Children including 10-day-old baby rescued from ruins as Turkey-Syria quake toll nears 24,000

News Network
February 11, 2023

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Istanbul, Feb 11: Rescue crews have saved a 10-day-old baby and his mother trapped under a toppled building in Turkey and dug several people, including children, out from other sites as the death toll from the devastating Turkey-Syria earthquake approached 24,000.

Officials and medics said on Friday 20,213 people had died in Turkey and 3,553 in Syria. The confirmed total now stands at 23,766. Many more people remain under the rubble.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said authorities should have reacted faster to this week's huge earthquake.

"Although we have the largest search and rescue team in the world right now, it is a reality that search efforts are not as fast as we wanted them to be," Erdogan said on Friday.

Erdogan had previously admitted that the initial response after the earthquake was slow due to adverse weather conditions, damaged roads, and the large area that affected the country's 10 provinces.

Some residents of the region have complained that there were no aid workers in their area in the critical hours after the earthquake, a charge that politicians, opposed to Erdogan's government, blamed.

However, Erdogan further said that the search and rescue operation continues with the joining of teams from all over the world.

Speaking in the earthquake-hit Adiyaman province, he also said that looting of shops had taken place in some areas, adding that the state of emergency declared in the area would allow the state authorities to take the necessary punishments.

Erdogan also said after visiting displaced people sheltering in tents, if people choose to move out of the affected cities, the government will pay their rent for one year.

Syrian state media also announced on Friday that the Syrian government has approved humanitarian aid to all war-torn areas of the country, a move that could speed up the arrival of aid to millions of people affected by Monday's deadly earthquake.

The said distribution of aid will be done in cooperation with the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the Syrian Red Crescent to ensure that the aid reaches those who need it.

Also, the Syrian government has declared Lattakia, Hama, Aleppo, and Idlib as the most affected areas by the earthquake and will create a rehabilitation fund.

The Turkey-Syria border is one of the world's most active earthquake zones. Monday's quake was the largest Turkey has seen since 1939, when 33,000 people died in eastern Erzincan province. In 1999, a 7.4 magnitude earthquake killed more than 17,000.

The United Nations World Food Program committed $77 million on Friday to provide food rations and hot meals to 874,000 people affected by the deadly earthquake in Syria and Turkey.

The number in need of aid "includes 284,000 newly displaced people in Syria and 590,000 people in Turkey, which includes 45,000 refugees and 545,000 internally displaced people", the Rome-based organization said in a statement.

In the first four days since deadly earthquakes struck the region, WFP has delivered food assistance to 115,000 people in Syria and Turkey.

"We're providing mainly hot meals, ready-to-eat food rations, and family food packages -- things that require no cooking facilities and can be consumed immediately," said Corinne Fleischer, the WFP's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.

"For the thousands of people affected by the earthquakes, food is one of the top needs right now and our priority is to get it to the people who need it fast."

WFP has announced that despite the difficulties in getting food in Syria, which has been devastated by the conflict, it has so far delivered food to 43 thousand people in the country.

Thanks to stockpiles inside the country, the agency said ready-to-eat rations are available for 100,000 people, and other rations that require cooking facilities for 1.4 million people for a month.

Meanwhile, the United Nations said on Friday that it was rapidly depleting the stockpile it had in Syria ahead of the devastating earthquake and needed quick resupply to support the millions affected.

The Bab al-Hawa crossing from Turkey is currently the only way UN aid can reach civilians in war-torn Syria. This is while Syria is under severe international sanctions.

The United Nations has called for politics to be stripped out of the disaster response to facilitate aid delivery.

Katrina Bohme, from the World Health Organization headquarters team, said that no obstacle to help the victims is acceptable.

"We need to ensure access to assistance and health care for all those in need. Collectively as the UN, we will be measured on whether we can enable this," she told a briefing in Geneva.

UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, had 30,000 so-called relief items – mattresses, blankets, kitchen sets, plastic sheets, jerry cans and sleeping mats – and 20,000 tents already in Syria before the earthquake.

"We have been distributing them since day one," said Sivanka Dhanapala, the UNHCR representative in the country. "A lot of this is being sent out and now needs to be replenished as quickly as possible," he said via video link.

The UN Human Rights Secretary-General also called for an immediate ceasefire in Syria on Friday in order to facilitate the delivery of aid to all the victims of the devastating earthquake in the region.

"UN human rights chief Volker Turk calls for an immediate ceasefire in Syria, and full respect for human rights and humanitarian law obligations so help can reach everyone," the UN rights office said in a tweet.

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News Network
March 21,2023

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Bengaluru, Mar 21: Kannada actor and activist Chetan Kumar, aka Chetan Ahimsa, who was arrested last night by the police in Bengaluru after his tweet stating Hindutva is "built on lies" went viral online, was on Tuesday remanded in judicial custody for 14 days by the 32nd ACMM Court.

On March 20, Chetan took to his Twitter handle and called Hindutva "a lie".

He also said that Babri Masjid was not the birthplace of Lord Ram and that it was a lie that the idea of Indian nation began when Lord Ram returned to Ayodhya after defeating Raavan.

"Hindutva is built on LIES. Savarkar: Indian ‘nation’ began when Rama defeated Ravana & returned to Ayodhya —> a lie. 1992: Babri Masjid is ‘birthplace of Rama’ —> a lie. 2023: Urigowda-Nanjegowda are ‘killers’ of Tipu—> a lie," his tweet read.

He went on to say, "Hindutva can be defeated by TRUTH—> truth is EQUALITY".

Soon after, a complaint was lodged against him by a Hindutva outfit and an FIR was registered by the police.

Seshadripuram Police officers arrested the actor on Monday night, after filing FIR under IPC Sections 295A and 505B.

This is not the first time that the actor has faced the heat of the police. In February 2022, he was arrested for his tweet about the background of a High Court judge who was hearing the Hijab case. 

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News Network
March 20,2023

Mangaluru, Mar 20: A youth who immolated himself succumbed to the injuries sustained, at Muchilakodi under the limits of Konaje police station limits on the outskirts of the city on Sunday.

The deceased has been identified as Harish (33), son of Babu Shettigar of Vittal Kanyana. He was working as a gardener at Infosys campus at Mudipu.

Harish had married a young woman from Siddakatte Sangabettu last year. His wife is now said to be seven months pregnant. Harish had even planned to hold a baby shower function for his wife. 

However, his wife reportedly started avoiding Harish for past couple of months. 

On March 12, Harish had called his cousin Ramesh Shettigar of Konaje and had said he found ash and iron piece in his bag and suspected black magic by someone. Ramesh had then told Harish that he would talk about it on March 19. 

Accordingly, Harish had visited Ramesh’s house on Sunday, March 19. Commissioner of Police Kuldeep Kumar R Jain said that Harish reportedly poured petrol over himself and also on his wife. He had suffered 75 per cent burn injuries. As his wife had come aside when he poured petrol, she is safe.

Immediately the police were informed and Harish was rushed to the hospital in ambulance but he breathed his last before reaching the hospital. It is learnt, despite suffering burn injuries, Harish had himself boarded the ambulance.

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News Network
March 7,2023

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Israel’s so-called national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has ordered the security forces to press ahead with the demolition of Palestinian homes that have purportedly been built "without permits" in occupied East al-Quds during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

According to the Israeli public broadcaster KAN, the Monday announcement comes despite the fact that the occupying regime has not carried out home demolitions during Ramadan in the past years in order to avoid tensions with Palestinians and their subsequent retaliatory operations.

Ramadan, during which Muslims fast from dawn to sunset, is set to start later this month.

Meanwhile, the Israeli daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said Israeli police warned Ben-Gvir that the fasting month of Ramadan could be extremely dangerous to implement the measure, as Palestinians are already stretched to the limit amid rising tensions across the occupied West Bank.

The demolition of Palestinian homes across the occupied territories has increased since the extremely far-right Israeli administration led by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office.

Palestinians regard ministers of the new cabinet, especially far-right Ben-Gvir and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, as racist and fascist for publicly advocating the expulsion of Palestinians and the demolition of their homes, supporting Israeli extremist groups repeatedly attacking Palestinians, and stirring incitement to racism against Arabs and non-Jews.

Last week, Smotrich caused an uproar when he said the Palestinian town of Huwwara, south of Nablus, should be “wiped out.”

“I think the village of Huwwara needs to be wiped out. I think Israel should do it,” he was quoted as saying by Israeli media outlets on March 1.

Smotrich’s remarks were met with condemnations from the European Union and many countries around the world as incitement of violence and terrorism.

The office of the European Union Representative in al-Quds condemned the remarks as “unacceptable,” saying, “They incite to indiscriminate violence in a situation which is already extremely tense.”

Israel routinely demolishes Palestinian houses in the occupied West Bank and East al-Quds. The regime alleges that the homes were built without a permit. However, the Israeli regime rarely, if ever, approves such permits for Palestinians. The Israeli forces also sometimes order Palestinian owners to demolish their own houses or pay the costs of the demolition.

Israel has already occupied thousands of square kilometers of Palestinian agricultural land to construct and expand new illegal settler units in various areas in the West Bank.

More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and al-Quds.

All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. The United Nations Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.

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