GUATEMALA CITY/TEGUCIGALPA,Nov 07,2020: The death toll from the calamitous storm Eta in Central America leapt on Friday as the Guatemalan military reached a remote mountain village where torrential rains caused mudslides that killed an estimated 100 people.
Many of the dead were buried in their homes in the remote village of Queja in the central region of Alta Verapaz, where around 150 houses were swallowed by mudslides, Guatemalan army spokesman Ruben Tellez said.
The area around Queja appeared to be the site of a huge landslide on a road pass a decade ago, which killed dozens, Tellez said.
“Now with all this phenomenon it collapsed again,” he added.
Photos of the Queja landslide showed a lengthy strip of brown mud peeled from the lush green hillside. A video shared by the army showed soldiers trying to get to Queja having to haul themselves through a morass of mud with the aid of a guide rope.
Footage from another part of Guatemala showed boats ferrying villagers in flooded regions and rescue workers carrying children on their backs, wading through water up to their hips.
The army said about 100 people are believed to have died in Queja alone, though searches for survivors continue.
Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei hinted the death toll could jump higher, with the number of dead and missing in Queja estimated at about 150.
One of the fiercest storms to hit Central America in years, Eta on Friday dumped more torrential rain across swathes of Central America and the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned “catastrophic flooding” in the region would continue.
Nov 07,2020: With Democratic challenger Joe Biden taking a lead in Pennsylvania and Georgia and inching closer to victory in the U.S. presidential election on Friday, Republican President Donald Trump has turned to the courts to challenge votes in several states.Television networks held off from declaring him the victor as officials continued to count votes.
Trump remained defiant, vowing to press unfounded claims of fraud as a weary, anxious nation waited for clarity in an election that only intensified the country’s deep polarization. Republicans sought to raise $60 million to fund lawsuits challenging the results.
On the fourth day of vote counting, former Vice President Biden had a 253 to 214 lead in the state-by-state Electoral College vote that determines the winner, according to Edison Research.
Securing Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes would put Biden over the 270 he needs to win the presidency after a political career stretching back nearly five decades.
Biden would also win if he prevails in two of the three other key states where he was narrowly ahead on Friday: Georgia, Arizona and Nevada. Like Pennsylvania, all three were still processing ballots.
New Delhi , November 7,2020: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Giuseppe Conte held a virtual meeting on Friday that resulted in the inking of 15 agreements/Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) in various sectors, said the Ministry of External Affairs.
“A Virtual Bilateral Summit between Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and Prime Minister of Italy Prof. Giuseppe Conte was held on 6th November 2020… 15 MoUs/Agreements in various sectors such as energy, fisheries, shipbuilding, design, etc. were signed coinciding with the Summit,” it said.
“The Summit provided an opportunity to the two leaders to comprehensively review the broad framework of the bilateral relationship. The two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen cooperation against common global challenges, including the Covid-19 pandemic,” the statement from the ministry read.
According to the statement, the leaders discussed a wide range of issues, including political, economic, scientific and technological, space and defence cooperation. On regional and international issues, both sides agreed to coordinate closely at multilateral fora, especially G-20.
India welcomed Italy’s decision to join ISA as soon as the ratification process is completed, the statement read further.
Patna, Nov 7,2020: Voting started from 0700 hours amid the tight security arrangements for 78 assembly seats, spread across 15 districts, in the third and last of phase of Bihar Assembly polls.
Voting also commenced for Valmikinagar Lok Sabha constituency by-elections in the state. The electing was necessitated due to the death of the sitting JD(U) MP Baidyanath Mahto.
Total 33782 polling booths have been set up across the districts where more than two crore voters will Exercise their franchise.
Re-polling of Hilsa assembly constituency in Nalanda district are also being held at three booths. The voting is underway at polling booths number 52, 52 (a) and 55 of this constituency. After the completion of the polling on November 3 in Hilsa, while ballot boxes were being taken to the strong room, during which, the electronic voting machine (EVM) of three polling stations fell into the water. Subsequently, the Election Commission then ordered a re-polling.
Caracas [Venezuela], November 6 ,2020: Venezuela is not planning to buy Iran’s missiles so far, but reserves the right to do so when deems necessary, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said at a meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif.
“There is no ship that will arrive with missiles, but there are relations [with Iran], and when our armed forces and the Iranian colleagues decide that it is necessary to acquire weapons, we will do so … No one and nothing can prohibit this,” Arreaza said.
In late October, US special envoy Elliott Abrams said that the United States would destroy Iranian long-range missiles in case of their shipment to Venezuela.
The news comes after the international arms embargo on Iran expired in October. Iranian Defence Minister Mohammad Amir Khatami has said that with the arms embargo lifted, Tehran plans to sell more military products than purchasing them.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said last week that Caracas could buy weapons from any country that wanted to sell them, even the United States.
New Delhi , November 6,2020: The Supreme Court on Friday issued a show-cause notice to the Secretary of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly asking why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him over a letter to Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami about the privilege notice issued against him.
A bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice of India Sharad Arvind Bobde, also said that Arnab Goswami should not be arrested in the case till the next date of hearing.
Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Arnab Goswami, submitted that Arnab is in jail. “He is being threatened, questioned. Case after case after case is being filed against him. He needs relief in this case,” Salve said.
The bench allowed a plea moved by Salve to make the Central government a party to the case and appointed senior advocate Arvind Datar as an Amicus Curiae in the matter.
The top court was hearing a plea filed by Arnab Goswami challenging a breach of privilege motion moved against him in the Maharashtra Assembly for criticising Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
During the last date of hearing, Salve had submitted that there could be a breach of privilege only if there is any hindrance, obstruction, interference by a person in the performance of duties or workings of the House.
Shiv Sena MLA Pratap Sarnaik had on September 16 moved the breach of privilege motion against Goswami for allegedly using derogatory language against Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and NCP president Sharad Pawar for their alleged inaction in the actor Sushant Singh Rajput death case. A similar motion was moved by MLA Manisha Koyande in the Legislative Council.
Geneva [Switzerland], November 6 ,2020: The European Union (EU) will target Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and 14 officials with sanctions on Friday, in a bid to increase pressure on a government it does not recognise.
The newest restrictions will include travel bans and asset freezes and will be published in the EU’s Official Journal, more than a month after the bloc unveiled similar measures against 40 Belarusians.
The EU has accused the Belarusian government of repressing protesters who have been holding weekly demonstrations in the capital after the August 9 presidential election saw the incumbent secure a new term.
Brussels does not recognise the declared victory of Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power for 26 years following the fall of the Soviet Union. It has called for a new vote and an “inclusive national dialogue” with the opposition.
New Delhi , November 6 ,2020: In a bid to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic from worsening due to increased air pollution, the Delhi government has banned all types of firecrackers from November 7 to 30, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain said on Friday.
“The ban on crackers has been imposed in view of air pollution. This time around, there is pollution and COVID-19. When firecrackers are burst on Diwali, people are unable to breathe properly for around 3-4 hours late at night due to air pollution,” Jain told reporters here.
Responding to whether ‘green cracker’ will be included in the ban, Jain said that there is a pandemic spreading around the globe and people should avoid refrain from bursting crackers.
“There is a pandemic across the country. People have not seen such a thing in their entire lifetime. People should understand and refrain from bursting crackers. Everyone should conduct poojas and offer prayers at their homes. The Laxmi pooja by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will be broadcasted live. Everyone can join him in their homes,” Jain said.
“Pollution and COVID-19 are dangerous in and of themselves. To protect yourself from both, people should ensure not to leave their houses without a face mask… In the third wave of the COVID-19, positive cases are increasing. At present 7,231 COVID beds are occupied in Delhi and 8,572 are still available,” he added.
Jain said that the number of COVID-19 beds in Delhi government hospitals will be increased and said that private hospitals will be asked to do the same.
Speaking about the approaching winters and the arrangement made by the Delhi government to provide shelter homes to the needy, Jain said, “Shelter homes are being prepared and COVID-19 guidelines will be kept in mind while doing so. We are increasing the size of the shelter homes in view of the pandemic and will only fill the tents to half its capacity in view of COVID-19.”
Washington, Nov 6,2020: Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has pledged that his administration would rejoin the historic Paris Agreement on climate change.
On November 4, the US formally withdrew from the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change, a decision originally announced three years ago.
The Trump Administration officially left the Paris Climate Agreement. And in exactly 77 days, a Biden Administration will rejoin it, Biden tweeted on Wednesday night, reflecting his decision to reverse one of the key policies of the Trump administration on day one.
The US, under the Obama administration, had acceded to the Paris Agreement in 2016. It was a signature achievement of the Obama administration.
The Paris accord committed the US and 187 other countries to keeping rising global temperatures below 2C above pre-industrial levels and attempting to limit them even more, to a 1.5C rise.
Trump argues that the agreement is disadvantageous for the US, while it gives benefits to countries like China, Russia and India. According to him, it could be economically detrimental and cost 2.5 million Americans their jobs by 2025.
The decision by the US — one of the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases — to quit the agreement has led to condemnation from environmentalists and expressions of regret from world leaders.
Biden has proposed a USD 5 trillion plan to combat climate change.
The US is the second leading producer of all carbon dioxide emissions globally, behind China.
President Trump originally announced his intention to withdraw from the agreement in 2017 and formally notified the United Nations last year. The US exited the pact after a mandatory year-long waiting period that ended on Wednesday.
The US is the only country to withdraw from the global pact. It can still attend negotiations and give opinions, but is relegated to observer status .
Trump had stated that he intended to renegotiate the details of the US’ membership within the Paris Agreement that can better protect US workers in industries like coal, paper, and steel.
JORDAN VALLEY, West Bank,Nov 05,2020: Israel has demolished most of a Bedouin village in the occupied West Bank, displacing 73 Palestinians – including 41 children – in the largest such demolition in years, residents and a United Nations official said.
Tented homes, animal shelters, latrines and solar panels were among the structures destroyed in the village of Khirbet Humsah on Tuesday, according to the U.N. official.
Israel’s military liaison agency with the Palestinians, COGAT, confirmed that a demolition had been carried out against what it said were illegal structures.
By Thursday morning the residents had already moved back to the site, using tents donated by Palestinian aid groups, according to a Reuters witness.
The remains of the demolished village lay across the hillsides, with just two of the original homes still standing some distance from the others.
“They want to expel us from the area so that settlers can live in our place, but we will not leave from here,” said resident Harbi Abu Kabsh, referring to the roughly 430,000 Israeli settlers who live alongside three million Palestinians in the West Bank, which Israel captured in a 1967 war.
COGAT on Wednesday issued a statement saying that an “enforcement activity” had been carried out by Israeli forces “against 7 tents and 8 pens which were illegally constructed, in a firing range located in the Jordan Valley.”
Israel often cites a lack of building permits in demolishing Palestinian structures in the West Bank.
Yvonne Helle, a humanitarian coordinator for the United Nations in the Palestinian territories, said that relief agencies had visited Khirbet Humsah and recorded 76 demolished structures, “more than in any other single demolition in the past decade”.
Bamako, Nov 03: The French government said that its forces had killed over 50 Jihadists part of the Al-Qaeda in air strikes in central Mali.
The offensive took place near the borders of Burkina Faso and Niger on Friday, where the government troops are in a battle to root out Islamic insurgency. “On October 30 in Mali, the Barkhane force conducted an operation that neutralised more than 50 jihadists and confiscated arms and material, French Defence Minister, Florence Parly said after meeting with members of the transitional government in Mali. She also said that 30 motorcycles were destroyed, while referring to Operation Barkhane.
Geneva, Nov 3.2020: An independent human rights expert working with the United Nations is calling on Myanmar’s government and military leadership to stop persecuting supporters of the opposition ahead of Sunday’s general election.
Thomas Andrews, a former US congressman from Maine who is the UN special investigator on Myanmar, called for free and fair elections but expressed concerns about the denial of the vote to Rohingya Muslims and others based on race, ethnicity or religion.
Andrews, who as an independent special rapporteur does not speak for the UN, said the Myanmar army is using a penal code set up under colonialist Britain in 1861 to lock up journalists, students and others for exercising their basic right to free expression. He also lamented allegations of state censorship of some candidates.
Myanmar’s electoral commission has canceled voting in several parts of the country facing bouts of unrest.
Michelle Bachelet, who heads the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has also expressed serious concerns about the human rights situation in Myanmar before the vote, including violations of the right to political participation, particularly for minority groups.
The last general election in 2015 brought to power Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy after more than five decades of military rule. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and her government have faced international condemnation for allowing security forces to carry out widespread abuses of the Rohingya minority, driving more than 700,000 to seek safety in neighbouring Bangladesh.