World Health Organization declared the recent outbreak of the disease a public health emergency after the new variant
Updated 24 August 2024
Reuters
KAMPALA: Uganda has confirmed two more mpox virus infections, bringing the number of cases in the east African country to four, according to the health ministry. The two new patients were infected with the clade 1b strain of the virus, health ministry director general of health services Henry Mwebesa told Reuters, a new offshoot that has triggered global concern.
The World Health Organization declared the recent outbreak of the disease a public health emergency after the new variant, which appears to spread more easily between people, was identified. Health authorities in Uganda first reported an outbreak of the disease in the country on July 24 when lab tests of samples from two patients at a hospital near the border with Democratic Republic of Congo returned positive for mpox virus.
The latest two cases were confirmed this week, health ministry spokesperson Emmanuel Ainebyoona said, adding that one of the patients was a truck driver. He did not give details of the second patient.
Both patients were isolated at a hospital at Entebbe, a town about 50 km south of the capital Kampala.
Mpox infections cause flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions, and transmit through close physical contact. While usually mild, the disease can be fatal. Uganda borders Congo, where the current outbreak began in January 2023.
UN: Paris agreement climate goals ‘in great peril’
The period from 2015-2024 will also be the warmest decade ever recorded
Long-term global warming was currently likely to be around 1.3°C
Updated 22 sec ago
AFP
GENEVA: The Paris climate agreement’s goals “are in great peril” and 2024 is on track to break new temperature records, the United Nations warned Monday as COP29 talks opened in Baku. The period from 2015-2024 will also be the warmest decade ever recorded, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in a new report based on six international datasets. That is accelerating the shrinking of glaciers and sea-level rise, and unleashing extreme weather that has wrought havoc on communities and economies around the world. “The ambitions of the Paris Agreement are in great peril,” WMO said as global leaders gathered for high-stakes climate talks in Azerbaijan. Under the Paris agreement, nearly every nation on Earth committed to work to limit warming to “well below” two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and preferably below 1.5°C. But the EU climate monitor Copernicus has already said that 2024 will exceed the 1.5°C. This does not amount to an immediate breach of the Paris deal, which measures temperatures over decades, but it suggests the world is far off-track on its goals. WMO, which relies on a broader dataset, also said 2024 would likely breach the 1.5°C limit, and break the record set just last year. “Climate catastrophe is hammering health, widening inequalities, harming sustainable development, and rocking the foundations of peace. The vulnerable are hardest hit,” UN chief Antonio Guterres said in a statement. Analysis by a team of international experts established by WMO found that long-term global warming was currently likely to be around 1.3°C, compared to the 1850-1900 baseline, the agency said. “Every fraction of a degree of warming matters,” stressed WMO chief Celeste Saulo. “Whether it is at a level below or above 1.5°C of warming, every additional increment of global warming increases climate extremes, impacts and risks.” Monday’s report cautioned that greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, which lock in future temperature increases even if emissions fall, hit new highs in 2023 and appeared to have climbed further this year. Ocean heat is also likely to be comparable to the record highs seen last year, it added. Saulo warned that a string of devastating extreme weather events across the world this year “are unfortunately our new reality.” They are, she said, “a foretaste of our future.”
Taiwan says exploding pagers in Lebanon were not made in Taiwan
Updated 55 min 40 sec ago
Reuters
TAIPEI: The investigation bureau of Taiwan's justice ministry said on Monday that there was no evidence that Taiwanese manufacturers were involved in the pagers which exploded in Lebanon in September in a deadly blow to Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Taiwanese company Gold Apollo has not in recent years produced the AR-924 pager model, but they were produced by a company called Frontier Group Entity outside of Taiwan, the bureau said in a statement.
UK universities face funding ‘crunch’ as foreign students go elsewhere
From July to September student visa applications slumped 16 percent compared to same period last year
Decline major cause of concern for higher education institutions as foreign students pay far more than British students
Updated 11 November 2024
AFP
LONDON: UK universities are among the most prestigious in the world, but visa restrictions mean they are now attracting fewer international students — taking a heavy toll on their finances.
The restrictions are compounding problems caused by the UK’s departure from the European Union four years’ ago.
Almost 760,000 foreign students were enrolled in British universities in 2022, making Britain the second most popular destination after the US, in a highly competitive market.
Most come from India, then China and Nigeria.
But last year, the number of student visas fell by 5 percent. Between July and September, student visa applications slumped 16 percent compared to the same period last year.
The decline is a major cause of concern for higher education institutions since foreign students pay far more in fees than British students.
Leo Xui, 20 years old and from China, began studying population and health sciences at University College London in September.
“It’s good for my career,” he said of enrolling abroad. Thinking ahead to when he will return to China, he added: “I will be able to apply for a foreign company.”
His fees for the academic year are £31,000 (37,200 euros). British students attending universities in England have paid a maximum of £9,250 since 2017.
The Labour government, elected in the summer, announced last week that the cap would rise to £9,535 from next year, a move welcomed by universities who have been calling for an increase for years.
Universities UK (UUK), which represents 141 British higher education institutions, warned at its conference in September that funding per student is at its lowest level since 2004.
It estimates that the £9,250 fee is worth less than £6,000 because of inflation, leading to deficits in teaching and research.
“We are all feeling the crunch,” UUK president Sally Mapstone told the conference.
Universities have welcomed more foreign students in a bid to fill budget gaps, to the point where many are financially dependent on them.
According to a parliamentary report, foreign students make up more than half the student body at London’s University of the Arts and Cranfield University, a science and engineering institute just north of the British capital.
The Financial Times reported earlier this year that some universities, including York, have lowered their admission criteria to attract more students from abroad.
But the previous Conservative government, ousted from power in July, complicated the universities’ task by imposing restrictions on student visas as it sought to reduce record levels of regular migration.
It forbade foreign students from bringing family members with them, with a few exceptions, and prevented them from switching to work visas while studying.
In the first four months of 2024, there were 30,000 fewer applications from overseas than in the same period in 2023, according to official statistics.
“These hard numbers confirm our fear that the previous government’s changes have made the UK a less attractive study destination,” said Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute think-tank.
Provost Ian Dunn of Coventry University, where more than a third of the 30,000 students are from overseas said the Tories’ “narrative was very destructive.”
The university had already been impacted by Brexit.
“We had 4,400 students from the European Union. Now we’re probably at 10 percent of that,” he said, adding that the situation was “difficult.”
A lecturer at another English university told AFP that teaching positions as well as courses had been cut.
“The drop in international students has dramatically worsened the crisis for us,” she said on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to talk to the media.
“Some have preferred to go to Canada, Australia or the Netherlands, where courses are taught in English,” she added.
Coventry University may have found the answer by partnering with institutions overseas to open campuses in several countries, including Egypt, Morocco, India and China.
At the end of their studies, students may not have set foot in the UK but they still “obtain a degree from Coventry University,” said Dunn.
KARACHI: Pakistan Railways has suspended train operations from the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta to other parts of the country for four days, it said on Sunday, a day after a deadly bombing at Quetta Railway Station killed more than two dozen people.
At least 26 people were killed and 64 others injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the crowded railway station early on Saturday morning in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province, according to officials.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the most prominent of separatist groups in Balochistan, claimed responsibility for the attack, the deadliest since a string of coordinated assaults on Aug. 25-26 in which more than 50 people, civilians and security officials, were killed in the region.
On Sunday, Aamir Ali Baloch, chief executive officer of Pakistan Railways, announced the suspension of train operations in view of security concerns and in the interest of passenger safety.
“Operations will resume as soon as clearance is granted,” Pakistan Railways said in a statement on Sunday night.
Train service from Quetta to other cities remained suspended for more than a month after separatist militants blew up a key bridge in the southwestern Balochistan province on August 26.
Built in 1887, the five-span bridge was the second such link constructed by the British Army at the Bolan Pass after reaching an agreement with the then Khan of Kalat, Meer Khuda-e-Dad Khan, to extend the railway network to Quetta and Chaman near the Afghan border.
Baloch said Pakistan Railways had successfully restored Quetta’s connection with the rest of the country and such incidents would not weaken their resolve. He said compensation would be provided to the families of the deceased and to the injured according to the railways insurance policy.
“Fifty injured individuals are currently being treated in trauma centers, where Pakistan Railways’ medical teams are present to provide care,” he said, commending the Quetta division team of railways for the immediate relief operations.
Balochistan is Pakistan’s most impoverished province where separatist militants have been fighting what they see as the unfair exploitation of the province’s mineral and gas wealth by the federation at the center. The province is home to major China-led investment projects such as a strategic port and a gold and copper mine.
The Pakistani government and military deny they are exploiting Balochistan and have long maintained that neighbors such as India, Afghanistan and Iran foment trouble in the remote province and support and fund the insurgency there to impede its development potential.
Thousands flee as fourth typhoon in a month hits Philippines
Typhoon Toraji hit near Dilasag town, about 220 kilometers northeast of the capital, Manila
After Toraji, a tropical depression could also potentially strike the region as early as Thursday night
Updated 11 November 2024
AFP
MANILA: Thousands of people sought shelter and ports shut down in the Philippines on Monday, officials said, as the disaster-weary nation was struck by another typhoon — the fourth in less than a month.
Typhoon Toraji hit near Dilasag town, about 220 kilometers (140 miles) northeast of the capital, Manila, the national weather agency said.
“We’re getting hit with strong winds and heavy rain. Some trees are being toppled and power has been cut since yesterday,” Merwina Pableo, civil defense chief of Dinalungan town near Dilasag, said.
Rescuers said around 7,000 people were moved from coastal areas as well as flood-prone and landslide-prone areas in Aurora and Isabela, the first two provinces to be struck before Toraji plowed inland to the mountainous interior of the main island of Luzon.
In all, the government ordered 2,500 villages to be evacuated on Sunday, though the national disaster office does not have the total number of evacuees as of Monday.
In the landfall area of Dilasag, school teacher Glenn Balanag, 31, filmed the onslaught of the howling 130 kilometers an hour winds, which violently shook coconut trees around his rural home.
Tropical cyclone bulletin released by the Philippine weather bureau PAGASA on Sunday.
“Big trees are falling and we heard the roofs of some houses were damaged. The rain is continuing and a river nearby is rising,” he said.
The national weather agency warned of severe winds and “intense to torrential” rainfall exceeding 200 millimeters (eight inches) across the north of the country, along with a “moderate to high risk of a storm surge” — giant waves up to three meters (10 feet) high on the north coast.
Schools and government offices were shut in areas expected to be hit hardest by the latest typhoon.
Nearly 700 passengers were stranded at ports on or near the typhoon’s path, according to a coast guard tally on Monday, with the weather service warning that “sea travel is risky for all types or tonnage of vessels.”
“All mariners must remain in port or, if underway, seek shelter or safe harbor as soon as possible until winds and waves subside,” it added.
Aurora and Isabela officials said the main impact appeared to be downed trees and power pylons that blocked major roads.
“I don’t want to send people out yet to investigate. I do not want them to be caught out by powerful gusts,” said Constante Foronda, Isabela’s disaster response chief.
The typhoon was forecast to blow out to the South China Sea late Monday, the weather service said.
Aurora provincial disaster response chief Elson Egargue said he pushed out crews to clear roads after Toraji left the province in early afternoon.
After Toraji, a tropical depression could also potentially strike the region as early as Thursday night, weather forecaster Veronica Torres said.
Tropical Storm Man-yi, currently east of Guam, may also threaten the Philippines next week, she added.
Toraji came on the heels of three cyclones in less than a month that killed 159 people.
On Thursday, Typhoon Yinxing slammed into the country’s north coast, damaging houses and buildings.
A 12-year-old girl was crushed to death in one incident.
Before that, Severe Tropical Storm Trami and Super Typhoon Kong-rey together left 158 people dead, the national disaster agency said, with most of that tally attributed to Trami.
About 20 big storms and typhoons hit the archipelago nation or its surrounding waters each year.
A recent study showed that storms in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly forming closer to coastlines, intensifying more rapidly and lasting longer over land due to climate change.
