Rescue workers pulled more bodies Monday from under the dust and rubble left by an explosive eruption of Guatemala’s Fuego volcano, bringing the death toll to at least 69.
Of them, 17 have been identified so far, said Fanuel Garcia, head of the National Institute of Forensic Sciences.
In addition, there are 46 people injured, most of them seriously, more than 1.7 million being hit by the disaster, including 3,271 ordered evacuated and 1,787 in shelters in the departments of Escuintla, Sacatepequez and Chimaltenango since Sunday’s eruption.
The 3,763-meter (12,346-foot) volcano erupted early Sunday, spewing out towering plumes of ash and a hail of fiery rock fragments with scalding mud.
Authorities had warned the death toll could rise after searches resumed for survivors in communities on the mountain’s southern flank.
After an initial toll of 25 dead, it was revised upwards within hours as bodies were recovered from villages razed by the tumbling mud.
“There are missing persons, but we do not know how many,” said Sergio Cabanas of Guatemala’s disaster management agency. A roll call of communities on the slopes of the volcano was under way.
The speed and ferocity of the eruption took mountain communities by surprise, with many of the dead found in or around their homes.
A woman with an aggressive form of breast cancer which defied chemotherapy and spread to other organs, was cured with an experimental treatment that triggered her immune system, researchers said Monday.
The woman has been cancer-free for two years, reported the US-based team, presenting their results as “a new immunotherapy approach” for the treatment of patients with a late-stage form of the disease.
Other experts not involved in the work hailed it as “exciting”.
So-called “immunotherapy” has already been shown to work in some people with cancer of the lung, cervix, blood cells (leukaemia), skin (melanoma) and bladder.
But an immune breakthrough for bowel, breast and ovary cancer has remained elusive.
In the latest study, a team extracted immune cells called lymphocytes from the patient, tweaked them in the lab, then reinjected them.
The woman was 49 when she signed up for the clinical trial after several attempts at a cure through conventional treatments had failed, said the study published in the scientific journal Nature Medicine.
The cancer had spread to various parts of her body, including the liver.
A person’s immune system is designed to kill invaders, including rogue, cancerous cells. But it can fail, often because it cannot recognise cancer cells containing the patient’s own DNA.
Immunotherapy trains a patient’s own immune cells to recognise and fight cancer.
For the new study, researchers took lymphocytes from a tumour in the woman’s body and scanned them for specific types which reacted to mutant, cancerous cells.
Kolkata, Jun 5 : Regular physical activity is proven to help prevent and treat
noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and
breast and colon cancer.
It also helps prevent hypertension, overweight and obesity and can improve
mental health, quality of life and well-being. Yet, much of the world is becoming
less active.
Physical activity is defined as any bodily movement produced by skeletal
muscles that requires energy expenditure. Regular moderate intensity physical
activity – such as walking, cycling, or participating in sports – has significant
benefits for health.
NCDs are responsible for 71 per cent of all deaths globally, including for the
deaths of 15 million people per year aged 30 to 70.
WHO has developed a new global action plan to help countries scale up policy
actions to promote physical activity. It responds to the requests by countries for
updated guidance, and a framework of effective and feasible policy actions to
increase physical activity at all levels.
Many of Member States have already started activities to promote physical
activity in their workplace and other areas, as well as taking “healthy breaks”
during the meetings.
The plan sets out four objectives and recommends 20 policy actions that are
applicable to all countries and address the cultural, environmental and individual
determinants of inactivity.
A key feature of this new plan is its call for a ‘’systems-based’’ approach where
effective implementation will require bold leadership combined with
cross-government and multisectoral partnerships at all levels to achieve a
coordinated, whole-of-system response.
Working in partnerships, WHO will support countries to implement a
whole-of-community approach to increase levels of physical activity in people
of all ages and abilities. Global, regional and national coordination and capacity
will be strengthened to respond to needs for technical support, innovation and
guidance.
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday joining
Prime Minister António Costa of Portugal to launch the new “WHO Global action
plan on physical activity and health 2018-2030: More active people for a healthier
world.”
“Being active is critical for health. But in our modern world, this is becoming
more and more of a challenge, largely because our cities and communities aren’t
designed in the right ways,” said Dr Tedros. “We need leaders at all levels to help
people to take the healthier step. This works best at city level, where most
responsibility lies for creating healthier spaces.”
Worldwide, one in five adults, and four out of five adolescents (11-17 years), do
not do enough physical activity. Girls, women, older adults, poorer people, people
with disabilities and chronic diseases, marginalized populations, and indigenous
people have fewer opportunities to be active.
Pretoria, June 5: India on Monday called for consolidation of intra-BRICS cooperation to ensure global growth in a world drifting towards uncertainty, with international trade and multilateralism facing strong headwinds.
“Our meeting today takes place at a time when multilateralism, international trade, and rules-based world order face strong headwinds. Though, the global growth has exhibited signs of recovery, the challenges to long-term growth continue to persist. Ensuring that the benefits of globalization are shared widely remains a challenge,” External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said, addressing the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Foreign Ministers’ meeting.
In less than two months from now the leaders of BRICS nations will meet in Johannesburg for the 10th BRICS Summit. The deliberations, therefore, are significant in preparing the groundwork for a successful Johannesburg BRICS Summit and “will contribute towards enriching intra-BRICS cooperation further,” she said.
The New Development Bank and the Contingent Reserve Arrangements are flagship BRICS initiatives, Swaraj said, adding their functioning be consolidated further and their outcomes optimised.
With BRICS representing some 40 per cent of the world’s population and almost 30 per cent of global Gross Domestic Product, there is enormous potential for the bloc to be an economic force.
“India attaches importance to the role of BRICS in consolidating intra-BRICS cooperation and in international affairs,” Swaraj said.
She also called for collective action by BRICS nations against money laundering, terrorist-financing and radicalisation.
“PM Modi had given a call for a BRICS Counter-Terrorism Strategy for joint-action with a focus on money laundering, terrorist-finance, cyber-space and de-radicalization as our priorities. Our leaders have also called for making UN Counter Terrorism framework efficient and effective. We reiterate our commitment to implement our Leaders’ mandate on counter terrorism under South Africa’s BRICS Chairship.”
She said coperation in strategic areas of security, counter-terrorism, UN reforms, peacekeeping, de-radicalisation, cyber security, energy security, global governance, and international and regional hot-spot issues are deliberated in detail during our NSA’s meetings.
“It is imperative now that the common ground reached in our NSAs meeting on setting up a BRICS Security Forum is implemented fully.”
The minister also voiced support for South Africa for tabling the proposals on tourism, medicines, governance, and science-park network.
“Yoga and Ayurveda system of India’s traditional medicines will make BRICS tourism endeavours even more attractive.”
Earlier, Swaraj had an “excellent” bilateral with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and discussed “ways to make further progress in areas of bilateral and multilateral cooperation.”
India and South Africa are commemorating the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations, 100th birth anniversary of the iconic leader Nelson Mandela and the 125th anniversary of the Pietermaritzburg incident of Mahatma Gandhi.
In 1893, Gandhi was thrown out of a train compartment in Pietermaritzburg railway station. The incident proved to be a turning point in his fight against racial discrimination in South Africa.
Swaraj will attend a series of events marking the 125th anniversary of the historic incident.
Amman, Jun 4 : Jordanian Prime Minister Hani Mulki resigned today after he was summoned by King Abdullah II over growing protests against his government’s austerity measures, a government source said.
“Prime Minister Hani Mulki submitted his resignation to the king this afternoon during a meeting at the Husseiniyeh Palace and the king accepted the resignation,” the source told AFP.
The king asked Education Minister Omar al-Razzaz to form a new government, the source added.
Demonstrations have rocked the capital Amman and several other cities since Wednesday after the government adopted a draft income tax law and announced new price hikes based on recommendations by the International Monetary Fund.
Protesters had called on Mulki to step down, vowing not to “kneel” and earning support from trade unions as well as a majority of MPs opposed to the new taxation.
The premier’s meeting with the king came hours after around 5,000 people rallied outside Mulki’s office in Amman, on the fifth consecutive day of protests in Amman and other cities.
Jordan, a mostly desert kingdom with few resources, has seen prices of several basic goods and services like bread, fuel and electricity steadily rise over the past year.
Last month the government adopted a draft income tax law, yet to be approved by parliament, aimed at increasing taxes on employees by at least five percent and on companies by between 20 and 40 percent.
And last week it announced a new price hike for electricity and fuel, before revoking it under orders from the king following protests.
They were the latest measures in a series of economic reforms since Amman secured a 723-million three-year credit line from the IMF in 2016.
The loan, intended to support economic and financial reforms, has the long-term objective of reducing Jordan’s public debt from about 94 percent of GDP to 77 percent by 2021.
Paris, Jun 4 : The United Nations has released its first ever guidelines on fighting anti-Semitism in education.
UNESCO, the UN’s cultural body, launched the publication on Monday in Paris in collaboration with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the OSCE.
The guide, aimed to be used by young people, the teaching world, as well as political leaders, was presented by Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO’s first Jewish director general.
UNESCO said the guide provides tools to strengthen the resilience of young people to anti-Semitic ideas and violent extremism, such as how to respond to anti-Semitic acts and words in school settings.
It also familiarizes educators with anti-Semitic stereotypes and conspiracy theories as well as developing media skills to help students resist manipulation.
Chennai, June 4 : Asserting that all approvals given to the Sterlite Copper Smelter Plant in Tuticorin were cancelled, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Monday categorically said the plant was shut permanently and no one could reopen it.
When leader of the Opposition and DMK Working President M K Stalin raised the issue during Zero Hour and demanded a resolution in the State Assembly seeking permanent closure of the plant and hiking the solatium to police firing victims on Anti-sterlite protestors to Rs one crore, the Chief Minister asserted that the plant could never b y re-opened.
‘All the approvals given to it were cancelled and the plant has been permanently closed and sealed…it cannot be re-opened’, Mr Palaniswami said.
He also listed out the steps taken by the government on the issue and said the GO, ordering closure of the plant, was issued after detailed consultations with legal expert and it would stand legal scrutiny.
‘Only if the Tamil Nadu government issued any order contrary to the directions issued by the Central Pollution Board (CPCB) under Sec 18 (1) (B) of Water (prevention and control of pollution) Act of 1974, then the GO will not stand legally’, he added.
‘But as on date, the CPCB has not passed any directions on the Sterlite issue. Hence the GO issued by the Tamil Nadu government for permanently closing down the Sterlite plant will stand legal scrutiny’, he said. Noting that all the approvals given to the plant were cancelled, Mr Palaniswami said power supply
to the Sterlite plant was cut, the boiler licence has been cancelled and the land allocated for expansion was also cancelled.
Antananarivo, Jun 4 : Madagascar’s prime minister announced his resignation today in the first step towards the naming of a “consensus” premier to resolve a political crisis sparked by controversial electoral reforms.
Madagascar has been rocked by violent protests since April 21 that initially sought to oppose the new laws the opposition said were crafted to bar their candidates from participating in elections planned for later this year.
The Constitutional Court has ordered President Rajaonarimampianina to form a government of national unity with a “consensus prime minister” to avert a full-blown crisis. For that to happen, the current government was required to resign and the president was ordered to name a new prime minister by June 12.
“I will tender my resignation to the president today. As a statesman, I cannot be an obstacle to the life of the nation,” Olivier Mahafaly Solonandrasana told a press briefing.
“I resign willingly and with happiness. I have no regrets today and I can leave with my head held high.” “I will leave this magnificent palace, (but) I tell you this is not ‘goodbye’,” he added without giving details of his future plans.
No successor to Solonandrasana has yet been named.
New York, Jun 4: Poor security situation, grinding poverty, discrimination against girls and continuing conflict in Afghanistan have led to a surge in the number of out-of-school children for the first time since 2002, according to a report by the United Nation’s Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).
The report found that some 3.7 million children, that represents almost half of all children between 7 and 17 years of age were missing out on school, with girls accounting for 60 per cent of that number, reflecting the frequent gender-based discrimination in the country.
In some provinces, including Kandahar, Helmand, Wardak, Paktika, Zabul and Uruzgan, the figure for out-of-school girls rose to as high as 85 per cent.
Mumbai, Jun 4: Air India has asked the government to “restore” equity infusion in the carrier, after it failed to find any takers for its disinvestment.
The loss-making carrier has already received more than Rs 26,000 crore under the bailout package announced by the former UPA government in April 2012.
“We have sought restoration of the equity infusion in Air India and have written to the government last week in this regard,” a senior airline official said.
The official, however, did not disclose the amount of the funds the airline was looking at.
The UPA government had approved a turnaround plan under which Air India is to receive a total equity infusion worth Rs 30,231 crore up to 2021, subject to meeting certain performance thresholds.
Amid fund crunch, during which Air India also had to defer its staff salaries, the airline borrowed Rs 6,250 crore from various banks between September last year and January this year for working capital requirements and other needs.
The carrier, which has a debt burden of about Rs 50,000 crore till March last year, had been receiving about Rs 3,000-4,000 crore equity infusion on an average per fiscal from the government till FY14. However, after that the amount was gradually reduced.
For 2018-19, the airline has been allocated Rs 650 crore in view of its now failed disinvestment plan.
The government had proposed to offload 76 per cent equity share capital of the national carrier as well as transfer the management control to private players, besides complete sale of its low-cost arm Air India Express and its entire stake in 50:50 joint venture AI-SATS.
Sfax (Tunisia), Jun 4 : More than 50 migrants drowned in the Mediterranean, the majority off the coasts of Tunisia and Turkey, while Italy marked a sea change in its policy.
Tunisian authorities said 48 bodies were recovered off the country’s southern coast yesterday, close to the city of Sfax, while 68 people were rescued.
“The boat had a maximum capacity of 75 to 90 people, but there were more than 180 of us,” said Wael Ferjani, a Tunisian survivor from the southern region of Gabes.
While water leaked into the boat, some passengers jumped into the sea and drowned, he told AFP.
The latest death toll was published around 7:00 pm (1800 GMT), after the search and rescue operation had ended for the day.
The hunt for survivors would continue on Monday morning, Mohammed Salah Sagaama from Sfax’s naval base told AFP.
Tunisians and migrants regularly try to cross the Mediterranean to seek a better future in Europe, with 120 mainly Tunisians rescued by their navy in March after trying to reach Italy.
In October, a collision between a migrant boat and a Tunisian military ship left at least 44 dead, in what Prime Minister Youssef Chahed called a “national disaster”.
The latest shipwreck is the most deadly in the Mediterranean since February 2 when 90 people drowned off the coast of Libya, according to the IOM.
Across the Mediterranean, nine Syrians including seven children drowned when their vessel sank off the coast of Turkey.
The group were travelling in a speedboat intending to head illegally to Europe, when the boat hit trouble off the coast of the southern Antalya province, state media reports said.
The oldest child to drown was 14 and the youngest just three, according to the Anadolu news agency.
Six adults were reportedly rescued including a couple who lost five of their children in the disaster.
Turkey was the main sea route for migrants to Europe in 2015, when more than a million people crossed to Greece.
That year 3,771 people were recorded as dead or missing in the Mediterranean by the United Nations refugee agency.
So far this year, 32,601 migrants and refugees have survived the sea crossing and 649 have been recorded as dead or missing.
A deal struck with the EU in 2016 has drastically reduced the amount of people trying to make the sea crossing, although observers say the numbers have been ticking up again in recent months.
The focal point for Mediterranean migration in recent years has been Italy, where more than 700,000 migrants have arrived since 2013.
Yesterday the country’s new hardline interior minister, Matteo Salvini, headed to Sicily, one of the main landing points for those rescued at sea, to push his anti-immigration agenda.
His predecessor signed a controversial deal with authorities and militias in Libya — the key departure point on the route to Italy — which has driven down overall arrival numbers by 75 per cent since last summer.
But Salvini has pledged to go further still, vowing to cut the number of arrivals and speed up deportations.
“The good times for illegals is over — get ready to pack your bags,” he said on Saturday at a rally in Italy’s north.
The latest arrivals, some 158 people, were rescued by a humanitarian boat and reached southern Sicily on Friday.
Meanwhile Spanish maritime rescue units said Sunday they have picked up 240 migrants since the start of the weekend, with one person reported drowned.
Migration will be high on the agenda Tuesday when EU interior ministers meet in Luxembourg and discuss the bloc’s contested Dublin rule, under which would-be refugees must file for asylum in the first member country they enter.
Many of those landing on the Mediterranean coast see their arrival point as a pathway to their final destination, but the Dublin rule and tightening border checks have meant migrants are increasingly stuck in southern Europe.
New Delhi, Jun 3: Hours after the Congress delegation on Sunday, met the Election Commission and demanded an enquiry into the allegations of approximately 60 lakh fake voters registered in Madhya Pradesh, the poll body deputed two teams to probe the accusations.
The team has been asked to submit their final report by June 7, the Commission said in an official release.
One team for Bhopal will probe the alleged irregularities in the Assembly constituencies of Narela and Bhojpur, while the second team for Narmadapuram will hold enquiry in Hoshangabad and Seoni-Malwa constituencies.
The Commission has asked teams to reach the respective constituencies by June 4.
Earlier in the day, a delegation of Congress leaders led by Madhya Pradesh PCC chief Kamal Nath and senior leader and MP Jyotiraditya Scindia met Election Commission and handed over the complaints along with what they called ‘proof of irregularities’.
New Delhi, June 3 : A Congress delegation from Madhya Pradesh on Sunday approached the Election Commission to point out the gross irregularities in the state voters list and demanded that the list be re-examined.
Expecting a high voltage fight between the ruling BJP and the Congress in the upcoming assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, which will be held this year, the delegation said that it handed over proof of approximately 60 lakh fake voters registered in the voters list.
Addressing mediapersons after the meeting with the Election Commission, Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath, senior leader and MP Jyotiraditya Scindia said that the BJP is murdering democracy in the state and that the state government is indulging in such irregularities for for its own benefit.
“We have provided evidence to the Election Commission that there are approximately 60 Lakh fake voters registered in the voting list. These names have been deliberately registered in the list. This is not a systematic error but misuse of the power”, said Kamal Nath.
In the letter handed over to the Chief Election Commissioner, the Congress leaders requested the Commission to re-examine the voters list.
It also demanded to prepare a new voters list and take action against officials responsible if mistakes are found the list again and guilty officials by debarring them from participating in the electoral process for next 6-10 years.
“This has been done by the BJP. How is it possible that population increased by 24 percent in 10 years but number of voters increased by 40 percent? We scrutinised the list of all constituencies. One voter is registered in 26 lists. There are similar cases in other places too”, said Mr Scindia.
He also said the Congress has demanded the scrutiny of voters lists of state that share border with Madhya Pradesh.
New Delhi, June 3 : Due to lack of sanitation and water-borne diseases, 73 million working days are lost each year, Secretary in the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation Parameswaran Iyer said here today.
Addressing a session on ‘Corporate Sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)’ in the run up to World Environment Day, organised by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change and FICCI, he highlighted the importance of water and sanitation.
Iyer said, “Seventy-three million working days are lost each year due to lack of sanitation and water-borne diseases. Swachh Bharat Mission goal of achieving Open Defecation Free (ODF) India by October 2019 is on track as 13 States and three Union Territories had already achieved ODF status.”
He also said that corporates can adopt villages and wards near their facilities and help them become ODF, improve solid and liquid resource management and last-mile drinking water infrastructure.
Also, corporate entities can assist the local administration in sustaining ODF, organise and sponsor training for collective behaviour change, train workers and staff to be agents of sanitation and water stewardship in the community, sponsor the creation of infrastructure for water conservation and groundwater recharge, solid and liquid resource management, maintenance of institutional and community toilets in the neighbourhood, he said.
On the occasion, Helena Molin Valdes, the head of the Secretariat, Climate and Clean Air Coalition, UNEP, underlined the need to understand the impact of corporate sustainability on business models, align corporate sustainability efforts with SDGs and apply analytical tools to access financing.
FICCI secretary general Dilip Chenoy emphasised on corporate sustainability said it had become imperative today due to its importance in the context of SDGs, environmental concerns and threats that are increasingly becoming a risk to the business community and the need to embed sustainability in corporate goals and strategies to build business resilience.
Singapore, Jun 3 : North Korea will not get any sanctions relief until it has demonstrated “irreversible” steps to denuclearisation, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said today.
Speaking at a security conference in Singapore ahead of a planned summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Mattis said it is vital that the international community keeps UN Security Council sanctions in place for now.
“North Korea will receive relief only when it demonstrates verifiable and irreversible steps to denuclearisation,” Mattis said during public remarks at a meeting with the South Korean and Japanese defence ministers.
“In this moment we are steadfastly committed to strengthening even further our defence cooperation as the best means to preserving the peace.”
South Korean Defence Minister Song Young-moo said that given recent developments in North Korea, “one can be cautiously optimistic as we go forward”.
Mattis has tended to stay away from commenting publicly on the upcoming summit, which Trump has confirmed will take place in Singapore on June 12, and instead deferred to the State Department.
The key task ahead of the summit is to settle the agenda. The main stumbling block is likely to be the concept of “denuclearisation” — both sides say they are in favour of it, but there is a yawning gap between their definitions.
Washington wants North Korea to quickly give up all its nuclear weapons in a verifiable way in return for sanctions and economic relief.
But analysts say North Korea will be unwilling to cede its nuclear deterrent unless it is given security guarantees that the US will not try to topple the regime.