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Rescuers search for British TV doctor for a third day on Greek island

Rescuers search for British TV doctor for a third day on Greek island
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A view of the town of Symi, following the search for missing British TV doctor Michael Mosley on the island of Symi, Greece June 7, 2024. (Reuters)
Rescuers search for British TV doctor for a third day on Greek island
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An image taken from a coumputer screen of a CCTV and released to Reuters on June 7, 2024, shows what is believed to be British TV doctor Michael Mosley on a street on the Greek island of Symi, Greece. (Reuters)
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Updated 08 June 2024
Reuters
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Rescuers search for British TV doctor for a third day on Greek island

Rescuers search for British TV doctor for a third day on Greek island
Updated 08 June 2024
Reuters
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ATHENS: Rescuers continued searching for British TV presenter Michael Mosley on the mountainous Greek island of Symi on Saturday, the third day of a wide operation launched after he was reported missing by his wife.
The 67-year-old doctor and healthy living advocate, who has endorsed fasting and offered tips on sleep and diet, was last seen at 1:30 p.m. (1030 GMT) on Wednesday.
He disappeared after he set out on a stroll in searing temperatures along a rocky coastal path from Agios Nikolaos beach to the village of Pedi. Mosley did not have his mobile phone with him, hampering tracing efforts.
Police, the fire brigade and volunteers have been searching on and off the island in the eastern Aegean assisted by a helicopter, drones and rescue dogs.
On Saturday, police searches shifted focus to an area opposite Agios Nikolaos, between Pedi and the beach of Agia Marina.
“The search continues,” spokeswoman Constantina Dimoglidou told Reuters. “We are investigating on foot another rocky part, the wider area of Agia Marina.”
Images shared with Reuters from a security camera in Pedi showed what is believed to be Mosley, strolling by at 1:49 p.m. on Wednesday, holding an umbrella, suggesting he may have made it safely off the coastal path.
Symi Mayor Lefteris Papakalodoukas said that the images and video footage from security cameras had helped sketch out what authorities believed was Mosley’s possible route, which he described as “unconventional.”
They indicated that he may have continued further through Pedi into another challenging area around Agia Marina, the mayor said.
“He chose paths which are very difficult to walk in such temperatures and under any circumstances,” Papakalodoulkas said. “Cameras show that he did not take the expected way back home.”
Symi is about 10 miles (16 km) long and has 2,500 residents. Its remote beaches were filled with sunbathers on Friday.

Topics: Greece UK British doctor missing Symi

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Pakistan anti-polio drive struggles against militants, mistrust

Pakistan anti-polio drive struggles against militants, mistrust
Updated 50 sec ago
AFP
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Pakistan anti-polio drive struggles against militants, mistrust

Pakistan anti-polio drive struggles against militants, mistrust
  • Cases in Pakistan are on the rise, with 45 registered so far this year, up from six in 2023 and only one in 2021
Updated 50 sec ago
AFP
Peshawar: Militant attacks and suspicion stemming from misinformation are hampering Pakistan’s battle to eradicate polio, but teams of dedicated volunteer health workers are determined to fight on.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where the debilitating virus remains endemic, the disease mostly affecting children under five and sometimes causing lifelong paralysis.
Cases in Pakistan are on the rise, with 45 registered so far this year, up from six in 2023 and only one in 2021.
Polio can easily be prevented by the oral administration of a few drops of vaccine, but in parts of rural Pakistan health workers risk their lives to save others.
Last week seven people including five children were killed when a bomb targeted police traveling to guard vaccine workers. Days earlier two police escorts were gunned down by militants.
“When we hear that a polio vaccination team has been attacked, it deeply saddens us,” said health worker Zainab Sultan, 28, as she went door to door in Panam Dehri in northwest Pakistan
“Our responsibility now is to continue our work. Our job is to protect people from disability, to vaccinate children, and to make them healthy members of society.”
In the past firebrand clerics falsely claimed the vaccine contained pork or alcohol, forbidding it for consumption by Muslims.
A fake vaccination campaign organized by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Pakistan in 2011 to track Osama bin Laden compounded the mistrust.
More recently, militant groups have shifted to targeting armed police escorts in their campaigns of violence against the state.
Pakistan has witnessed a dramatic uptick in attacks since the return of the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021, with Islamabad claiming hostile groups are now operating from there.
“In our area, nearly half of the parents were initially resistant to the polio vaccine, believing it to be a ploy by the West,” said local resident Ehsanullah, who goes by one name.
“There was a lack of awareness,” he said. “If this disease is spreading because of our reluctance, we are not just harming ourselves but the entire community.”
From previously being blamed for the mistrust of polio vaccines, some religious leaders — who wield immense authority in Pakistan — are now at the forefront of the campaign to convince parents.
“All major religious schools and scholars in Pakistan have debunked the rumors surrounding the polio vaccine,” said Imam Tayyab Qureshi.
“Those who attack polio vaccination teams have no connection to Islam or humanity,” he said in the provincial capital of Peshawar, where Panam Dehri lies on the outskirts.
For one parent in Panam Dehri, the endorsement by religious chiefs proved pivotal.
“Initially I did not vaccinate my children against polio. Despite everyone’s efforts, I refused,” said 40-year-old Zulfiqar, who uses one name.
“Later, the Imam of our mosque came to explain the importance of the polio vaccine, telling me that he personally vaccinated his own children and encouraged me to do the same,” he said.
“After that, I agreed.”
Another impediment can be that parents in impoverished areas use the government’s eagerness to vaccine as a bargaining chip, attempting to negotiate investment in water and road projects.
“There are demand-based boycotts and community boycotts that we face,” lamented Ayesha Raza, spokeswoman for the government polio eradication campaign.
“Your demands may be very justified, but don’t link it to your children’s health,” she pleads to them.
For some health workers, the battle to eradicate polio is more personal.
Hobbling door-to-door in Panam Dehri, polio survivor Ismail Shah’s paralyzed leg does not slow his mission.
“I decided in my childhood that when I grew up I would fight against the disease that disabled me,” said the 35-year-old.
Shah is among 400,000 volunteers and health workers who spent the past week patiently explaining to families that the oral innoculation — administered in two doses — is safe.
Their goal is to protect 45 million children, but it’s far from straightforward. When Shah arrived in his patch of 40,000 inhabitants there were more than 1,000 refusals.
“Now, there are only 94 reluctant parents left, and soon I will persuade them as well,” he said.

Four wounded by axe in fight on Paris suburban train

Four wounded by axe in fight on Paris suburban train
Updated 51 sec ago
AFP
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Four wounded by axe in fight on Paris suburban train

Four wounded by axe in fight on Paris suburban train
Updated 51 sec ago
AFP

PARIS: Four people were wounded, two of them seriously, by an axe wielded during a fight that erupted Monday on a suburban train outside Paris, a police source said.
One of the victims had a hand cut off and another had their skull split open, the source added, asking not to be named.
Two others were more lightly injured.
Several people, some of them minors, were involved in the fight that broke out around around 8:00 am (0700 GMT), the source added.
The incident happened while the RER suburban express train was at the station of Ozoir-la-Ferriere southeast of Paris.
Since the train was halted at a station, the violence did not affect traffic on the RER E line, which runs east-west through Paris and its suburbs, state rail operator SNCF said.

Topics: France train attack

Russia to launch two Iranian satellites on Nov. 5, Tehran’s Moscow envoy says

Russia to launch two Iranian satellites on Nov. 5, Tehran’s Moscow envoy says
Updated 35 min 27 sec ago
Reuters
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Russia to launch two Iranian satellites on Nov. 5, Tehran’s Moscow envoy says

Russia to launch two Iranian satellites on Nov. 5, Tehran’s Moscow envoy says
  • Russia launched an Iranian research-sensing satellite, Pars 1, into space in February using a Soyuz rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome
Updated 35 min 27 sec ago
Reuters

Russia will launch two Iranian satellites into orbit using a Soyuz launcher on Tuesday, Iran’s ambassador to Moscow said on Monday, as the two US-sanctioned countries deepen their scientific relationship.
“In continuation of the development of Iran-Russia scientific and technological cooperation, two Iranian satellites, Kowsar and Hodhod, will be launched to a 500 km orbit of earth on Tuesday, Nov. 5, by a Soyuz launch vehicle,” Iranian Ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali said in a post on X.
The development of Kowsar, a high-resolution imaging satellite, and Hodhod, a small communications satellite, is the first substantial effort by Iran’s private space sector, a report by Iran’s semi-official news agency Tasnim said last month.
Russia launched an Iranian research-sensing satellite, Pars 1, into space in February using a Soyuz rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome.

Topics: Iran Russia

36 dead in bus crash in Indian Himalayas

36 dead in bus crash in Indian Himalayas
Updated 14 min 44 sec ago
AP
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36 dead in bus crash in Indian Himalayas

36 dead in bus crash in Indian Himalayas
  • Hundreds of people die in road accidents in India every year
  • Indian PM offers condolences to victims of bus accident 
Updated 14 min 44 sec ago
AP

Dehradun, India: A bus in India plunged into a deep Himalayan ravine on Monday, killing at least 36 passengers and injuring several others, a government official said Monday.

Photographs released by government rescue teams showed the crumpled wreckage of the bus in thick undergrowth, with the twisted front of the vehicle squashed nearly flat.

Road accidents are common along the many mountainous roads in the Himalayan region, caused mostly by poor maintenance and reckless driving in the tortuous terrain.

“So far, 36 casualties have been confirmed,” Deepak Rawat, a senior official from the northern state of Uttarakhand told reporters.

“Three critically injured have been sent to hospital using a helicopter.”

A human chain of volunteers lined the steep slopes, and across a rushing river, helping pull out the wounded from the remains of the bus. Dead bodies were carried out and laid on the back of a truck.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered his “deepest condolences to those who have lost their loved ones in the unfortunate road accident.”

Modi’s office said in a statement that the families of those killed would receive 200,000 rupees ($2,380) in support, while those injured would get 50,000 ($595).

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said he had ordered an investigation into the accident, which took place in forested hills near the town of Almora.

Hundreds of people die in road accidents in India every year.

Topics: bus accident Uttarakhand passenger bus

36 dead in bus crash in Indian Himalayas

36 dead in bus crash in Indian Himalayas
Updated 04 November 2024
Reuters
AFP
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36 dead in bus crash in Indian Himalayas

36 dead in bus crash in Indian Himalayas
Updated 04 November 2024
Reuters AFP

LUCKNOW, India: A bus in India plunged into a river in a deep Himalayan ravine on Monday, killing at least 36 passengers, a government official said Monday.
“So far, 36 casualties have been confirmed,” Deepak Rawat, a senior official from the northern state of Uttarakhand told reporters. “Three critically injured have been sent to hospital using a helicopter.”
The bus was coming from Garhwal in the north and was headed to Ramnagar, with at least 42 passengers on board, Devendra Pincha, a local police officer told Reuters by phone.

This handout photograph taken on November 4, 2024 and released by the Department of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) Uttarakhand shows people at the site of a bus accident, after it fell into a gorge at Almora district in India's Uttarakhand state. (AFP)


Visuals from ANI news agency, in which Reuters has a minority stake, showed an overturned bus lying beside a river at the base of a hill.
State Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said rescue officials were working rapidly to evacuate the injured.

Topics: India

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