Death toll rises as torrential rain and flooding force evacuations in central Europe

Death toll rises as torrential rain and flooding force evacuations in central Europe
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his aerial photograph taken on September 15, 2024 shows local residents being evacuated by Polish rescuers in the village of Rudawa, southern Poland. (AFP)
Death toll rises as torrential rain and flooding force evacuations in central Europe
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A destroyed car is seen under a tree that fell due to strong winds at the Ružinov estate in Bratislava, Slovakia, on September 15, 2024. (AFP)
Death toll rises as torrential rain and flooding force evacuations in central Europe
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Police officers evacuate people at a flooded street in Opava, Czech Republic on September 15, 2024. (AFP)
Death toll rises as torrential rain and flooding force evacuations in central Europe
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Picture taken on September 15, 2024 shows cars caught in the flooded village of Rudawa, southern Poland. (AFP)
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Updated 16 September 2024
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Death toll rises as torrential rain and flooding force evacuations in central Europe

Death toll rises as torrential rain and flooding force evacuations in central Europe
  • Several countries have already been hit by severe flooding, including Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania
  • The floods have claimed six lives in Romania and one each in Austria and Poland, while four were declared missing in Czech Republic

PRAGUE: The death toll was rising in central European countries on Sunday after days of heavy rains caused widespread flooding and forced evacuations.
Several Central European nations have already been hit by severe flooding, including Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania. Slovakia and Hungary might come next as a result of a low pressure system from northern Italy dumping record rainfall in the region since Thursday.
The floods have claimed six lives in Romania and one each in Austria and Poland. In the Czech Republic, four people who were swept away by waters were missing, police said.
It’s not over yet
Most parts of the Czech Republic have been affected as authorities declared the highest flood warnings at around 100 places across the country. But the situation was worst in two northeastern regions that recorded the biggest rainfall in recent days, including the Jeseniky mountains near the Polish border.
In the city of Opava, up to 10,000 people out of a population of around 56,000 have been asked to move to higher ground. Rescuers used boats to transport people to safety in a neighborhood flooded by the raging Opava River.
“There’s no reason to wait,” Mayor Tomáš Navrátil told Czech public radio. He said that the situation was worse than during the last devastating floods in 1997, known as the “flood of the century.”
“We have to focus on saving lives,” Prime Minister Petr Fiala told Czech public television on Sunday. His government was set to meet Monday to assess the damages.
The worst “is not behind us yet,” the prime minister warned.
President Petr Pavel sounded more optimistic, saying “it’s obvious we’ve learned a lesson from the previous crisis.”
At least 4 missing and villages cut off
Thousands of others also were evacuated in the towns of Krnov, which was almost completely flooded, and Cesky Tesin. The Oder River that flows to Poland was reaching extreme levels in the city of Ostrava and in Bohumin, prompting evacuations.
Ostrava, the regional capital, is the third-largest Czech city. Mayor Jan Dohnal said the city will face major traffic disruptions in the days to come. Almost no trains were operating in the region.
Towns and villages in the Jeseniky mountains, including the local center of Jesenik, were inundated and isolated by raging waters that turned roads into rivers. The military sent a helicopter to help with evacuations.
Jesenik Mayor Zdenka Blistanova told Czech public television that several houses in her and other nearby towns have been destroyed by the floods. A number of bridges and roads have been badly damaged.
About 260,000 households were without power Sunday morning in the entire country, while traffic was halted on many roads, including the major D1 highway.
A firefighter dies as Lower Austria declared a disaster zone
A firefighter died after “slipping on stairs” while pumping out a flooded basement in the town of Tulln, the head of the fire department of Lower Austria, Dietmar Fahrafellner, told reporters on Sunday.
Authorities declared the entire state of Lower Austria in the northeastern part of the country a disaster zone, while 10,000 relief forces have so far evacuated 1,100 houses there. Emergency personnel have started setting up accommodation for residents who had to flee their homes due to the flooding.
The municipality of Lilienfeld with about 25,000 residents is cut off from the outside world. Residents were told to boil tap water as a precaution.
The situation is particularly dangerous along the Kamp River, which flows into the Danube. The Ottenstein reservoir on the river functions as a buffer, but exceeding its limits could cause more flooding, experts say.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said the situation “continues to worsen.” He said 2,400 soldiers were ready to support the relief effort in Austria. Of those, 1,000 soldiers will deploy to the disaster zone in Lower Austria, where dams were beginning to burst.
“We are experiencing difficult and dramatic hours in Lower Austria. For many people in Lower Austria these will probably be the most difficult hours of their lives,” said Johanna Mikl-Leitner, the governor of Lower Austria.
In Vienna, the Wien River overflowed its banks, flooding homes and forcing first evacuations of nearby houses.
Romania reports 2 more flooding victims
Romanian authorities said Sunday that another two people had died in the hard-hit eastern county of Galati after four were reported dead there a day earlier, following unprecedented rain.
Dramatic flooding in Poland
In Poland, one person was presumed dead in floods in the southwest, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Sunday.
Tusk said the situation was “dramatic” around the town of Klodzko, with about 25,000 residents, located in a valley in the Sudetes mountains near the border with the Czech Republic. Helicopters were used to pick up people from roofs in a few cases.
In Glucholazy, rising waters overflowed a river embankment and flooded streets and houses. Mayor Paweł Szymkowicz said, “we are drowning,” and appealed to residents to evacuate to high ground.
A bridge in the town collapsed under the flood pressure and a police station building was knocked down in Stronie Śląskie, after floodwaters burst through a dam. Submerged cars could be seen in many places in the Kłodzko Valley region bordering the Czech Republic, while a new flood wave was expected there.
In the city of Jelenia Gora, which has 75,000 residents, downtown streets were flooded after one of the embankments burst on the Bobr River. City authorities have warned residents they may need to evacuate as more flooding was moving toward the city.
Energy supplies and communications were cut off in some flooded areas, and regions may resort to using the satellite-based Starlink service, Tusk said.
The weather change arrived following a hot start to September in the region. Scientists have documented Earth’s hottest summer, breaking a record set just a year ago.
A hotter atmosphere, driven by human-caused climate change, can lead to more intense rainfall.


Macron says Israel PM ‘mustn’t forget his country created by UN decision’

Macron says Israel PM ‘mustn’t forget his country created by UN decision’
Updated 5 sec ago
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Macron says Israel PM ‘mustn’t forget his country created by UN decision’

Macron says Israel PM ‘mustn’t forget his country created by UN decision’
“Mr Netanyahu must not forget that his country was created by a decision of the UN,” Macron told the weekly French cabinet meeting
“Therefore this is not the time to disregard the decisions of the UN“

PARIS: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should not forget his country was created as a result of a resolution adopted by the United Nations, French President Emmanuel Macron told cabinet on Tuesday, urging Israel to abide by UN decisions.
Tensions have increased between Netanyahu and Macron with the French leader last week insisting that stopping the export of weapons used by Israel in Gaza and Lebanon was the only way to stop the conflicts.
France has also repeatedly denounced Israeli fire against UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, who include a French contingent.
“Mr Netanyahu must not forget that his country was created by a decision of the UN,” Macron told the weekly French cabinet meeting, referring to the resolution adopted in November 1947 by the United Nations General Assembly on the plan to partition Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state.
“Therefore this is not the time to disregard the decisions of the UN,” he added, as Israel wages a ground offensive against the Iran-backed Shiite militant group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, where the UN peacekeepers are deployed.
His comments from the closed door meeting at the Elysee Palace were quoted by a participant who spoke to AFP and asked not to be named.
UN Security Council Resolution 1701 states that only the Lebanese army and the UN peacekeeping mission UNIFIL should be deployed in southern Lebanon.
Netanyahu on Sunday called on the UN to move the 10,000 strong peacekeeping force, who include 700 French troops, deployed in south Lebanon out of “harm’s way,” saying Hezbollah was using them as “human shields.”

India-Canada relations reach historic lows as top diplomats expelled

India-Canada relations reach historic lows as top diplomats expelled
Updated 25 min 50 sec ago
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India-Canada relations reach historic lows as top diplomats expelled

India-Canada relations reach historic lows as top diplomats expelled
  • Relations fraught since the murder of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia last year
  • Canadian PM says Indian officials identified as ‘persons of interest’ in the assassination plot

NEW DELHI: Relations between India and Canada have reached a historic low as the countries expelled each other’s diplomats in an ongoing row over the killing of a Sikh separatist activist on Canadian soil.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused India’s government on Monday of “supporting criminal activity against Canadians here on Canadian soil,” and the country’s Foreign Ministry announced the expulsion of six Indian diplomats, including the high commissioner.

The ministry said Canadian police had gathered evidence, which identified them as “persons of interest” in last year’s killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was gunned down in Surrey, British Columbia.

India immediately rejected the accusations as absurd, and its Ministry of External Affairs said it was expelling Canada’s acting high commissioner, his deputy, and the embassy’s four first secretaries.

Before the announcement, it also summoned the Canadian charge d’affaires and said it was withdrawing its high commissioner and “other targeted diplomats,” contradicting Canada’s statement of expulsion.

“Prime Minister Trudeau has been making these public statements repeatedly, but the evidence that he claims to possess is not available to us so we cannot make any kind of a judgment,” Dr. Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management in New Delhi, told Arab News.

“This is the first time the relationship is so low … It has created a lot of problems and it has done damage to relationships between the two countries for the time being.”

This is not the first time India-Canada relations have been strained. In 1974, after India conducted its first nuclear weapon test, it drew outrage from Canada, which accused it of extracting plutonium from a Canadian reactor, a gift intended for peaceful use.

Ottawa subsequently suspended its support for New Delhi’s nuclear energy program.

“The relationship was also low in the 1980s with the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane and the bombing of the plane, in which many people died,” said Prof. Ronki Ram, political science lecturer at the Punjab University.

The explosion from a bomb planted by Canada-based militants killed 329 people — the worst terrorist attack in Canadian history. India had warned the Canadian government about the possibility of attacks and accused the Canadian Security Intelligence Service of not acting on it.

But the current strain in relations is the first in which diplomats have been withdrawn.

“This is the first time that the relationship has gone down so low,” Ram said.

“Allegations and counter-allegations will have serious implications both internationally and domestically. The Indian government should look into the allegations and try to address them.”

Nijjar, a Sikh Canadian citizen, was gunned down in June 2023 outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, which has a significant number of Sikh residents. He was an outspoken supporter of the Khalistan movement, which calls for a separate Sikh homeland in parts of India’s Punjab state.

The movement is outlawed in India, considered a national security threat by the government, and Nijjar’s name appears on the Indian Home Ministry’s list of terrorists.

Canada has the largest population of Sikhs outside their native state of Punjab — about 770,000 or 2 percent of its entire population.

“Many Panjabi diaspora are in Canada, and a mini-Punjab has been established there,” Ram said.

“The government is taking an electoral interest in the landscape of Canada also. Those things are becoming very critical.”


Russia releases man whose daughter’s drawing opposed Ukraine fighting

Russia releases man whose daughter’s drawing opposed Ukraine fighting
Updated 15 October 2024
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Russia releases man whose daughter’s drawing opposed Ukraine fighting

Russia releases man whose daughter’s drawing opposed Ukraine fighting
  • Alexei Moskalyov was convicted in March 2023 on the basis of posts that he made on a social media site
  • The post came to authorities’ attention after his daughter, then age 13, made a drawing in school opposing the military operation

MOSCOW: A Russian man convicted of discrediting the military after his daughter made a drawing criticizing Russia’s military actions in Ukraine was released from prison after serving 22 months, a group that monitors political detentions said Tuesday.
Alexei Moskalyov was convicted in March 2023 on the basis of posts that he made on a social media site. The post came to authorities’ attention after his daughter, then age 13, made a drawing in school opposing the military operation.
Moskalyov was sentenced to two years in prison, but he fled. He was arrested in Belarus a day later and extradited to Russia. A court later reduced his sentence to a year and 10 months.
The OVD-Info group, which reported his release, said that Moskalyov told it that agents of the Federal Security Service questioned other inmates in his unit before he was released and suggested they were looking for cause to file new charges against him.
Since sending troops into Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has cracked down harshly on criticism of the military and the operation in Ukraine. Several prominent opponents of the fighting who were sentenced to lengthy prison terms — one of them to 25 years — were freed and sent out of the country in August in a widescale prisoner exchange with the West.


Canada lists pro-Palestinian group Samidoun as a ‘terrorist’ entity

Canada lists pro-Palestinian group Samidoun as a ‘terrorist’ entity
Updated 15 October 2024
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Canada lists pro-Palestinian group Samidoun as a ‘terrorist’ entity

Canada lists pro-Palestinian group Samidoun as a ‘terrorist’ entity
  • “Canada will not tolerate this type of activity,” Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said

OTTAWA: Canada, in coordination with the United States, on Tuesday designated the pro-Palestinian group Samidoun as a “terrorist entity” alleging that it had links with another terrorist-designated group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
“The listing of Samidoun as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code sends a strong message that Canada will not tolerate this type of activity, and will do everything in its power to counter the ongoing threat to Canada’s national security and all people in Canada,” Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said in a statement.


Indonesia displays ancient Bali artifacts looted by Dutch during colonial rule

Indonesia displays ancient Bali artifacts looted by Dutch during colonial rule
Updated 15 October 2024
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Indonesia displays ancient Bali artifacts looted by Dutch during colonial rule

Indonesia displays ancient Bali artifacts looted by Dutch during colonial rule
  • In less than 2 years, the Netherlands has returned 760 stolen artifacts to Indonesia
  • ‘Repatriation’ exhibit is on display at the National Museum in Jakarta until Dec. 31

JAKARTA: Indonesia’s National Museum put on display on Tuesday hundreds of artifacts recently returned from the Netherlands, the bulk of which were looted by the Dutch during the bloody colonial conquest of Bali in the early 20th century.

Titled “Repatriation,” the exhibit features 300 items from a collection of over 1,700 stolen under colonial rule that the Netherlands has returned to Indonesia since 1978. It will run until Dec. 31.

Most of the artifacts on display comprise weapons, coins, jewelry, and textiles that the Netherlands had taken in the aftermath of wars in southern Bali between 1906 and 1908, when the Dutch military attacked the region’s kingdoms and killed at least 1,000 people.

It also includes large-scale Hindu-Buddhist sculptures, such as one of a likeness of the god Ganesha, which the Netherlands looted in the mid-19th century from a 13th-century Singhasari Kingdom’s temple complex in East Java.

“We hope that the public will learn that in the past, our country wasn’t an empty land that another nation chose to settle on. There were civilizations, kingdoms, and cultures, and all these artifacts are proof of those civilizations,” Bonnie Triyana, a historian and a member of the Indonesian Repatriation Committee, told Arab News.

“As such, people can learn from our history, the origins of our country, and how diverse we are, and how much we sacrificed to gain our independence.”

Indonesia declared independence in 1945, after a long colonial history under Dutch rule that began at the end of the 16th century.

Jakarta started to campaign for the Dutch government to return stolen Indonesian artifacts in 1951, but the Netherlands only started to return them in the 1970s in small numbers. The Indonesian Repatriation Committee has made big strides since last year with the repatriation of 472 artifacts, followed by 288 such items in September.

The repatriation process has been met with criticism, as some questioned how poorer countries like Indonesia will care for the returned artifacts. But Marieke van Bommel, director-general of the Netherlands’ National Museum of World Cultures, told the New York Times last month that “the thief cannot tell the rightful owners what to do with their property.”

For Triyana, who has served as secretary of the Indonesian Repatriation Committee since 2021, the National Museum exhibit is both a “gateway” and a “bridge” to connect Indonesians with their past.

“Colonialism came to our land and committed exploitation through conquest. Not only did they exploit our wealth and resources, but they also committed violence. It is a lesson for the current generation, both that colonialism was here and its character is still around,” he said.

“We must do decolonization to scrape off the remnants of colonialism, and one way to do this is by learning history … So, this exhibit is very important because repatriation isn’t solely about returning objects taken by our colonizers, but we also want to slowly collect pieces of knowledge about our civilization.”