ODDLY ENOUGH

ODDLY ENOUGH

Alibaba fires 4 accused of stealing mooncakes

BEIJING

Four employees at Chinese internet giant Alibaba have lost their jobs after being accused of reprogramming an internal system to steal more than 100 boxes of mooncakes, a traditional delicacy shared during the recent Mid-Autumn Festival.

State media reported Wednesday that Alibaba had offered a discount to employees for buying the circular treats, given during the festival that began Thursday.

They said the fired employees exploited loopholes in the software to obtain more than the allotted amount and pilfered a total of 124 boxes of cakes.

An Alibaba statement said the firings were “unfortunate, but we wish them a better future.” The employees were not identified.

Alibaba is the world’s largest e-commerce platform. Its initial public offering in 2014 was the largest in the New York Stock Exchange’s history.

Polar bears vs scientists: Russians get emergency supplies on Arctic island

MOSCOW

It’s been polar bears versus Russian scientists on a remote island in the Arctic.

A group of seven bears had besieged five researchers at a Russian weather station recently. Luckily for the scientists, a passing ship delivered flares and dogs to help ward off the beasts.

Vadim Plotnikov, chief of the station on Troynoy Island in the Kara Sea, said that the Russian vessel also deployed a helicopter Wednesday to chase away the bears, according to the Tass news agency.

The bears had grown increasingly aggressive in recent days, killing one of the station’s two dogs and smashing windows of the station’s depot. The desperate explorers had run out of flares and remained trapped inside.

Plotnikov said that one female polar bear was particularly persistent, overnighting under the station’s windows since the previous weekend.

Russian Natural Resources Minister Sergei Donskoi ordered officials to take quick steps to help the crew, and a research ship that happened to be in the area delivered the badly needed supplies. At the same time, Donskoi emphasized the need to spare the bears.

Polar bears, whose habitat has been threatened by climate change, are considered protected species, so researchers have to rely on flares to drive them away.

Associated Press