Odd News Roundup: Pakistan's Madhubala elephant gets relief after years of dental pain; Indonesians climb greasy tree trunks for Independence Day games and more

The venom is then frozen and turned into powder before it is sold.

Following is a summary of current odd news briefs.

Pakistan's Madhubala elephant gets relief after years of dental pain

Madhubala, a 16-year-old elephant in Pakistan suffering for years from dental infection and pain caused by a broken tusk, finally got relief on Wednesday after undergoing treatment while under unique standing sedation. Madhubala is one of four African elephants being treated in Karachi by an eight-member team from the global animal welfare group Four Paws, which in 2020 relocated Kaavan - an elephant dubbed the world's loneliest - to Cambodia from Islamabad.

Indonesians climb greasy tree trunks for Independence Day games

Teams of Indonesians clambered over each other on Wednesday to reach prizes hanging from the top of slippery tree trunks in an annual competition held to celebrate the country's Independence Day. At an amusement park in the capital Jakarta, 45 palm tree trunks coated in oil were set up for the games, one of many such competitions taking place across the sprawling archipelago of 270 million people.

Turkish scorpion farmer milks arachnids for their expensive venom

Thousands of scorpions, housed in transparent plastic boxes, line the walls of a breeding laboratory in Turkey's southeastern Sanliurfa province, waiting for personnel to milk their expensive venom used to produce medicine. Using a pair of tweezers and tongs, lab employees remove the scorpions from the boxes and wait as they squeeze a tiny drop of venom from their needles into a receptacle. The venom is then frozen and turned into powder before it is sold.

(With inputs from agencies.)