Spring, and try to infiltrate the positions of Syrian opposition fighters from regions that the terror group was supposed to withdraw from under the agreements with the US and Russia.

Since 2016, Ankara has launched a trio of successful anti-terror operations across its border in northern Syria to prevent the formation of a terror corridor and enable the peaceful settlement of residents: Euphrates Shield (2016), Olive Branch (2018), and Peace Spring (2019).

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the US, and EU – has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. The YPG is the PKK’s Syrian offshoot./aa

A magnitude 8.4 earthquake hit the Lake Baikal area near Russia's Irkutsk city, the administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, the Emergency Ministry said on Wednesday.

The magnitude of the quake at the epicenter was 8.4, while in Irkutsk it felt much weaker and was recorded at 5 on the Richter scale.

Lake Baikal is an ancient and massive lake in the mountainous Russian region of Siberia, north of the Mongolian border.

Rescue services began a search operation for possible destruction or casualties./aa

International Energy Agency (IEA) head said the world is going through the first global energy crisis but despite the challenges, the crisis may well be a turning point in energy policy making for the next years with the energy efficiency at the heart of policies.

Fatih Birol's remarks came at the opening session of the IEA's 7th Annual Global Conference on Energy Efficiency in Sonderborg, Denmark.

The conference is jointly organized by the IEA and Denmark's Climate, Energy, and Utilities Ministry with the support of the Danish engineering company Danfoss.

Reminding the developments after the 1970s oil crisis when the efficiency of the cars was improved to a great extent, Birol noted that this crisis may be another reason for accelerated action on energy efficiency.

The IEA announced two different 10-point plans with recommendations to cut oil and gas use for reducing the EU's reliance on Russian fossil fuel imports.

If European consumers reduce their average heating consumption by two degrees Celsius, it could save 20 billion cubic meters (706 billion cubic feet) of natural gas a year -- the amount coming from Russia via the Nord Stream I, Birol noted.

There could be difficulties in the upcoming winter on the supply side, so the demand-side measures to reduce consumption are of critical importance to fight the challenges, he added.

Birol also warned against a potential rise in oil demand during the summer months, when many oil products may well be experiencing tightness of supply.

So, measures should be taken to reduce the demand for oil products, he said.

"There are things that are in our hands. And these are some immediate responses to the crisis but there can be some structural ones.

"Our new analysis shows very clearly that without new technologies -- and if the countries perform the best practices -- energy efficiency measures will save energy equal to the entire energy consumption of China," he noted.

"I do not know any other solution than energy efficiency that can simultaneously address our economic crisis, energy crisis, and climate crisis problems simultaneously."

Without energy efficiency, reducing reliance on Russia impossible

European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson reminded the EU's REPowerEU plan which includes three pillars -- diversification of energy supplies, an accelerated rollout of renewables, and saving energy both through short-term energy-saving measures and long-term structured improvements.

"No matter how hard we work, we have renewable deployment and alternative energy supplies to get rid of dependence on Russian imports this decade and (even) earlier. It will be impossible without saving energy," she noted.

The plan focuses on achieving immediate energy savings through behavioral changes which could cut gas and oil demand, Simson added.

She stressed that the developed countries need to lead the way in energy savings by avoiding resource-intensive solutions./aa

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Tuesday revised up its 2022 forecast for global crude oil prices on the back of “heightened levels of uncertainty” resulting from a variety of factors, including Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In the June Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), the EIA revised up the price of Brent crude to an average of $107.37 per barrel and American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) to $102.47 a barrel in 2022. These figures were 103.35 and 98,20, respectively, in the last month's report.

In 2023, the agency predicts that Brent will decline to $ 97.24 per barrel, while WTI will fall to $ 93.24 a barrel.

However, the EIA cautioned that the price forecast is 'highly uncertain,' driven by a range of factors including how sanctions affect Russia’s oil production, the production decisions of OPEC+, and the rate at which U.S. oil and natural gas producers increase drilling.

The agency pointed to some other key uncertainties expected to affect prices including the impact and pace of sanctions on Russia, potential new sanctions, pace of petroleum demand growth through the summer and the potential for demand destruction because of high retail fuel prices.

According to the statistic agency, the ongoing impact of the coordinated release of petroleum supplies from strategic reserves in the US and in Europe, geopolitical uncertainties in Libya and Yemen along with potential new developments on an Iran deal will also be important for oil price formation in the coming months.

The agency forecast that Russia’s production of total liquid fuels will decline from 11.3 million barrels per day (bpd) in the first quarter of 2022 to 9.3 million bpd untill the end of next year.

Noting that the EU crude oil import ban will be imposed in six months and the petroleum product import ban in eight months, the agency said the possibility that these sanctions or other potential future sanctions reduce Russia’s oil production by more than expected “creates upward risks for crude oil prices during the forecast period.”

-US crude oil production increases

The agency forecast that global oil demand will grow by 2.3 million bpd in 2022 reaching 99.6 million bpd and 101.3 million bpd in 2023.

Crude oil output in the US is forecast to average 11.92 million bpd in 2022, up from 11.2 million bpd in 2021.

In 2023, crude oil output in the country is expected to reach 12.97 million bpd.

The agency forecast that OPEC crude oil production will average 28.8 million bpd in 2022, up 2.52 million bpd from 2021, and 29.45 million bpd in 2023./aa

India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has reportedly asked its top officials to be "extremely cautious" when speaking about religion on public platforms.

The ruling party instructed its officials after an international outcry over remarks against Prophet Mohammed by two of its officials.

A Muslim BJP leader, requesting anonymity, told Anadolu Agency: "No specific instructions have been issued, but we were asked to present our views on developmental issues rather than commenting on religion."

Another party spokesman refused to speak anything on this.

Meanwhile, a media report has also said that the party has identified 38 officials who usually had the habit of making controversial statements. They have been asked to take party permission before commenting on religious issues, said the report in local Hindi newspaper Dainik Bhaskar.

On Sunday, the party had suspended spokeswoman Nupur Sharma in response to insulting remarks she made against Prophet Muhammad.

Sharma had made insulting remarks against the Prophet in a TV debate, triggering a wave of condemnation at home and from the Islamic world.

Another BJP spokesman Naveen Kumar Jindal was expelled from the party over comments he made about Islam on social media.

In a statement issued before they were sacked, the party had said, "The BJP strongly denounces insult of any religious personalities of any religion. The Bharatiya Janata Party is also against any ideology which insults or demeans any sect or religion."

More than a dozen countries -- as well as international organizations -- condemned the controversial remarks.

Meanwhile, police in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur arrested BJP youth wing leader Harshit Srivastava for a derogatory remark he made about Prophet Muhammad amid violence in the city Friday.

Srivastava has been booked for promoting enmity between different groups on the grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, and deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.

“Anyone trying to disturb peace and harmony would be dealt with sternly,” Joint Commissioner Anand Prakash Tiwari said in a statement on Twitter.​​​​​​​/aa