Saturday, August 22

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War is on their doorstep, but a ‘duty to serve’ keeps staff working at Beirut hospital | World News
Business

War is on their doorstep, but a ‘duty to serve’ keeps staff working at Beirut hospital | World News

Up on the roof of the St Therese Hospital, you can see just how close this war has come. Right over the street is Dahieh, a southern suburb of Beirut which is controlled by Hezbollah. About 200 metres away, smoke still rises from an airstrike last Saturday. A block of flats has been levelled. And it was not even the closest place to have been hit recently. Image: A smoking building in Dahieh Image: Hospital director Elie Hachem says St Therese has taken a lot of damage "These are huge bombs," says Elie Hachem, the hospital's director."So, even though the hospital isn't being targeted directly, it's taking a lot of damage." One strike that hit on 3 October ...
India has one of the highest levels of treatment coverage for tuberculosis: WHO
Health

India has one of the highest levels of treatment coverage for tuberculosis: WHO

India has one of the highest levels of treatment coverage for tuberculosis, among the 30 high TB burden countries, revealed a recent report by the World Health Organization (WHO).  The report showed that India is among seven of 30 high TB-burden countries -- Brazil, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, Uganda, and Zambia -- with more than 80 per cent of treatment coverage in 2023. The country also achieved a significant increase in the number of people receiving preventative therapy for household contacts of TB patients and people living with HIV, the report showed. According to the report, 12.2 lakh people in India were put on preventive therapy in 2023, up from 10.2 lakh in 2022, and 4.2 lakh in 2021. While TB medicines are expensive and the therapy may continue for as long as...
Jurassic 5’s Chali 2na: ‘I was born when hip hop was just emerging’
World News

Jurassic 5’s Chali 2na: ‘I was born when hip hop was just emerging’

LA rapper and artist Chali 2na Photo: Jorge Sevilla Rapper Chali 2na sits in his backyard in Los Angeles, smoking a joint and finishing a painting he has been working on for some time. He uses spray cans on the 2.4-metre wide, 1.2-metre tall canvas - a medium he has used to bring his vibrant creations to life since he was a kid. Born in 1971, just before the birth of hip hop, Chali 2na has witnessed its evolution firsthand. This year marks the 30th anniversary of Jurassic 5, the alternative hip hop collective that saw his bass-baritone voice rise to fame. The group's first single, 'Unified Rebelution', released in 1994, launched Chali 2na, Akil, Soup, Marc 7, DJ Nu-Mark, and turntablist Cut Chemist. This audio is not downloadable due to copyright restrictions. The group's 2000 al...
Nuts! NY authorities euthanise Instagram squirrel star
World News

Nuts! NY authorities euthanise Instagram squirrel star

New Yorker Mark Longo said he rescued the animal after seeing its mother killed by a car. Photo: Screenshot / Instagram peanut_the_squirrel12 A squirrel named Peanut who was propelled to the heights of internet celebrity has been euthanised, New York authorities said on Friday, biting a government staffer on the way out. With 537,000 followers on Instagram, the domesticated black squirrel had fans around the world who delighted in his exploits, such as nibbling on waffles and doffing tiny costumes. New Yorker Mark Longo said he rescued the animal after seeing its mother killed by a car, going on to bottle feed the baby squirrel before attempting to release him into the wild. However, the animal lost part of its tail and returned to Longo, living with him for seven years and starring in ...
Zelenskyy calls on allies to stop ‘watching’ and act on North Korean threat in Russia | World News
Business

Zelenskyy calls on allies to stop ‘watching’ and act on North Korean threat in Russia | World News

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on the UK and other Ukrainian allies to stop "watching" and provide long-range weapons to strike North Korean troops in Russia before they enter combat.The "first thousands of soldiers from North Korea are near the Ukrainian border" and Ukrainians "will be forced to defend themselves against them", the Ukrainian president said in a Telegram video. "And the world will watch again."Mr Zelenskyy said Ukraine had pinpointed every location where North Korean soldiers had been stationed in Russia, but said Kyiv's allies had not supplied the long-range weapons needed to hit them."But instead of such necessary long-range capability, America watches, Britain watches, Germany watches...," he said. "Everyone in the world who truly wants the Russian war against Ukraine n...
US to deploy B-52s, warships to Middle East as aircraft carrier departs
World News

US to deploy B-52s, warships to Middle East as aircraft carrier departs

The Lincoln's withdrawal will create an aircraft carrier gap until another is cycled into the Middle East. Photo: AFP/Will Tyndall By Phil Stewart, Reuters The United States said on Friday it will deploy B-52 bombers, fighter jets, refuelling aircraft and Navy destroyers to the Middle East, in a readjustment of military assets as the Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group prepares to leave the region. The Pentagon said in a statement that deployments would take place in the coming months and demonstrated the flexibility of the US military movements around the world. "Should Iran, its partners, or its proxies use this moment to target American personnel or interests in the region, the United States will take every measure necessary to defend our people," Pentagon spokesperson Air Force Maj...
Arizona prosecutor investigating Trump for saying Cheney should face gunfire
World News

Arizona prosecutor investigating Trump for saying Cheney should face gunfire

By Andy Sullivan and Susan Heavey for Reuters Donald Trump has criticised Cheney as a warmonger. Photo: AFP / Getty Images Arizona's top prosecutor, a Democrat, says her office is investigating whether Donald Trump violated state law for suggesting a prominent critic should face gunfire in combat. Trump has drawn outrage for comments he made about former lawmaker Liz Cheney at a campaign event in the battleground state of Arizona on Thursday (US time). His campaign said the former president was criticising Cheney as a warmonger, but critics condemned the remarks as evidence he would target his enemies if he wins next week's election against Democrat Kamala Harris. "She's a radical war hawk," Trump said of Cheney. "Let's put her with a rifle standing there, with nine barrels shooting ...
US election live: Arizona officials investigating Trump’s ‘firing squad’ comments
World News

US election live: Arizona officials investigating Trump’s ‘firing squad’ comments

US presidential candidate Donald Trump has been labelled a "tyrant" for suggesting a former Republican politician should face a firing squad for her foreign policy stance. Trump called Liz Cheney - one of the highest-profile Republicans to turn against Trump and endorse his opponent, Democrat Kamala Harris - a "very dumb individual" and a "radical war hawk" at a campaign event in Arizona. "Let's put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let's see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained to her face," he said. Cheney, the daughter of former Republican vice president Dick Cheney, said Trump's comment showed he was a "petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant". "This is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten ...
Ageing space probe deploys radio transmitter it hasn’t used since 1981
World News

Ageing space probe deploys radio transmitter it hasn’t used since 1981

By Ashley Strickland, CNN NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is depicted in this artist's concept traveling through interstellar space, or the space between stars, which it entered in 2012. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech The 47-year-old Voyager 1 spacecraft is back in touch with NASA - but not out of the woods - after a technical issue caused a days-long communications blackout with the historic mission, which is billions of miles away in interstellar space. Voyager 1 is now using a radio transmitter it hasn't relied on since 1981 to stay in contact with its team on Earth while engineers work to understand what went wrong. As the spacecraft, launched in September 1977, ages, the team has slowly turned off components to conserve power, allowing Voyager 1 to send back unique science data from 15 bil...
Family left with nothing forced to salvage precious memories after home devastated by Spain floods | World News
Business

Family left with nothing forced to salvage precious memories after home devastated by Spain floods | World News

From filthy mud-caked bags Isabel picks through the only belongings she has left in the world.Grimy clothes and broken furniture among the remnants left behind by the flood in the Spanish city of Torrent. She picks up some nail varnish."What a disaster," she says.The river to her house filled with water during Tuesday's flash flooding until it smashed through the front door and burst out through the wall. Follow Spain flooding latestThe home to three generations of her family didn't stand a chance. "I didn't have time to grab anything. Not even a backpack with a laptop, clothes nothing," she says. Image: Isabel says she had no chance to grab any belongings before the floods hit Her brother Angel shows us around the wrec...