WHO: Turkiye, Syria quake could affect up to 23 million people

WHO: Turkiye, Syria quake could affect up to 23 million people
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, speaks during a news conference at WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on Dec. 14, 2022. (File/AP)
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Updated 08 February 2023

WHO: Turkiye, Syria quake could affect up to 23 million people

WHO: Turkiye, Syria quake could affect up to 23 million people
  • Disaster agencies said several thousand buildings were flattened in cities across a vast Turkiye-Syria border region

GENEVA: Up to 23 million people could be affected by the massive earthquake that has killed thousands in Turkiye and Syria, the WHO warned on Tuesday, promising long-term assistance.
“Event overview maps show that potentially 23 million people are exposed, including around five million vulnerable populations,” the World Health Organization’s senior emergencies officer Adelheid Marschang said.
“Civilian infrastructure and potentially health infrastructure have been damaged across the affected region, mainly in Turkiye and northwest Syria,” she said.
The WHO “considers that the main unmet needs may be in Syria in the immediate and mid-term,” Marschang told the WHO’s executive committee in Geneva.
She spoke as rescuers in Turkiye and Syria braved freezing cold, aftershocks and collapsing buildings, as they dug for survivors buried by a string of earthquakes that killed more than 5,000 people.
“It is now a race against time,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, explaining that the UN health agency was urgently sending aid to the area.
“We’re mobilizing emergency supplies and we have activated the WHO network of emergency medical teams to provide essential health care for the injured and most vulnerable.”
Disaster agencies said several thousand buildings were flattened in cities across a vast Turkiye-Syria border region — pouring misery on an area already plagued by war, insurgency, refugee crises and a recent cholera outbreak.
Through the night, survivors used their bare hands to pick over the twisted ruins of multi-story apartment blocks — trying to save family, friends and anyone else sleeping inside when the first massive 7.8-magnitude quake struck early Monday.
The situation is particularly dire in northern Syria, which has already been decimated by years of war.
“The movement of aid through the border into northwest Syria is likely to be or is already disrupted due to the damage caused by the earthquake,” Marschang said.
“This in itself would be a huge crisis already.”
She addressed a special meeting on the tragedy, which held a minute’s silence for the victims.
The WHO chief vowed that the agency would “work closely with all partners to support authorities in both countries in the critical hours and days ahead, and in the months and years to come as both countries recover and rebuild.”

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Gritty school drama sparks controversy in Tunisia

Gritty school drama sparks controversy in Tunisia
Updated 24 March 2023

Gritty school drama sparks controversy in Tunisia

Gritty school drama sparks controversy in Tunisia
  • The controversy came after private channel El Hiwar Ettounsi on Thursday evening broadcast the first episode of the soap opera "Fallujah"
  • Education Minister Mohamed Ali Boughdiri told local radio he had alerted Prime Minister Nalja Bouden

TUNIS: Tunisia’s education minister has lashed out at a Ramadan TV series accused of tarnishing the reputation of schools, while two lawyers launched a bid to take it off the air.
The controversy came after private channel El Hiwar Ettounsi on Thursday evening broadcast the first episode of the soap opera “Fallujah.”
Named after a city that became a symbol of Arab resistance for battling American occupation forces after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the series is a drama about a group of high school students, their behavior toward their teachers and their often difficult home lives.
In one scene, a new teacher is hit on by students in the classroom then finds her car tagged with “Welcome to Fallujah.”
In another, a drug dealer in the schoolyard hands out ecstasy tablets to students who then sell them on to classmates.
Education Minister Mohamed Ali Boughdiri told local radio he had alerted Prime Minister Nalja Bouden.
“We will take all necessary measures to take this farce off the air. It has offended families, undermines the entire education system and considerably harms the image of Tunisian schools,” he said.
Two lawyers also filed a request to a Tunis court to stop the broadcasts immediately.
“This series deliberately undermines (public) morals and the educational system by disseminating obscenities,” lawyers Saber Ben Ammar and Hssan Ezzedine Diab wrote.
Teacher’s union the Federation of Secondary Education said the series “seriously harms teachers” and urged the ministry of education to investigate how a private TV channel was able to film in it a public school.
Union chief Lassaad Yaacoubi said the ministry had approved the filming in exchange for giving the school some of the furniture used during the production.


Daesh group kills 15 truffle hunters in Syria: monitor

Daesh group kills 15 truffle hunters in Syria: monitor
Updated 24 March 2023

Daesh group kills 15 truffle hunters in Syria: monitor

Daesh group kills 15 truffle hunters in Syria: monitor
  • Syria’s desert truffles fetch high prices in a country battered by 12 years of war

BEIRUT: The Daesh group killed 15 people foraging for desert truffles in conflict-ravaged central Syria by cutting their throats, while 40 others are missing, a war monitor said Friday.
Syria’s desert truffles fetch high prices in a country battered by 12 years of war and a crushing economic crisis.
Since February, at least 150 people — most of them civilians — have been killed by IS attacks targeting truffle hunters or by land mines left by the extremists, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“At least 15 people, including seven civilians and eight local pro-regime fighters, were killed by Daesh fighters who slit their throats while they were collecting truffles on Thursday,” said Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
Forty others are missing following the attack in Hama province, he added.
Syrian state media did not immediately report the incident.
Between February and April each year, hundreds of impoverished Syrians search for truffles in the vast Syrian Desert, or Badia — a known hideout for jihadists that is also littered with land mines.
Foragers risk their lives to collect the delicacies, despite repeated warnings about land mines and Daesh fighters.
Earlier this month, Daesh fighters killed three truffle hunters and kidnapped at least 26 others in northern Syria, according to the monitor, which relies on a vast network of sources inside Syria.
That attack happened near positions held by pro-Iran forces, said the Britain-based Observatory.


Briton, hotel worker die in Morocco resort spa fire

Briton, hotel worker die in Morocco resort spa fire
Updated 24 March 2023

Briton, hotel worker die in Morocco resort spa fire

Briton, hotel worker die in Morocco resort spa fire
  • Blaze in Marrakech trapped father of two, worker in ‘truly horrific incident’
  • They died from smoke inhalation despite efforts of paramedics, police, firefighters

LONDON: A British man and a hotel worker have died in a fire that broke out at a resort in Marrakech on Wednesday, The Sun reported.

The blaze broke out in a spa in the five-star Jaal Riad Resort, trapping the father of two and the hotel worker inside.

They died from smoke inhalation despite the efforts of paramedics, police and firefighters who rushed to the scene.

A source described it as a “truly horrific incident,” adding that the Briton “was a tourist visiting the area with friends and they have had to break the news to his family. Everyone is heartbroken.”

A fire service spokesman said: “We can’t comment further because of an ongoing investigation.”


Algeria to send imams to Italy for Taraweeh prayers

Algeria to send imams to Italy for Taraweeh prayers
Updated 24 March 2023

Algeria to send imams to Italy for Taraweeh prayers

Algeria to send imams to Italy for Taraweeh prayers
  • Imams to be sent to France for same purpose; Germany and Belgium have made similar requests
  • Italy made request ‘so all Muslims will be given good spiritual care during Ramadan,’ Interior Ministry source tells Arab News

ROME: Twenty-nine imams from Algeria will be sent by their government to Italy to help local imams perform Taraweeh prayers during the holy month of Ramadan.

The imams will be sent “upon a specific request by the Italian authorities,” Algerian Religious Affairs Minister Youssef Belmehdi told state radio.

He added that 128 imams will be sent to France for the same purpose, and that Germany and Belgium have made similar requests.

A source in Italy’s Interior Ministry told Arab News that the request for imams from Algeria was made “so that all Muslims in Italy will be given good spiritual care during Ramadan.” The source said Algeria’s government “enthusiastically and promptly agreed” to the request.

Giuseppe Ciutti, a Catholic priest who is engaged in ecumenical dialogue, told Arab News: “At such an important time as Ramadan for Muslims, it’s important that everyone can get good spiritual assistance.”

According to the Union of Islamic Communities in Italy, 2.5 million Muslims live in the country, comprising 4.7 percent of the total population. Moroccans represent the largest Muslim community in Italy.


Iran urges France to listen to protesters, avoid violence

Iran urges France to listen to protesters, avoid violence
Updated 24 March 2023

Iran urges France to listen to protesters, avoid violence

Iran urges France to listen to protesters, avoid violence
  • Protesters clashed with French security forces in the most serious violence yet of a three-month revolt
  • Kanani was referring to criticism, including from France, of Iran’s response to months-long protests

TEHRAN: Iran on Friday urged France to listen to protesters and avoid violence after more than 450 people were arrested and nearly as many police were injured in demonstrations against pension reforms.
Protesters clashed with French security forces on Thursday in the most serious violence yet of a three-month revolt against President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to increase the retirement age.
“The French government must talk to its people and listen to their voices,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani tweeted.
“We do not support destruction or rioting, but we maintain that instead of creating chaos in other countries, listen to the voice of your people and avoid violence against them,” he added.
Kanani was referring to criticism, including from France, of Iran’s response to months-long protests triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini after the 22-year-old’s arrest for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic’s strict dress code for women.
Hundreds of people have been killed, including dozens of security personnel, and thousands arrested in connection with what Iranian officials described as “riots” fomented by Israel and the West.
The United States, Britain and the European Union have imposed several rounds of sanctions on Iran for its response to the protest movement, led mostly by women.
“Those who sow the wind reap the whirlwind,” Kanani said, adding that such “violence contradicts sitting on the chair of morality lessons and preaching to others.”
On Friday, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said 457 people had been arrested and 441 members of the security forces injured the day before during the protests.
Darmanin dismissed calls from protesters to withdraw the pensions reform.
“I don’t think we should withdraw this law because of violence,” he said. “If so, that means there’s no state. We should accept a democratic, social debate, but not a violent debate.”