News in Brief

Date: 19 May 2021 - 21:53

News ID: ۹۰۳۹۰

NEW DELHI (Dispatches) - Indian navy ships have recovered 22 bodies of people who were on board a barge that sank off Mumbai as a cyclone blew ashore this week, officials said. The search is continuing for 55 more missing people, navy spokesman Mehul Karnik said on Wednesday. He said the three ships and helicopters involved in the search had rescued 184 people in rough seas with waves of up to seven meters (25 feet). Cyclone Tauktae, the most powerful storm to hit the region in more than two decades, packed sustained winds of up to 210km (130 miles) per hour when it came ashore in Gujarat state late on Monday. The storm left more than 50 dead in Gujarat and Maharashtra states. The weather has since improved and the search operation for the missing people has been intensified, navy commander Alok Anand said.

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LONDON (Xinhua) -- A nurse who cared for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he battled COVID-19 in hospital is leaving her job, local media reported Wednesday. Jenny McGee from New Zealand, who was by the prime minister’s bedside for two days when he was in intensive care in April last year, said she felt deeply disappointed at how healthcare workers had been treated, particularly over nurses’ pay, according to local media. McGee was one of two nurses singled out for praise by Johnson for their care. He had heralded McGee and one of her colleagues for staying by his bedside at London’s St Thomas’ Hospital “when things could have gone either way”. “We’re not getting the respect and now pay that we deserve. I’m just sick of it. So I’ve handed in my resignation,” she told a TV documentary to be aired on May 24.

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PARIS (Dispatches) - A gigantic iceberg, measuring over 4,000 square km (1544 square miles), has broken off the Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica. The iceberg, called A-76, is now the largest floating ice mass in the world. The size of the enormous iceberg rivals many large islands worldwide and is bigger than the Spanish resort island of Mallorca, which measures ‘just’ 3,667 square km. The iceberg is quite long and narrow – it is around 170 km in length and only 25 km wide. The breakage was captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission, with satellite imagery showing the ice mass split off from the ice sheet in the Weddell Sea in a nearly perfect straight line. The new iceberg has now become the world’s largest floating ice mass, taking the title from A-23A, which is also floating in the Weddell Sea.

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BRUSSELS (Dispatches) - The European Union took a step toward opening its borders to vaccinated tourists, a move that likely means Americans and other non-Europeans will be allowed to visit the continent this summer. The decision, taken Wednesday by ambassadors from the 27 EU member countries, must still be formally approved by national leaders, which could come as soon as tomorrow. It isn’t yet clear exactly when tourists will be allowed to arrive, but it is expected to be very soon, an EU spokesman said. The U.S. would need to be added to a list of countries from which nonessential travel to the EU is permitted. When that might happen is unclear, but the spokesman said the listed countries could be changed quickly if government leaders decide on it. Individual EU countries can set additional restrictions. They also can decide what official documentation will be accepted to attest that somebody has been vaccinated.

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RANGON (Dispatches) - Three more people have been killed by the Myanmar military, taking the death toll since anti-coup protests began on February 1 to 805, according to a local monitoring group. The military detained 4,146 people, with 92 of them being convicted, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said in its latest report released late Tuesday, Anadolu news agency reported. The group announced that the junta regime cut off supply of drinking water in the Mindat Township, Chin State. “It is a clear expression of the hatred the military has for innocent civilians,” it added. The military’s brutal shooting continues to worsen as a civilian was shot dead in the Daik-U Township, Bago Region, according to the report.

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BRUSSELS (France 24) - Belgian police are searching for a soldier with suspected far-right views who went on the run after violently threatening several prominent figures, including a renowned virologist. Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne on Wednesday described Jurgen Conings, 46, as an “acute threat”. Conings left his home in Belgium’s northeastern Limburg province on Monday and has not been seen since, police said in a search warrant published online. He threatened several people in recent weeks, including top Belgian virologist Marc Van Ranst, before he left an army camp with guns and four missile launchers. Hours after the manhunt for Conings began on Tuesday, his car was found abandoned in Limburg, with weapons inside.