Spend on lunch, not packaging There has been much debate about free school lunches. In an age when we are being asked to be more conscious of reducing waste, I am appalled at the amount of packaging used on these lunches….

A Bengal tiger last seen in a west Houston, USA neighbourhood last Sunday is still missing, according to police.

Investigators have fielded hundreds of calls in connection to the 9-month-old cat named India, police said.

But they still don't know where the tiger is.

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Where did this tiger come from?

It's not clear.

The man last seen in public with the tiger, Victor Hugo Cuevas, claimed the tiger was his, according to testimony from an off-duty deputy. But Mr Cuevas's attorney said that the tiger does not belong to his client; he has, however, cared for it occasionally in recent months.

Mr Cuevas, 26, released a video through his attorney of him playing with the tiger as if it were a dog in what looks like a dining and kitchen area.

Mr Cuevas was out of jail on bond for an unrelated murder charge in Fort Bend County and on a separate charge of evading arrest earlier this year in Austin County when he was spotted with the cat on Sunday.

He was arrested on Monday and charged with felony evading arrest, according to police.

He was released on bail by Wednesday afternoon. On Friday, the state argued Mr Cuevas violated bond conditions multiple times over the years, including on Sunday. A Fort Bend County judge revoked his bond on the 2017 murder charge, so Mr Cuevas is back behind bars.

Wes Manion, an off-duty deputy who lives in the neighbourhood where the tiger was seen with Mr Cuevas, testified that he had his weapon trained on the animal as he waited for police on Sunday.

Mr Manion said Mr Cuevas came out and pleaded with him not to kill the tiger, telling the deputy, "That is my tiger," before grabbing it by the collar, kissing it on the forehead and taking it in the house. Mr Manion added Mr Cuevas got into an SUV with the tiger and drove off, ignoring numerous commands to stop.

Mr Cuevas's lawyer said his client returned the cat to its owner on Sunday night, but didn't identify the person.

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The latest on the investigation

Police believe the tiger is still in Houston and that it has been in as many as eight different locations throughout the city during the past week.

While Texas law does allow ownership of a tiger with certain restrictions, it's a violation of Houston law. City rules require wild animals that are dangerous to humans to be kept in an accredited zoo or shelter.

Animal control officers are helping police with the investigation, according to Houston's animal shelter and adoption facility, BARC.

"In the event any such animals are found in Houston, Animal Control Officers will impound the animals and transport them to a secure location – either BARC, another shelter, or regional wildlife facility – to protect the safety of the public as well as the animals' health," a city spokeswoman said in a statement.

At least one sanctuary has offered to take India once he's found.

Carole Baskin weighs in

What would a modern tiger story be without a Carole Baskin cameo?

The founder of Big Cat Rescue and star of the Netflix series, "Tiger King," is offering a $5,000 reward to whoever safely hands over India to an accredited sanctuary and works with authorities to convict whoever was involved in the buying and selling of the tiger, she said in a video posted to her Instagram account.

Baskin told CNN this week that those in the neighbourhood near the tiger were in "extreme danger."

"Tigers are hardwired to roam hundreds of square miles, so there's no cage that's going to be sufficient for them," Ms Baskin said. "The only reason that people have tigers as pets is to try to show off to others."

Ms Baskin said the off-duty deputy did the right thing.

"He kept eye contact, he backed away slowly. A tiger, if you look down, if you turn, if that neighbour had run back to his door, that triggers their instinct to kill," she said.

A cold snap has swept across the Australian east coast this weekend, bringing with it icy sub-zero temperatures and even snow in some parts of the country.

Cold fronts have ushered in strong winds, showers, hail and highland snowfall to Tasmania, southern South Australia, Victoria, and southern New South Wales.

Residents in Canberra woke up this morning to temperatures as low as -4C, with Sydney dropping to just 9C before sunrise.

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https://twitter.com/BOM_NSW/status/1393069839531626496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Yesterday was the coldest day of the year so far for many parts of the country, including Melbourne, where the mercury only climbed to 12.8C at its peak.

The city was also lashed by a severe a hailstorm yesterday, prompting hundreds of calls for help from the SES.

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The Bureau of Meteorology's (BOM) Helen Kirkup said that in NSW, Perisher recorded temperatures a low as -9.4C, which is the coldest in May for 12 years.

"That's certainly the coldest temperature in NSW and likely the coldest part of the country overnight overall," she said.

"It's the coldest day in May that we have recorded in 12 years."

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Ms Kirkup said that temperatures are expected to remain cold and linger until at least Thursday, particularly in the Southern and Central Tablelands in NSW.

"We're looking at subzero temperatures over the ranges area at night time tonight, tomorrow and the following day, not really until Thursday will we see warmer temperatures," she said.

The BOM also currently has marine wind warnings in place for parts of Victoria, NSW and Tasmania today.

Across the country for the remainder of the week it's expected to remain cool, with showers forecast in Melbourne in the coming days, Adelaide chilly but mostly sunny, Sydney cold at night and fine during the day and warm above 20C temperatures in Queensland.

Maldives has banned tourists from South Asia, cutting off an escape route for wealthy Indians fleeing their own country's COVID-19 crisis.

The atoll nation's Ministry of Tourism and immigration authority announced the temporary ban on Tuesday, which applies to all visa holders from India, Nepal, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, as well as people who have transited those countries in the past 14 days.

The ban, effective Thursday, will be in place until further notice as Maldives tries to control a surge in coronavirus cases, which jumped from around 100 new cases in mid-April to 1,572 on Wednesday.

That's the highest number of daily new cases in the country since the start of the pandemic, according to the Health Protection Agency.

And it comes amid a rise in new cases across the region, particularly in India, where a second wave is killing thousands of people every day.

Maldives was one of the first countries to fully reopen to tourists last year, and in recent weeks it has become a popular refuge for wealthy Indians, including Bollywood stars, whose luxury vacation snaps provoked anger at home.

The travel ban doesn't apply to people already in the archipelago, but it will frustrate the plans of those who had hoped of a potential escape to Maldives.

Bollywood blowback

As India sank deeper into a Covid-19 crisis that began in mid-March, a number of Bollywood entertainers reportedly left the country.

Actresses including Alia Bhatt, Shraddha Kapoor, Disha Patani and Janhvi Kapoor were among those who traveled to Maldives, according to CNN affiliate CNN-News18.

They were not alone. This year, India has become the largest source of tourists to Maldives. From January to March, almost 70,000 Indians visited the country – double the number of Indian holidaymakers who traveled to the islands in the whole of 2020, according to the Ministry of Tourism.

The cost of flying to Maldives from India rose sharply in April, as countries began to impose travel bans to and from India.

Commercial flight prices rose more than fourfold as international restrictions limited travel options, said Rajan Mehra, CEO of Club One Air, an air charter company based in India.Some individuals paid more than $65,000 for a one-way ticket for a charter flight to Maldives in April, Mehra added.

In the early weeks of April, several Bollywood stars posted sunny beach photos and vacation shots on social media – angering the Indian public and film industry figures who accused them of flaunting their wealth at a difficult time for many poorer Indians.

"These entertainment celebrities (are) posting vacation pictures at a time when the world is reeling under the worst recession," said Bollywood actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, according to CNN-News18.

"People don't have food and you are wasting money."

Even celebrities who didn't fly to Maldives faced blowback for not doing more to help curb the spread of Covid-19.

Critics argued the stars' massive social media base could be used to amplify calls for help or to coordinate efforts on the ground.

It appears some may be listening.

Since paparazzi images purported to show her leaving India for Maldives, Bhatt has shared helpline numbers for non-government organizations and state governments on her social media accounts.

In one post in late April she said India was facing "a time of great uncertainty."In early May, Bhatt and a number of other celebrities also took part in a virtual fundraiser, "I Breathe For India," that raised more than $2 million in Covid relief funds.

Covid spreads in India's neighbors

Maldives' economy is heavily reliant on tourism – before the pandemic, the islands welcomed 1.7 million visitors in 2019.

Numbers plummeted to just over half a million in 2020, and the nation had been keen to set itself apart as one of the few luxury retreats as the pandemic spread worldwide.

While many other destinations shut their borders, the Maldives chose to fully reopen to travelers from any country in July 2020.

This April, officials announced plans to offer vaccinations to tourists on arrival, once all Maldives residents had received their shots. So far, around 25% of locals have been fully vaccinated, according to data compiled by CNN.

By May, Maldives was introducing new restrictions. All new arrivals were required to show proof of a negative test taken within 96 hours of their departure for the islands. Then, visitors from South Asia were only allowed to stay on inhabited islands.

Mehra, the air charter CEO, said that had reduced demand for charter flights to the destination.

Maldives is not the only place in Asia battling a Covid resurgence.

The India outbreak has been linked to a rise in infections in several nearby countries, with many reporting cases of a variant first detected in India.

Cases have skyrocketed in Nepal to the north and Sri Lanka to the south. And it's not just India's neighbors – further away in Southeast Asia, case numbers are also rising in Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia.

The rapid spread of the virus has placed enormous pressure on the countries' health systems and medical supplies, and some have called for international assistance.

But a handful countries in the region have been relatively unscathed by India's second wave — and remain open for visitors.

Maldives' restrictions mean many wealthy Indians are now looking elsewhere for a getaway – and Dubai is emerging as a top alternative destination, with bookings increasing by up to 10 percent in recent weeks, said Mehra.

Some customers have paid up to $1,400 for a ticket – five times what it normally costs on a commercial flight, Mehra said.

The Maldives travel ban aside, similar flight restrictions from other countries could also be driving the increase in traffic to Dubai, he added.

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