A Russian polar research vessel docked in South Africa’s Cape Town harbour at the weekend as climate protesters raised fears it could be used to help Moscow explore for minerals in protected Antarctica. The Akademik Aleksandr Karpinskiy icebreaker is on its way to the Antarctic as part of a scientific expedition launched late last year, according to Russian media. The ship is owned by the Polar Marine Geosurvey Expedition, a subsidiary of the Russian state-owned mineral exploration company RosGeo. “We believe that exploitation will be happening next,” said Extinction Rebellion spokeswoman Jacqui Tooke. A small group of environmentalists waving placards…
Author: Osas Monday
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The European Central Bank is expected to push on with its inflation fight Thursday with a fresh rate hike, even as signs grow the eurozone might have passed the worst of an economic shock. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent energy and food costs soaring across the single currency area, the ECB embarked on the most aggressive cycle of monetary policy tightening in its history. Since July, it has lifted interest rates by 2.5 percentage points to tame consumer price growth — which peaked at 10.6 percent in October, over five times the bank’s target. While still high, inflation has…
Two dozen Madagascans have died and tens of thousands been left homeless since a severe tropical storm made landfall last week and swirled for days off the island’s western coast, official records showed Sunday. Cyclone Cheneso smashed into northeastern Madagascar 10 days ago, bringing heavy winds and triggering downpours that have caused extensive flooding. Over the week it has tracked south-eastwards, extending damage to houses, schools and cutting off several national roads. Twenty-five people are now known to have died and 21 others are still missing, according to an update from Madagascar’s risk management office. At least 83,181 people have…
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg asked South Korea on Monday to “step up” military support for Ukraine, suggesting it reconsider its policy of not exporting weapons to countries in conflict. Stoltenberg is in Seoul on the first leg of his Asia trip, which will also take in Japan, as part of a drive to boost ties with the region’s democratic allies in the face of the Ukraine conflict and growing competition from China. He met top South Korean officials Sunday, and on Monday urged Seoul to do more to help Kyiv, saying there was an “urgent need for more ammunition”.…
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived Sunday in Egypt at the start of a Middle East trip on which he will look to notch down Israeli-Palestinian tensions after an eruption of violence. Blinken, who will travel Monday and Tuesday to Jerusalem and Ramallah after his stop in Cairo, had long planned the visit to see Israel’s new right-wing government, but the trip takes on a new urgency after some of the worst violence in years. A Palestinian gunman on Friday killed seven people outside a synagogue in a settler neighbourhood of east Jerusalem, and another attack followed on Saturday.…
Gunmen opened fire on a group of people celebrating a birthday at the weekend in a township in South Africa, killing eight and wounding three others, police said Monday. The birthday celebrant was among those gunned down in the mass shooting in the southern port city of Gqeberha, formerly Port Elizabeth. “The owner of the house was celebrating his birthday when two unknown gunmen entered the yard” on Sunday evening “and started shooting at the guests,” police said in a statement. The gunmen “randomly shot at guests,” police said, adding “eight people died while three others are still fighting for…
As Sudan’s economic crisis drags on, grocer Hassan Omar keeps busy cleaning packaged food items that have been gathering dust for months as his dwindling customer base make fewer purchases. “People can no longer afford to buy all their needs,” Omar, 43, told AFP at his grocery store in the capital Khartoum. “Purchasing power has significantly declined over the past six months,” he said, noting that his sales had plummeted from 500,000 Sudanese pounds ($877) to 200,000 pounds ($350) per day over that period. His plight reflects Sudan’s spiralling economic crisis which has forced many households to tighten their belts…
The World Health Organization called on Monday for greater investment in combating neglected tropical diseases, which left more than 1.6 billion people, often in least-developed countries, requiring treatment in 2021. NTDs are a diverse group of conditions found mainly in tropical regions that include dengue, leprosy and rabies. The WHO said NTDs disproportionately affect the poorest people, primarily in areas where water safety, sanitation and access to health care are inadequate. They are deemed neglected because they are largely overlooked and benefit from only limited funding. Soce Fall, director of the WHO’s NTDs department, said they had been neglected because…
An armed group in Mali that signed a major peace deal in 2015 said this week it was pulling out of efforts to draft a new constitution. The new constitution is a key part of a peace and reconciliation process designed to return the country from military to civilian rule by March 2024. The Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) — a predominantly Tuareg alliance that fought the state for years before signing the peace deal in Algiers in 2015 — blamed the ruling military junta for foot-dragging. In a statement seen by AFP on Saturday, the CMA pointed out that…
Peruvian President Dina Boluarte made a renewed appeal Sunday for Congress to hold early elections as a way to end weeks of deadly protests, warning that otherwise, she will seek constitutional reform to make a vote happen. The South American country has been embroiled in a political crisis with near-daily street protests since December 7, when then-president Pedro Castillo was arrested after attempting to dissolve Congress and rule by decree. In seven weeks of demonstrations, 48 people — including one police officer — have been killed in clashes between security forces and protesters, according to the Ombudsman’s Office of Peru.…