Derna, Libya (AFP) Sept 13, 2023 Libya was reeling Wednesday from a massive flood disaster that killed at least 2,300 people when a surge of water devastated the eastern city of Derna, leaving another 10,000 missing according to the Red Cross. Relief missions gathered pace with Turkey, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates among the first nations to rush aid to the war-scarred country, and … Continue reading Fears mount of surging death toll in Libya flood disaster

Marrakesh, Morocco (AFP) Sept 13, 2023 Rescue teams stepped up a massive effort to bring relief to devastated Moroccan mountain villages Wednesday as the chances faded fast for finding survivors from the powerful earthquake which killed 2,900 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless. Vehicles packed with supplies were inching up winding mountain roads to deliver desperately needed food and tents to survivors of the … Continue reading Last-ditch hunt for Morocco quake survivors

San Diego (AFP) Sept 13, 2023 When a wildfire erupted in the middle of a recent California night, it could have been a disaster. But thanks to a new monitoring system that uses artificial intelligence to scan for danger, firefighters were able to quell the blaze long before it got out of hand. “It was less than a quarter acre,” Captain Kris Yeary of Cal … Continue reading California firefighters use AI to battle wildfires

Marrakesh, Morocco (AFP) Sept 12, 2023 Hopes dimmed on Tuesday in Morocco’s search for survivors, four days after a powerful earthquake killed more than 2,900 people, most of them in remote villages of the High Atlas Mountains. Search-and-rescue teams from the kingdom and from abroad kept digging through the rubble of broken mud-brick homes, hoping for signs of life in a race against time following … Continue reading Race against time to find survivors 4 days after Morocco quake

Tikht, Morocco (AFP) Sept 13, 2023 It was delicate work for the searchers to remove the woman’s body from the rubble of a village that effectively ceased to exist in Morocco’s deadliest earthquake in over six decades. Her 25-year-old fiance Omar Ait Mbarek watched the digging Sunday with his eyes red and full of tears just kilometres from the quake epicentre in the Atlas Mountains. … Continue reading ‘Finished here’: A village vanishes in Morocco’s quake

Paris (AFP) Sept 5, 2023 The world inched a step closer towards tackling plastic pollution, with the United Nations publishing the first draft of a binding treaty to tackle the scourge. Some 175 nations are working to reach a landmark agreement by end-2024 that will curb plastic pollution, which ends up in oceans, birds’ stomachs and on mountain peaks. Microplastics have even been detected in … Continue reading World inches step closer towards plastic pollution deal: UN

Karbala, Iraq (AFP) Sept 6, 2023 Millions of Shiite Muslim pilgrims massed at the golden-domed mausoleums of the holy Iraqi city of Karbala on Wednesday, commemorating Arbaeen, one of the largest religious gatherings in the world. The event, organised under strict security, brought together some 22 million pilgrims this year, according to official figures. Iran hit a new participation record with four million visitors,http://dlvr.it/Sw06wS Continue reading Millions of Shiite pilgrims flock to Iraq’s Karbala

Caracas (AFP) Sept 10, 2023 Venezuelan soldiers have dislodged more than 11,500 illegal gold miners from the country’s biggest natural reserve since July, where they cleared forest and contaminated water, the head of the military operation announced Sunday. The miners were removed from the 320,000-hectare (790,737-acre) Yapacana park in Venezuela’s south, where they had been “engaged in the systematic and sustained deshttp://dlvr.it/Svx2jD Continue reading Troops dislodge 11,500 illegal miners from Venezuelan reserve

Geneva (AFP) Sept 11, 2023 Climate change is sparking human rights emergencies in numerous countries, the UN rights chief said Monday, stressing the need to fight the impunity of those who “plunder our environment”. Speaking before the United Nations Human Rights Council, Volker Turk pointed to recent examples of the “environmental horror that is our global planetary crisis”. He described visiting Basra, Iraq, whehttp://dlvr.it/Svx2df Continue reading Climate change ‘dystopian future already here’: UN rights chief

Dubai (AFP) Sept 11, 2023 Yemen has one of the world’s highest rates of contamination with landmines and other deadly explosives, the International Committee of the Red Cross has warned, nine years after the start of the brutal civil war. The impoverished Arab nation, plunged into conflict when Iran-backed Huthi rebels seized the capital in September 2014, is among the three worst affected countries, the … Continue reading Yemen’s explosives contamination among world’s worst: ICRC