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Search renews for missing migrants after nine die off Spain's Canary Islands

Search renews for missing migrants after nine die off Spain's Canary Islands
A 'cayuco' boat with 57 migrants onboard arrives at La Restinga port on the Canary island of El Hierro, on September 14, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 29 September 2024
Reuters
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Search renews for missing migrants after nine die off Spain's Canary Islands

Search renews for missing migrants after nine die off Spain's Canary Islands
  • Among the dead was a child aged between 12-15
Updated 29 September 2024
Reuters
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EL HIERRO: Rescue crews on Sunday renewed the search for about 48 migrants missing since their boat capsized near the Spanish island of El Hierro in what threatens to be the deadliest such incident in 30 years of crossings from Africa to the Canary Islands.
Nine people, one of them a child, have been confirmed as dead after their boat sank in the early hours of Saturday morning, emergency and rescue services said.
Rescuers were able to pick up 27 of 84 migrants who were trying to reach the Spanish coast.
A Reuters journalist said one coastguard vessel had left the island of El Hierro on Sunday to renew the search. More rescue craft are expected to follow, along with air support.
Spanish authorities said the migrants were from Mali, Mauritania and Senegal.
The emergency services received a call on Saturday shortly after midnight from the boat, which was located around four miles east of El Hierro. It sank during the rescue, they said.
"They had been at sea for at least two days without food and it seems there was a panic before the boat capsized," Anselmo Pestana, the Spanish government representative in the Canary Islands, told reporters on Saturday.
Wind and poor visibility made the rescue extremely difficult, he added.
Among the dead was a child aged between 12-15, according to the NGO Walking Borders, which helps migrants.
Three other boats reached the Canary Islands during the night, carrying 208 migrants.
Calm seas and gentle winds associated with late summer in the Atlantic Ocean off West Africa have prompted a renewed surge of migrants, local authorities said this month.
The route from Africa to the islands has seen a 154% surge in migrants this year, with 21,620 migrants crossing in the first seven months, data from the European Union's border agency Frontex showed.
In some 30 years of migrant crossings to the islands the deadliest shipwreck recorded to date occurred in 2009 off the island of Lanzarote when 25 people died.

Topics: Spain

Nepal closes schools as deaths from heavy rains hit 151

Nepal closes schools as deaths from heavy rains hit 151
Updated 48 sec ago
Reuters
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Nepal closes schools as deaths from heavy rains hit 151

Nepal closes schools as deaths from heavy rains hit 151
  • The floods brought traffic and normal activity to a standstill in the Katmandu valley, where 37 deaths were recorded
  • Authorities say students and parents face difficulties as university and school buildings damaged by rains need repair
Updated 48 sec ago
Reuters

KATMANDU: Nepal has shut schools for three days after landslides and floods triggered by two days of heavy rain across the Himalayan nation killed 151 people, with 56 missing, officials said on Sunday.
The floods brought traffic and normal activity to a standstill in the Katmandu valley, where 37 deaths were recorded in a region home to 4 million people and the capital.
Authorities said students and their parents faced difficulties as university and school buildings damaged by the rains needed repair.
“We have urged the concerned authorities to close schools in the affected areas for three days,” Lakshmi Bhattarai, a spokesperson for the education ministry, told Reuters.
Some parts of the capital reported rain of up to 322.2 mm (12.7 inches), pushing the level of its main Bagmati river up 2.2 m (7 ft) past the danger mark, experts said.
But there were some signs of respite on Sunday morning, with the rains easing in many places, said Govinda Jha, a weather forecaster in the capital.
“There may be some isolated showers, but heavy rains are unlikely,” he said.
Television images showed police rescuers in knee-high rubber boots using picks and shovels to clear away mud and retrieve 16 bodies of passengers from two buses swept away by a massive landslide at a site on the key route into Katmandu.
Weather officials in the capital blamed the rainstorms on a low-pressure system in the Bay of Bengal extending over parts of neighboring India close to Nepal.
Haphazard development amplifies climate change risks in Nepal, say climate scientists at the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).
“I’ve never before seen flooding on this scale in Katmandu,” said Arun Bhakta Shrestha, an environmental risk official at the center.
In a statement, it urged the government and city planners to “urgently” step up investment in, and plans for, infrastructure, such as underground stormwater and sewage systems, both of the “grey,” or engineered kind, and “green,” or nature-based type.
The impact of the rains was aggravated by poor drainage due to unplanned settlement and urbanization efforts, construction on floodplains, lack of areas for water retention, and encroachment on the Bagmati river, it added.
The level in the Koshi river in Nepal’s southeast has started to fall, however, said Ram Chandra Tiwari, the region’s top bureaucrat.
The river, which brings deadly floods to India’s eastern state of Bihar nearly every year, had been running above the danger mark at a level nearly three times normal, he said.

Topics: nepal rain

India’s oldest operating trams to disappear after 150 years of service

India’s oldest operating trams to disappear after 150 years of service
Updated 29 September 2024
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India’s oldest operating trams to disappear after 150 years of service

India’s oldest operating trams to disappear after 150 years of service
  • Kolkata is the only city in India still using tramway system
  • Protesting residents are appealing to high court to save it
Updated 29 September 2024
Sanjay Kumar

NEW DELHI: Standing in the rain at the Shyam Bazar, Koushik Das joined another 500 residents of Kolkata trying to save an iconic piece of the city’s heritage: India’s oldest operating trams.

Introduced in 1873, during the days of the British Raj, when Kolkata was the center of colonial rule, trams were initially horse-drawn and then steam-powered. Electric ones took to the streets in 1900.

From Kolkata, they were brought to other major Indian cities, including Patna, Chennai, and Mumbai, but it is only in the capital of West Bengal where they are still in service.

“Nowhere in India do you have a tram service except in Kolkata, and we want to preserve and save it,” Das told Arab News.

“We will not allow the tram to be stopped in Kolkata. It will remain our heritage.”

The protest he was part of on Thursday came in reaction to last week’s announcement by Snehasis Chakraborty, the state transport minister, that trams would be removed from the streets of Kolkata to help decongest its traffic.

For Das and other tram users who have mobilized under his “Save Heritage, Save Tram” social media campaign, the announcement was a blow, as if someone was “trying to snatch” his identity.

“The tram is the identity of Bengal … We will launch a wider protest,” the 20-year-old journalism student said.

“We want the tram to run on all routes. It is economically viable for people and environmentally friendly.”

In this archival photo, a tram car in Kolkata, India, is pulled by horses. (Facebook/Calcutta Tram Users Association)

Over the past few years, Kolkata’s tram network has been slowly disappearing. Only two routes remained in operation out of 37 in 2011. At the same time, the track has shrunk from 61 km to only 12, according to Calcutta Tram Users Association data.

The number of passengers has also dropped — tenfold to the current 7,000.

Dr. Debasish Bhattacharyya, a biochemist and the association’s founder, has been working to revive the heritage mode of transport over the past eight years.

“Calcuttans have been familiar with their tramway for the last 151 years. The city grew up along the tracks so that citizens could reach any point using the tramways. Because of the extreme usage of the people, the tramway has penetrated all aspects of the life and culture of the Bengalis,” he told Arab News.

“We do not view the tramways as a means of transport but rather a part of our soul. We inherited this asset from our ancestors. Thus, it is a living heritage of the city. It is a signature of the city, too.”

The state government plans to operate only a short single route: from Esplanade at the heart of the city, past some landmark monuments. It will end at Maidan, Kolkata’s largest urban park, offering a nostalgic experience, which the transport minister said would be a “pleasant and environment-friendly ride.”

But the environmental aspect is what motivates the protesting residents as well.

“Beyond its poetic beauty, we cannot ignore the usefulness of trams as the green, eco-friendly mass transport system,” said Sreeparna Sen, a banker and blogger.

“Kolkata is fortunate to have a wonderful intricate network of tram lines, which, if used tactically, will solve the transport problem and decrease the pollution. For every sane reason, trams should be preserved.”

In a last-ditch effort, protesters have appealed to the Kolkata High Court against the discontinuation of tram services and are waiting for its ruling. Until then, the state government also cannot proceed with dismantling the remaining tracks.

Kolkata’s tram system has outlived others by decades. In Mumbai and Delhi, trams stopped operations in the 1960s. In Chennai, in the early 1950s.

“It is a pocket-friendly means of transportation, it’s environment-friendly. Tram is the pride of Kolkata,” said Tarun Patra, a student involved in the Save Heritage, Save Tram campaign.

“We are waiting for the high court order on this issue. We want our voice to reach the high court, and the court should know the sentiments of the people.”

Topics: India

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Activists protest escalating Mideast crisis outside UK base in Cyprus

Activists protest escalating Mideast crisis outside UK base in Cyprus
Updated 29 September 2024
Reuters
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Activists protest escalating Mideast crisis outside UK base in Cyprus

Activists protest escalating Mideast crisis outside UK base in Cyprus
  • A couple of hundred people holding Palestinian and Cypriot flags peacefully protested outside the locked gates of the facility
Updated 29 September 2024
Reuters

AKROTIRI, Cyprus: Pro-Palestinian campaigners protested at the gates of RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus on Sunday, accusing Britain of offering tacit support to Israel’s ongoing operations in Gaza and elsewhere.
Chanting “Out with the bases of death” a couple of hundred people holding Palestinian and Cypriot flags peacefully protested outside the locked gates of the facility, Britain’s largest in the Middle East.
Britain last week sent additional troops to Cyprus to be in position to assist any potential evacuation of nationals trapped in Lebanon, which is reeling from a barrage of Israeli air strikes which culminated in the killing of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday evening.
The UK has two military bases on Cyprus, a former British colony. RAF Akrotiri has been used in the past as a staging point for airstrikes against Houthi forces in Yemen in retaliation for attacks on Red Sea shipping that the Iran-backed group says is a response to the war in Gaza.
“This is an issue of independence and sovereignty for Cyprus,” said Peter Iosif, a member of the Cyprus Peace Council, an organizer of Sunday’s demonstration. “At this time it becomes even more obvious how the British bases are acting against the will of the Cyprus people,” he said.
In response to the protests, a British bases spokesperson said: “No RAF flights have transported lethal cargo to the Israeli Defense Forces.”
“In addition, it is standard practice for the UK Ministry of Defense to routinely authorize requests for (a) limited number of allies and partners to access the UK’s air bases. Such activity must be in line with UK policy for evacuation and humanitarian purposes only.”

Topics: Battlefield Lebanon

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UK Conservatives assemble to find a new leader and future direction

UK Conservatives assemble to find a new leader and future direction
Updated 29 September 2024
AFP
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UK Conservatives assemble to find a new leader and future direction

UK Conservatives assemble to find a new leader and future direction
  • It is the Conservatives' first conference in opposition since 2009 -- a year before David Cameron set them on their way to 14 years of consecutive but chaotic rule
Updated 29 September 2024
AFP

LONDON: Britain's opposition Conservatives gather for an annual conference on Sunday, licking their wounds from a historic election defeat and locked in battle over the party's future direction.
The four-day meeting in Birmingham, central England, comes three months after the Tories were ousted from power by Labour, with Keir Starmer taking over as prime minister.
It is the Conservatives' first conference in opposition since 2009 -- a year before David Cameron set them on their way to 14 years of consecutive but chaotic rule, marked by austerity, Brexit, the Covid pandemic and in-fighting.
The get-together will see four candidates audition in front of parliamentary colleagues and grassroots members as they bid to replace ex-premier Rishi Sunak as the next Tory leader.
Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat will all make pitches from the stage in the main hall at the International Convention Centre in Britain's second-largest city.
Setting out his stall, frontrunner and former immigration minister Jenrick pledged a cap "cast in iron" on immigration.
"The age of mass migration must end. It's placing immense pressure on housing, on public services and on community cohesion. You can't integrate 1.2 million people into a small country each year," he told Sky News' Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips.
The subject was a key issue at the July general election when the Conservatives lost critical votes to Nigel Farage's anti-immigration Reform UK party.
Jenrick's nearest rival, Badenoch said immigration was something the country needed to "get right".
"Numbers matter... culture matters. If we want to have a well-integrated society we need to make sure that we have a shared culture and a shared identity," she told Sky.
Conservative MPs will vote next week to determine the final two candidates. Party members will then select the winner in a ballot that closes at the end of October.
"It's essentially going to be a talent parade," Robert Ford, politics professor at the University of Manchester, told AFP.
Britain's new opposition leader -- and the person tasked with reuniting the party before the next elections -- will be announced on Saturday November 2.
Whoever is chosen will determine whether the party tacks further to the right or seeks to regain the centre ground following the Conservatives' worst-ever general election result on July 4.
Labour won a whopping 174-seat majority in the 650-seat UK parliament. The Tories lost 251 seats to return just 121 MPs, the lowest number in their history.
It capped a stunning downfall from the previous election in 2019 when the Tories won an 80-seat majority under Boris Johnson, mainly on a promise to "get Brexit done".


The party unravelled in spectacular fashion. Several scandals, not least Downing Street staff partying during coronavirus lockdowns, forced Johnson from office.
His successor, Liz Truss, then lasted just 49 days due to her mini-budget which tanked the pound and spooked markets.
Sunak, brought in to steady the ship, was unable to reverse the slide and his 20 months in office were marred by factional infighting.
After the election, he announced he would step down once a successor had been chosen.
The party faces a dilemma: should it focus on winning back voters who defected to Nigel Farage's hard-right Reform UK party, or aim to regain the support of those who switched to the centrist Liberal Democrats?
The party as a whole has drifted rightwards in recent years but Badenoch and Jenrick are seen as the more right-wing of the candidates, with Cleverly and Tugendhat nearer the centre.
"It's true that elections tend to be won in the centre ground, unless one of the other parties abandons it completely," said Tim Bale, politics professor at Queen Mary University of London.
"Now that Labour seem to be absolutely determined to hog it, it would seem that the Conservatives probably have to fight on that territory," he told AFP.
The conference ends on Wednesday.

Topics: UK

11 wounded in southern Ukraine in Russian strikes

11 wounded in southern Ukraine in Russian strikes
Updated 29 September 2024
AFP
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11 wounded in southern Ukraine in Russian strikes

11 wounded in southern Ukraine in Russian strikes
Updated 29 September 2024
AFP
KYIV: At least 11 people were wounded on Sunday in a series of Russian strikes on Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, emergency services announced.
The regional capital was hit by several “massive aerial strikes” at dawn, Ukrainian emergency services said in a statement.
“A building and six houses in different city neighborhoods suffered a lot of destruction,” said the statement, adding that 42 members of the emergency services were helping those potentially trapped under the rubble.
“According to preliminary information, the number of wounded people has risen to 11,” said the emergency services, adding that rescue operations had ended.
A woman dragged from the rubble was taken to hospital.
Regional governor Ivan Fedorov had earlier said that six people were wounded.
He said that Zaporizhzhia was hit by 10 Russian strikes that destroyed “one multi-story building and some houses.”
Andriy Yermak, the head of the office of the president, hit out in a social media post at an attempt to “terrorize” the civilian population.
Yermak also reiterated his called on Western allies to supply more weapons to intercept Russian missiles and apply more economic sanctions against Moscow.
Russia annexed the Zaporizhzhia region in 2022, but the main city of the same name remains under Kyiv’s control.

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