Several employees from Thailand-based Save Elephant Foundation witnessed a tender moment of a young elephant rescuing her drowning human friend.

Kham Lha, the 5-year-old elephant, was seen rushing through tenacious river currents to save her Canadian trainer Darrick Thomson, 42, at the Elephant Nature Park in Mae Taeng, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Although Thomson was not in a near-death situation, Kham Lha splashed and reached out to her “human best friend” with her trunk. Then, she lifted him up before putting one of her legs around Thomson, who thanked her for her rapid rescue.

In an interview with The Sun, the Toronto-born staffer said that Kham Lha was nearly destined to be enslaved and tortured until the foundation saved her life last year. He said, “Kham Lha was in a really bad way when she came to us…We freed her and helped her to recover. She became really close to me and we formed a strong bond.”

“I went in the river to show just how remarkable the relationship with humans is. And that if you show warmth and kindness to them, they will treat you well, too,” he elucidated. Now, Kham La is a joyous and liberated elephant living with 14 other elephants at a protected jungle sanctuary.

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Aww! 3 elephants saved from water-filled reservoir in China

Source:

AFP

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BACKSTORY: WATCH: Elephant dozes like a baby after caretaker sings lullaby

Elephant News uploaded the clip on YouTube on Oct. 12 with the caption, “This video shows the bond between Darrick and elephant Kham Lha at Elephant Nature Park when she thinks Darrick in trouble, so she rushed to the river and try to save him. This is can show us that, when we treat animals with love, they always paid love back to us.”

The YouTube video has racked up 3.2 million views as of Tuesday.

More than half of Filipinos have “little trust” in China, according to a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey conducted as President Rodrigo Duterte sought to forge an alliance with the Asian powerhouse and veer away from the United States through a “recalibrated” foreign policy.

The third quarter poll, conducted from Sept. 24 to 27 and first published on BusinessWorld, yielded a “bad” -33 net trust in China, with 55 per cent of Filipinos having “little trust,” 19 per cent undecided, and 22 per cent having “much trust.”

The latest result was down nine points and a grade from the “poor” -24 net trust recorded last June.

According to SWS, China’s net trust has been positive in only in seven out of 40 surveys they conducted since August 1994, plunging as low as a “bad” -46 in September last year.

Duterte is set to proceed to Beijing on Tuesday from Brunei Darussalam for a state visit. In his speech before leaving for Brunei on Sunday, Duterte said he was looking forward to renew ties of friendship and improve bilateral relations between the two countries amid a maritime dispute.

Anti-crime blitz sweeps Philippines as Duterte comes into power

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

AFP, Reuters

Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay on Monday said Duterte will most likely not bring up the South China Sea dispute in his visit.

The same SWS poll showed that the United States got the highest score among seven countries in the survey with a “very good” +66 net trust, but six points down from the “excellent” +72 recorded in June.

America’s net trust has reached as high as an excellent +82 in December 2013 and has been positive since the SWS surveyed the superpower in December 1994.

The US has been at the receiving end of Duterte’s expletive-laced tirades amid criticisms against the government’s relentless crackdown on narcotics.

Other countries included in the survey were Australia (+47), Japan (+34), Norway (+16), the Netherlands (+14), and Taiwan (+3).

The survey, which used face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide, has a ±3 percentage-point margin of error.