World
Pakistani police arrest 8 after deadly Ramadan food stampede
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani police on Saturday arrested eight individuals within the southern port metropolis of Karachi after a stampede killed 12 individuals at a Ramadan meals and money distribution level a day earlier.
A whole bunch of ladies and kids rushed to gather free meals and money exterior a manufacturing facility in an industrial space of the town on Friday. Enterprise house owners through the Islamic holy month usually hand out money and meals, particularly to the poor. An preliminary report from the police says 9 girls, aged between 40 and 80, and three kids, aged between 10 and 15, died within the crush.
Police mentioned the eight arrests embrace the manufacturing facility supervisor, who didn’t inform native authorities concerning the Ramadan alms giving.
“Manufacturing facility administration didn’t open the within gate of the manufacturing facility and, as a result of slim avenue, the individuals on the tail of the road pushed aged girls and kids,” Superintendent of Police Investigations Dr. Hafeez Bugti instructed the media throughout a go to to the positioning. “In consequence, strain elevated enormously, and ladies and kids grew to become the victims of the stampede.”
Police say they issued and publicized an order saying that any individual or group planning to distribute meals or different issues to the poor should inform authorities prematurely.
The chief minister of Sindh province, the place Karachi is positioned, introduced compensation for individuals injured within the stampede and kinfolk of the victims. Murad Ali Shah mentioned every household who misplaced a liked one will obtain 500,000 rupees, whereas everybody injured will obtain 100,000 rupees.
Funerals have been held Saturday for among the deceased: Naseem Begum, 50, and Ma’afia Begum, 55, have been buried in Karachi’s Orangi City neighborhood. Shehzadi Umar, 60, was laid to relaxation in her hometown of Mirpur Mathelo, some eight hours from Karachi.
At the least 23 individuals have died in Ramadan meals stampedes because the begin of the holy month. On Saturday, police fired tear fuel at crowds who gathered to obtain free flour luggage within the northwestern metropolis of Peshawar.
Money-strapped Pakistan launched an initiative to distribute free flour amongst low-income households to ease the impression of record-breaking inflation and hovering poverty through the holy month.
Whereas Friday’s stampede was not a part of that authorities program, crowds have swelled on the distribution facilities in latest days. The free flour distribution initiative was launched by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif. His coalition authorities is dealing with the nation’s worst financial disaster amid a delay in getting a key $1.1 billion tranche of a $6 billion bailout package deal initially signed in 2019 with the Worldwide Financial Fund.
Weekly inflation is 45%, unseen since Pakistan bought its independence from British colonial rule in 1947. Rising meals prices and hovering gasoline payments have raised fears of public unrest.
Neither Sharif nor Pakistani President Arif Alvi have commented on Friday’s stampede.
World
Thousands of Indigenous people gather in Brazil to protest Lula's land grant decisions
Thousands of Indigenous people began gathering in Brazil’s capital on Monday for what was expected to become a protest against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s unfulfilled promises to create reserves and expel illegal miners and land-grabbers from their territories.
Holding Lula’s government to account appeared to be the focus of this year’s 20th Free Land Camp, an annual weeklong encampment of Indigenous people in Brasilia.
CONSERVATIVE BRAZILIANS LAUD ELON MUSK AT RALLY IN SUPPORT OF BOLSONARO
Last week, Lula created two new reserves instead of the six his government had promised for this year. During the announcement, he acknowledged that “some of our friends” would be frustrated.
Lula said the delay was at the behest of state governors and that it was necessary to find new areas for about 800 non-Indigenous peoples who would eventually be displaced upon defining the new reserves.
“Enough of lawful genocide! Our rights cannot be negotiated, and no one can take Indigenous rights out of the Constitution,” read an open letter from Brazil’s Indigenous People Articulation, the country’s main Indigenous organization, published Monday. The letter was addressed to the legislative, judicial and executive branches of Brazil’s government.
At least 251 territories have pending claims for recognition before the federal government, according to non-profit Socio-Environmental Institute.
“We are very disappointed with this government. We know it has many enemies, and the Congress is one common enemy”, Alessandra Korap, an Indigenous leader of the Munduruku tribe, told The Associated Press. “But we didn’t expect it to demarcate only two lands this year.”
Lula took office in 2023 pledging to resume granting lands to Indigenous peoples, a stark contrast to his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, who kept his promise not to create a single centimeter of additional Indigenous land. However, Indigenous demands face mounting opposition from the powerful agribusiness sector, which has the support of hundreds of seats in Congress and several governors across the country.
Protest organizers said about 8,000 people have so far come to Brasilia this year. They’ve set up hundreds of tents on the main esplanade. Some endured a three-day long bus trip. Activities in the camp include traditional dances, the selling of handicrafts, debates and political demonstrations.
Many more protesters were expected to come throughout the week.
World
Asia bears biggest climate-change brunt amid extreme weather: WMO
World Meteorological Organization says floods and storms were leading cause of casualties and economic losses as impact of heatwaves becomes more severe.
Asia was the region most affected by climate change, weather and water-related hazards globally last year, the United Nations weather agency has said.
In a report published on Tuesday, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said floods and storms were the main cause of casualties and economic damage in 2023, while the impact of heatwaves became more severe.
It found that Asia has been warming faster than the global average, with temperature rises in 2023 averaging nearly 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 1961-90 average.
“Many countries in the region experienced their hottest year on record in 2023, along with a barrage of extreme conditions, from droughts and heatwaves to floods and storms,” WMO chief Celeste Saulo said in a statement.
She added that climate change “exacerbated the frequency and severity of such events”, calling the report’s conclusions “sobering”.
The agency said 79 disasters associated with water-related weather hazards were reported in Asia last year. Of those, some 80 percent were floods and storms, with more than 2,000 deaths and nine million people directly affected.
The State of the Climate in Asia 2023 report also found that floods were the leading cause of death in reported events in 2023 “by a substantial margin”.
Hong Kong recorded 158.1mm (6.2 inches) of rainfall in one hour on September 7 – the highest since records began in 1884 – as a result of a typhoon.
The report also highlighted that most glaciers in the high mountain region in Asia had lost significant mass because of record-breaking high temperatures and dry conditions.
Precipitation was below normal in the Himalayas and in the Hindu Kush mountain ranges in Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2023, while southwest China suffered from a drought, with below-normal precipitation levels in nearly every month of the year.
Particularly high average temperatures were recorded from western Siberia to Central Asia, and from eastern China to Japan, the report said, with Japan having its hottest summer on record.
‘Urgency’ for action
The report comes as a number of Asian countries have been hit by severe floods in recent weeks.
In southern China, more than 100,000 people were evacuated on Tuesday due to heavy rain and floods that have killed at least four people. Meanwhile, authorities in Afghanistan and Pakistan last week declared a state of emergency in some regions after heavy rains and flash floods killed at least 100 people.
The WMO said there was an urgent need for national weather services across Asia to improve tailored information to officials working on reducing disaster risks.
“It is imperative that our actions and strategies mirror the urgency of these times,” said Saulo.
“Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the evolving climate is not merely an option, but a fundamental necessity.”
World
Maps: Earthquakes Shake Eastern Taiwan
Two strong earthquakes shook Taiwan’s eastern coast early Tuesday local time, one offshore with a magnitude of 6.1 and another a few minutes later with a magnitude of 6.0 near Hualien City, according to the United States Geological Survey.
The quakes hit near an area where at least nine people were killed and hundreds were injured by a larger earthquake earlier this month.
As seismologists review available data, they may revise the earthquakes’ reported magnitude. Additional information collected about the earthquake may also prompt U.S.G.S. scientists to update the shake-severity map.
Aftershocks in the region
An aftershock is usually a smaller earthquake that follows a larger one in the same general area. Aftershocks are typically minor adjustments along the portion of a fault that slipped at the time of the initial earthquake.
Aftershocks can occur days, weeks or even years after the first earthquake. These events can be of equal or larger magnitude to the initial earthquake, and they can continue to affect already damaged locations.
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