A series of gas explosions damaged at least 23 buildings and residences, and injured many in several Massachusetts towns in the US, state authorities said on Thursday.

The incident began about 5 p.m. when several explosions occurred in buildings in the towns of Lawrence, Andover and North Andover.

The reason for the blasts, so far, is unknown, Efe reported.

Massachusetts state police said at least 23 explosions and subsequent fires had occurred at a number of different addresses, although local media reported that more blasts had taken place in nearby areas.

The fires were attributed to possible problems with the natural gas system and security forces urged local residents to leave their homes immediately if they smell gas or suspect that they could catch fire.

Local media reported that local fire chief Michael Mansfield said that between 25 and 30 active fires were being battled in Andover and at least 18 more in Lawrence.

“There are multiple basement fires in Andover. It’s some kind of gas issue,” Andover Police Department spokesman Lt. Edward Guy said.

“We urge residents if they are smelling gas to get out of the house and contact 911. We will get units out there,” he added.

(IANS)

India continues to remain on the White House list of countries that are “major” transit points for or producer of illicit drugs.

The annual list was released on Tuesday as US President Donald Trump prepared for a global campaign against drugs at the UN later in September.

The 21 countries on it include Pakistan, Afghanistan, Mexico and Colombia.

India has been on the list since 2004 when President George W. Bush first issued it under a 2003 law enacted by Congress and President Barack Obama continued to keep it there.

India’s inclusion on the list has been a point of friction between New Delhi and Washington.

A country’s presence on the list “is not necessarily a reflection of its government’s counter-narcotics efforts or level of cooperation with the US,” Trump said in his memorandum.

“The reason countries are placed on the list is the combination of geographic, commercial, and economic factors that allow drugs to transit or be produced, even if a government has engaged in robust and diligent narcotics control measures,” he clarified.

Significantly, the list has not included any Western countries even though they have figured transit points for drugs.

Nigeria, Brazil, Vietnam and Thailand, which had figured on the original and some subsequent lists are no longer on it.

Trump is scheduled to preside over a high-level meeting of the Security Council on the drug menace on September 24 and issue a global call to action on the world drug problem, US Permanent Representative Nikki Haley announced last week.

Trump has made battling the crisis of opioid addiction that has gripped the US a priority and even suggested that the nation should consider death penalty for drug dealers.

According to the US government more than 72,000 people died from drug overdose in 2017, nearly 50,000 of them from using opioids, including misuse of pharmaceuticals.

Trump said in his memorandum, “My Administration is committed to addressing all factors fuelling this drug crisis, which is devastating communities across America, including steps to curb over-prescription, expand access to treatment and recovery programs, improve public education programs to prevent illicit drug use before it begins, and to strengthening domestic drug enforcement at our borders and throughout our nation.”

“Alongside these massive and historic US efforts, I expect the governments of countries where illicit drugs originate and through which they transit to similarly strengthen their commitments to reduce dangerous drug production and trafficking,” he added.

(IANS)

 The United States wants India and Pakistan to engage in dialogue but feels a conducive atmosphere needs to be created first, a senior State Department official said on Monday.

“We have frequent conversations with our Indian partners on (Pakistan) bringing down cross-border terrorism,” said Alice Wells, the US Principal Deputy Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Affairs, while briefing the Indian media over telephone from the US on the the first-ever India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue held here on September 6.

Stating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already talked with his new Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan, Wells said: “We need conditions to be created for a constructive dialogue.”

The US statement reflects New Delhi’s position that talks and terror cannot go together.

Wells said that the US would like to work with Pakistan to establish stability and political settlement in Afghanistan.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had also expressed similar view when he stopped over in Islamabad on September 5, ahead of the first-ever India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue held in New Delhi the next day.

“Secretary Pompeo’s trip to Pakistan was another opportunity for the Secretary to meet the new civilian leadership there and describe the aspirations we have for the (US-Pakistan) bilateral relationship,” Wells said.

“We would like to be able to work with Pakistan to establish stability and a political settlement in Afghanistan.”

Wells said the US-Pakistan relationship will be about whether Washington can stop Islamabad from supporting terrorists using its soil.

“There has been a very consistent message during Secretary Pompeo’s visit about our desire to work with Pakistan productively, constructively and the kind of concerns we have,” she said.

She also referred to US President Donald Trump’s new South Asia Strategy, describing it as a decisive step that states what the US believes needs to be done to bring stability in the region.

(IANS)

Two months ago, all 12 boys and the coach of a Thai football team were rescued after being trapped in a cave in northern Thailand for 18 days. Many termed their rescue against heavy odds a miracle.

Sadly, the six-day United Nations Special Climate Conference that concluded on September 9 was not able to rescue the trapped Paris Climate Agreement in the well-lit conference centre in southern Thailand. Many of the delegates wondered if it was about pronouncing the promises only to dodge them.

The Paris Climate Agreement has been hanging from a cliff right from the day US President Donald Trump, a year back, announced his official plan to withdraw from it. Though hundreds of American mayors and thousands of businesses — and even its allies like France — have been seeking to defy the consequences of Trump’s withdrawal, the agreement is getting dangerously close to its fatal consequence.

The good news is that the Paris Agreement has entered into force on November 4, 2016, in less than a year from its consensus adoption on December 12, 2015, in Paris. However, it is yet to be operationalised because its modalities, procedures and guidelines are yet to be agreed upon by its 180 Parties (countries that ratified the Paris Agreement). Indeed, the Paris Agreement in its present form is just an agreement of intent.

These “rules”, as per the time-table agreed in Paris, have to be ready no later than 2018. The Bangkok Climate Conference was a late addition to the schedule after dismal progress was made at the annual meeting of the subsidiary bodies of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC) in Bonn in May 2018. The Bangkok Climate Conference was the last major negotiating meeting before the 24th Conference of the Parties (COP-24) in Poland in December, when finally the Paris Agreement will be in mission mode.

The exercise in Bangkok turned out to be progress in planning but a stalemate in its objective of operationalising. The Paris Agreement remains trapped in a complex maze of the caves of finance for mitigation and adaptation for the developing countries, deployment of market mechanisms, periodicity of stocktaking and transparency, flexibility for developing countries in reporting.

Formulating the rules on the cyclic and iterative nature by enhancing the nationally determined contributions (NDCs), earlier considered an innovation in international agreements, is now proving to be formidable.

It all boils down to the fact that world is now setting the new norms of not keeping the promises made on global cooperation. Not walking the talk and smartly gyrating the agreed goals is now the global attire of the diplomacy. And each of these new patterns are being justified, sometimes diplomatically and, many times with international arrogance.

Take, for example, financing for mitigation and adaptation for the developing countries. The “polluter to pay” norm has been the anchor in the multilateral environment agreements right from the 1992 Rio Agreement, but is now being openly flouted. The promise of providing “additional” finance through the Green Climate Fund (GCF), which was first proposed by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and then President Barack Obama in Copenhagen in 2009, is supposed to become fully operational in 2020, i.e. developed countries would provide — starting with $10 billion per year in 2012 to reach $100 billion per year from 2020 onwards — to help developing countries pay for climate adaptation and mitigation.

What has happened to that promise? As of today, GCF has pledges of $10.4 billion whereas the actually committed is only $3.5 billion. The GCF as institution itself is in chaotic state. The GCF head, an Australian, abruptly resigned in July 2018 after just two years in the job because of “personal reasons”. The deputy head from Nicaragua did not even attend the July meeting of GCF, where no projects were approved. “GCF is melting down faster than Antarctica,” one of the delegates in Bangkok said.

In Bangkok, the developed countries smartly proposed to count all the finances provided by the private sector, philanthropy, FDI and regular international development aid of 0.7 per cent of the GDP as part of the promised $100 billion. They also proposed dilution of the financial reporting rules, thereby flouting the agreement on “additional climate financing”.

Not walking the full talk by the star performers on climate change has also resulted in the angry reaction from civil society, and supported by countries, on such climate-hypocrisy.

An example is the Global Climate Action Summit convened from September 12 to 14, 2018, in San Francisco, under the leadership of California Governor Jerry Brown. The summit’s theme is “Take Ambition to the Next Level”. It will be a star-studded international event to showcase climate action at all levels and to inspire enhanced commitments and god-speed action from countries to realise the goals of the Paris Agreement. Indeed, California, the richest US state, has done more in policy setting and its implementation in the field of renewable energy and energy efficiency than any other country in the world. Its firebrand governor can be termed as climate’s game-changer.

In Bangkok, Brown was booed by civil society representatives for his soft approach towards oil producers in California by allowing them to drill for oil. “How can we expect a leader to take climate ambitions to the next level when he himself, from the back-door, takes it to a lower level,” queried one demonstrator in Bangkok.

When state leaders arrive in Poland in December, they would have to muddle through the mess of the draft “rule book” mired in diminishing trust. By that time, the GHGs concentration, already higher by 42 percent as compared to 1992 levels, would have risen to the “next level”.

A rescue operation for the trapped Paris Agreement would be near impossible.

[IANS]

 Leslie Moonves, the powerful longtime Chairman and Chief Executive of CBS, has resigned in the wake of sexual assault accusations, concluding a tumultuous six weeks that saw him fall from the position of one of the countrys most respected media titans.

The company announced the news in a statement late Sunday, saying that CBS Chief Operating Officer Joseph Ianniello will take over as interim CEO and President, both Moonves’ titles, as the company looks for a permanent replacement, The Washington Post reported.

The announcement ends Moonves’ 20-year tenure.

In July, six women accused the media titan of sexual-misconduct in The New Yorker that led to the board hiring outside lawyers to conduct an investigation into Moonves and activists to call for his removal.

On the magazine’s website earlier on Sunday, an additional six women alleged behaviour that includes sexual misconduct, harassment and retaliation.

The allegations also include Moonves exposing himself without consent and the use of physical violence and intimidation to silence the women.

In response to the New Yorker story, a CBS spokesman on Sunday told The Washington Post: “CBS takes these allegations very seriously. Our Board of Directors is conducting a thorough investigation of these matters, which is ongoing.”

Moonves is still expected to collect millions as part of a settlement with the board, though the company said it will withhold any decision on payment until after the investigation is complete.

According to a statement from the company, Moonves and CBS will also “donate $20 million to one or more organisations that support the #MeToo movement and equality for women in the workplace.

“The donation, which will be made immediately, has been deducted from any severance benefits that may be due Moonves following the Board’s ongoing independent investigation.”

Moonves has been with CBS since 1995 and has held the title of Chief Executive for the past 15 years.

In early 2006 CBS became a separate entity as it split from Viacom, and has since been one of the most profitable in entertainment.

 US President Donald Trump has hailed the absence of ballistic missiles at the military parade held by the North Korean government on the 70th anniversary of the country’s founding.

“North Korea has just staged their parade, celebrating 70th anniversary of founding, without the customary display of nuclear missiles,” Trump wrote on his Twitter account on Sunday, Efe news reported.

The US President added that “Theme was peace and economic development.”

He added, citing Fox News, that “Experts believe that North Korea cut out the nuclear missiles to show President Trump … its commitment to denuclearize.” This is a big and very positive statement from North Korea.”

Trump, who met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore on June 12, went on to thank Kim for the gesture, adding that “We will both prove everyone wrong! There is nothing like good dialogue from two people that like each other! Much better than before I took office.”

The North Korean leader presided at the parade but did not deliver a speech there and authorities opted not to display any intercontinental or medium-range ballistic missiles among the military hardware in the procession.

Since their June 12 meeting, which many in the US and around the world have criticized as being merely a photo op without any substance, the two sides have held several meetings but also engaged in mutual recriminations over failing to make sufficient progress on the points ostensibly agreed to in Singapore.

In late August, Trump decided to cancel the trip of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Pyongyang due to the lack of such progress.

Kim has reiterated his commitment to dismantle his atomic weapons program, with officials of his government adding that that should occur during Trump’s first term in office, which is scheduled to end in January 2021.

Trump said on Friday that Kim had sent him another letter, which he expected to receive soon, adding that he trusted it contains a “positive” message that will help to unblock the bilateral dialogue.

(IANS)

Brazil’s front-running far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro was stabbed during a rally while campaigning for next month’s election.

On Thursday, Bolsonaro, notorious for making racist, sexist and homophobic remarks, was being led through a crowd on the shoulders of supporters in Juiz de Fora city in the southern state of Minhas Gervais when an assailant stabbed him from the front and he appeared to scream in pain, reports CNN.

Known to many of his countrymen as the “Brazilian Trump”, Bolsonaro was taken to a hospital where medical officials and his family said he was in a stable condition.

“Unfortunately it was more serious than we hoped,” tweeted his son Flavio Bolsonaro.

“The wound reached part of his liver, lung and intestine. He lost a lot of blood, reaching the hospital… Almost dead… His condition now seems stable. Please pray!”

Brazil’s federal police said that they arrested a man identified as Adelio Bispo de Oliveira, 40, whom a group of people tried to lynch after accusing him of staging the attack, reports Efe news.

Bolsonaro is one of the most controversial candidates in the current electoral round because he is a defender of Brazil’s 1964-1984 military dictatorship.

He is also facing court proceedings for inciting violence.

According to a voter survey released on Wednesday, the rightist would finish first in the October 7 election if imprisoned former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose candidacy was declared invalid by election authorities does not participate, but he would lose in a runoff.

Lula was heading all the voter surveys with some 40 per cent support but recently he was declared “ineligible” to run because of his conviction on corruption charges.

Pakistan observed Defence Day on Thursday by paying tribute to martyrs on the 53rd anniversary of the 1965 war with India.

The day dawned with a 31-gun salute in the federal capital and 21-gun salute in the provincial capitals. A change of guard ceremony was held at the mausoleums of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in Karachi and at Allama Iqbal’s in Lahore, Geo News reported.

Special prayers were offered followed by change of guard ceremonies at the mausoleums of Allama Iqbal in Lahore and Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in Karachi. A ceremony at the Pakistan Navy headquarters in Islamabad was also held.

Prime Minister Imran Khan and outgoing President Mamnoon Hussain issued their messages of solidarity on the Defence Day.

Khan said Pakistan believes in peaceful coexistence and wants to promote mutual cooperation with other countries, including its neighbours, on the basis of equality, Radio Pakistan reported.

“The people of Pakistan will leave no stone unturned in defending their motherland, while standing side by side with (the) valiant armed forces of the country,” he said.

Hussain said the spirit of sacrifices rendered by the armed forces and the nation should inspire the people to forge unity among their ranks.

The highlight of the day will be a function scheduled for 8 p.m. at General Headquarters in Rawalpindi.

Khan will be the chief guest at the ceremony, which will be attended by Army Chief General Qamar Jawed Bajwa, services chiefs, ministers, diplomats and people from various walks of life.

New Delhi, French directors Pierre X. Garnier and Jose Revault are working on a documentary which traces the life of ace choreographer Terence Lewis as a man in his 40s and follows his move to step away from the world of dance for acting.

Lewis met the directors — the founders of 7eme Lune, the International Film Festival of Rennes for young directors in France — during his vacation in Corsica in 2016. He hid his identity, but they discovered about him through social media.

“I was pleasantly surprised when they told me that they want to do a documentary because I was very curious to, first of all, know why they want to do a documentary as I have already shot for lots of television shows where a lot of my life has been captured, especially the BBC show ‘Har Ghar Kuch Kehta Hai’.

“I have also spoken about my life quite a lot of times to newspapers, channels and there have been lots of stories about from where I come from and how and where I have reached here,” Lewis told IANS in an email.

So, he wasn’t keen to add one more story.

“But they explained to me that, ‘We were not interested in your story (going) from rags to riches because that’s already been kind of documented. We don’t want to talk about your success, films, TV shows or any other things that are already there. We want to talk about all the things I shared with them in Corsica on a one-on-one’… They found my personal talk with them very interesting.”

The dance guru says the documentary is “different from the regular” ones.

“It is a little bit more internal, in the head and deep… It is not about me talking about my success, my laurels or how amazing my journey is… It is about me as a person now in the present — what are the challenges I am facing as a man in 40s, as a person who is also moving from dance and taking a step… into films as an actor and writer… so it is that journey that they want to chronicle.”

They have shot around 40 per cent and, technically, “need to have 60 hours of footage to make it into a documentary series”. The makers are now crowdfunding to shoot the latter part of the film and for post-production. They need to raise around Rs 700,000.

“What started as a simple project has now become a full-fledged project and we are on Wishberry this month, urging people to help us make the film to just cover the basic expenses of shooting, editing and camera…I hope we are able to reach the target.”

Lewis is hopeful that the documentary will be out next year.

He runs the Terence Lewis Contemporary Dance Company and specialises in Indian folk, contemporary and neo-classical dance forms. He has even choreographed international stage shows, Bollywood shows, Broadway Western musicals and music videos. He became popular as a mentor and judge on “Dance India Dance”.

What was his first reaction to the documentary project?

“I was like ‘Oh my God, that’s bit scary’ as I spoke to them like friends… Like sharing my life about things that were beyond my films and work. I spoke to them about my personal quest… how I was searching for meaning in my life and the philosophies that combine us, politics to history.

“They were like, ‘We want to talk about many things that are going on in your head’ because they found my philosophy — and a certain aspect of my questioning and reasoning things and embracing certain aspects of life — very interesting.

“They wanted to present this kind of an Indian man, a thinking Indian man with certain questions about life, to the Western universe and they said it is very important for an Indian voice to be heard. And they were very curious about new India and (the) conversations that are happening between the traditional and conventional and politics and history.”

Lewis said they were interested in the artistic and cultural changes that are happening in India, and to know how he perceived India as opposed to the Western form, what are the difficulties, strengths of living in a country like this.

He also shared with them his thoughts on nationality, region and ethnicity, apart from a lot about life and the ways people are dealing with relationships, choices, why we are the way we are.

(IANS)

Washington Using data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, scientists have spotted a surprising feature emerging at Saturn’s northern pole as it nears summertime — a warming, high-altitude jet stream with a hexagonal shape.

The vortex is akin to the famous hexagon seen deeper down in Saturn’s clouds, according to the finding published in the journal Nature Communications.

The results suggest that the lower-altitude hexagon may influence what happens above, and that it could be a towering structure hundreds of miles in height.

“The edges of this newly-found vortex appear to be hexagonal, precisely matching a famous and bizarre hexagonal cloud pattern we see deeper down in Saturn’s atmosphere,” said lead author of the new study Leigh Fletcher of the University of Leicester in Britain.

When Cassini arrived at the Saturnian system in 2004, the southern hemisphere was enjoying summertime, while the northern was in the midst of winter.

The spacecraft spied a broad, warm high-altitude vortex at Saturn’s southern pole but none at the planet’s northern pole.

The new study reports the first glimpses of a northern polar vortex forming high in the atmosphere, as Saturn’s northern hemisphere approached summertime.

This warm vortex sits hundreds of miles above the Clouds, in the stratosphere, and reveals an unexpected surprise.

“The mystery and extent of the hexagon continue to grow, even after Cassini’s 13 years in orbit around Saturn,” Cassini project scientist Linda Spilker said.

“I look forward to seeing other new discoveries that remain to be found in the Cassini data,” Spilker added.

(IANS)