Archives for 2024

Maumere (Indonesia): Indonesia’s Disaster Management Agency said Monday that at least nine people have died as a series of volcanic eruptions widens on the remote island of Flores.

Authorities raised the danger level and widened the danger zone for Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki on Monday, following a series of eruption that last week.

The country’s volcanology agency increased the volcano’s alert status to the highest level and more than doubled the exclusion zone to a 7-kilometer (4.3-mile) radius after midnight on Monday as eruptions became more frequent. It has been spewing thick brownish ash up to 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) into the air every day since Thursday.

The eruption just after midnight on Monday spewed thick brownish ash as high as 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) into the air and hot ashes hit a nearby village, burning down several houses including a convent of Catholic nuns, said Firman Yosef, an official at the Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki monitoring post.

Valencia (Spain) (AP): A crowd of angry survivors of Spain’s floods tossed mud and shouted insults at Spain’s King Felipe VI and government officials when they made their first visit to one of the hardest hit towns on Sunday.

Government officials accompanied the monarch who tried to talk to locals while others shouted at him in Paiporta, an outskirt of Valencia city that has been devastated.

Police had to step in with some officers on horseback to keep back the crowd of several dozens.

“Get out! Get out!” and “Killers!” the crowd shouted among other insults. Bodyguards opened umbrellas to protect the royals and officials as protestors launched mud their way.

After being forced to seek protection, the king remained calm and made several efforts to speak to individual residents. One person appeared to have wept on his shoulder. He shook the hand of a man.

It was an unprecedented incident for a Royal House that takes great care to craft an image of a monarch who is liked by the nation.

But the public rage over for the haphazard management of the crisis came to a boil on Sunday.

Queen Letizia and regional Valencia President Carlo Mazón were also in the contingent. The queen also spoke to women with small glops of mud on her hands and arms.

Over 200 people have died from Tuesday’s floods and thousands have had their homes destroyed by the wall of water and mud. At least 60 of the dead were in Paiporta, an epicentre of suffering.

Indignation of the management of Spain’s worst natural disaster in living memory started after the initial shock wore off.

The floods had started filling Paiporta with crushing waves when the regional officials issued an alert to mobile phones that sounded two hours too late.

And more anger has been fuelled by the inability of officials to respond quickly to aftermath. Most of the cleanup of the layers and layers of mud and debris that has invaded countless homes has been done by residents and thousands of volunteers.

“We have lost everything!” someone shouted.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was scheduled to accompany the king on the visit. But it is not clear if Sánchez was there at the moment the contingent was pelted with mud.

Felipe insisted on trying to dialogue with people as he tried to continue his visit. He spoke to several people, patting two young mean on their backs and sharing a quick embrace, with mud stains on his black rain coat.

According to a journalist for Spanish broadcaster RTVE near Felipe, one woman wept and told him she didn’t have food and diapers while another person said “don’t abandon us”.

But after approximately half an hour of tension, the monarchs got in officials cars and left with a mounted police escort.

Sydney (AP): David Warner’s lifetime captaincy and leadership ban has been lifted by Cricket Australia, a move which could see the retired test player captain the Sydney Thunder in the Twenty20 Big Bash league this season.

Warner received the penalty for his role in the 2018 sandpaper scandal in South Africa, on top of a one-year ban from cricket, which was also imposed on Steve Smith with a lesser playing suspension given to Cameron Bancroft, who was caught on film rubbing and scuffing the ball with yellow sandpaper at a test match in Cape Town.

But the leadership sanction was lifted Friday by an independent three-member review panel who deemed the opener had met the necessary criteria.

Warner appeared before the independent panel content earlier this month. It ruled that he met the criteria to be considered for future leadership roles.

“The respectful and contrite tone of his (Warner’s) responses, as well as the content impressed the Review Panel and led it to the unanimous view that he was sincere and genuine in acknowledging responsibility for the conduct and in his statement that he had extreme remorse for his conduct,” the panel said in a statement Friday.

“Mr. Warner’s conduct and behavior since the imposition of the sanction has been excellent and he appears to have made a substantial change, one example of which is that he no longer sledges or tries to provoke the opposing team.”

Warner played his final test match in January against Pakistan, an Australian win. He has also said he will no longer play one-day internationals, only the T20 format of the game.

The move could also be considered an early birthday present from Cricket Australia — Warner turns 38 on Sunday.

An Israeli strike on a school where displaced people were sheltering in the central Gaza Strip killed at least 17 people on Thursday, nearly all women and children, Palestinian medical officials said.

The strike came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Israel had accomplished its objective of “effectively dismantling” Hamas, and that negotiations over a cease-fire and the release of dozens of Israeli hostages would resume in the coming days.

Another 42 people were wounded in the strike in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp, according to the Awda Hospital, which received the casualties. Among the dead were 13 children under the age of 18 and three women, according to the hospital’s records.

The Israeli military said it targeted Hamas group inside the school, without providing evidence. Israel has carried out several strikes on schools-turned-shelters in recent months, saying it precisely targets Hamas members hiding out among civilians. The strikes often kill women and children.

Blinken, speaking to reporters in Qatar, which has served as a key mediator between Israel and Hamas, said negotiators would reconvene “in the coming days”.

“What we really have to determine is whether Hamas is prepared to engage,” he said on his 11th visit to the region since the start of the war.

The United States hopes to renew the negotiations after Israeli forces killed top Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza last week, but neither side has shown any sign of moderating its demands from months of negotiations that sputtered to a halt over the summer.

Blinken also announced an additional USD 135 million in US aid to the Palestinians, while again urging Israel to allow more assistance to enter the territory.

Health workers in besieged northern Gaza meanwhile warned of a catastrophic situation there, where Israel has been waging an air and ground offensive for more than two weeks.